Bank of Ireland Q&A: What can customers expect?

What has Bank of Ireland done to attract the ire of Ireland this time?

Well, the bank has decided it would rather not have to waste its staff’s precious time dealing with trifling sums of money so they’ve imposed limits on how much customers can withdraw or lodge over the counter.

Trifling sums? Like amounts less than a fiver, right?

No, Bank of Irelannd’s definition of trifling and your definition are a long way apart. The bank has decided that it can’t be bothered dealing with anyone unless they have more than €700 to take out at any given time or more than €3,000, or 15 cheques, to lodge.

15 cheques? Who’d be lodging 15 cheques?

Businesses. And that is kind of the point. The bank is growing less interested in personal banking – at least the physical side of personal banking.

So, if I am not comfortable using the machines, I will have to take out at least €700? That doesn’t seem very secure?

No, it isn’t. That makes the bank’s unilateral move even more baffling. A lot of attention in recent times has been focussed on rural crime and crimes targeting elderly people. This move is likely to make this cohort even more vulnerable in the future.

That is outrageous. What am I supposed to do if I want to take out a couple of hundred quid or lodge a solitary cheque or move money from one account to another account?

You have no choice but to use an ATM or go online. The bank is very, very keen to direct customers to its electronic arms.

And there are never any issues with Bank of Ireland’s online operations?

No. Unless you call repeated technical problems which have led to payments and lodgements being withheld from customer accounts, including one major incident last Friday, issues.

I do, Ah well, I suppose all the other banks have followed suit?

No, they haven’t as it happens. None of the State’s other banks have any restrictions when it comes to lodging or withdrawing money. And none of the State’s banks can really understand what Bank of Ireland is playing at this time out.

When it comes to cutting services this bank has form right?

It certainly does. In recent years it has stopped accepting credit card payments at the counter and refuses to accept payments into a non-Bank of Ireland account. It also refuses to sell bank drafts at branch counters unless they are worth more than €500.

I suppose I will have to switch banks then?

To be honest, that is the best thing to do when any company has done something which displeases you. But if you have been enraged by what Bank of Ireland has done, will you put your money where your mouth is? The odds aren't good. A report from the Central Bank published this week said that less than 5,400 of the Republic's five million current account holders switched provider in the first half of the year. That is around 0.1 per cent of the market and that suggests that banks will continue to be able to impose higher fees and additional charges and reduced services safe in the knowledge that their customers won't do much about it in the future.

Speaking of the future, isn’t this push to get people out of branches only going to accelerate?

In a word, yes. While we still get mildly excited about technological leaps like the introduction of contactless transactions and the possibility of being able to transfer money to our friends and family using our phones, we are only at the start of a long journey. While Bank of Ireland stands alone, now, in the future it will most likely be viewed as something of a pioneer. As technology grows ever more omnipresent, bank branches will become obsolete. The tellers are likely to be replaced by robots before disappearing altogether and the days of the ATM are numbered. The cost of operating them is low compared to the cost of employing people but cash and cheque transactions are in decline and soon the ATM will become nonessential with all financial transactions taking place on your smartphone.

And what if I don’t have a smartphone.

Everyone will have a smartphone.

But banks will still exist, right?

Hmm. According to a recent banking survey published in the US, one in seven millennials – people aged between 18 and 34, reckon tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook will soon replace traditional banks entirely. Most people who believe that also believe the tech companies will be much better at being banks than banks are.