Originally Posted by
lactatinglucy
Hello EI,
Long time no speak!!
I need to rant, bitch and then ask a question so here goes.....
Fucking bank charges.
When I opened an account here a while back I didn't actually consider how much the charges would mount up. I'm a heavy card user and almost never use cash (despite my profession ;-) ) and this year alone I've racked up almost €100 in charges!!! WHAT.THE.ACTUAL.FUCK! Now some were refunded when I pointed out I kept over €3000 in the account but even if it drops 1c under the €3000 they fuck you for fees.
Unlike some on here, I don't like paying to be screwed ;-)
So anyway coming from the uk where accounts are free, I don't keep an eye on my spending. I rarely check my balance because you know, I have a life.
I graduated two years ago. Is a graduate account a possibility to avoid fees?
Also why the hell do you even pay fees here? Paying someone to take your money.....I mean there is Irish and then there is that!
I feel like we should start some sort of revolt against this. It's insane and I'm annoyed.
If you graduated 2 years ago, you were even more of a wee little youngster way back in the dim and distant past of 2010.Back then every Irish bank, every Irish building society and many of the credit unions were on the point of collapse due to imprudent nay stupid nay lunatic lending of the Celtic Tiger days. Then world wide credit crunch, almost economic depression, Ireland in deep doodoo.
The banks here still have non performing loans from those days and also have tracker loans from those days (track the ECB lending rate plus one percent. In effect these loans are losing them money. Recently in so called stress tests, AIB was 2nd worst of those banks looked at and Bank of Ireland was fourth worst. In other words, these Irish banks are shaky, barely solvent, and my point is that these Irish banks are trying to squeeze profit where they can, by cutting staff, closing branches and ramping up charges. And after many other banks left after getting their fingers burnt in the Celtic Tiger debacle, we are left with the usual small cartel of high street banks in Ireland, which means less competition and thus less customer choice these days.
And anyone using a card for lots of small purchases, in the face of these charges is not clued in.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Shalom/salaam.
10,000 years of Middle Eastern civilisation and the place is not at peace but rather in pieces.