AIB fees drive account holders to switch banks

Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB look set to be the main beneficiaries of AIB’s decision to introduce fees on their current accounts.

Both recorded a sharp rise in the number of people inquiring about opening or switching accounts.

AIB announced last month it would be charging any standard current account holder who fails to keep a minimum of €2,500 in their current account from May 28.

Permanent TSB said that since the announcement, they had received an increase of between 30% to 40% in the number of people looking to switch accounts.

A spokesperson for the bank said these were not people looking to open new accounts but existing customers of the bank who were now using their Permanent TSB account as their primary bank account.

Any customer of Permanent TSB that opened an account over two years ago is entitled to free banking. As a result, a number of Permanent TSB’s mortgage holders who had used other banks as their primary bank are now looking to do all their banking through Permanent TSB.

Ulster Bank, which is the only bank in the country that offers free banking, said they had received a notable increase in enquiries since the announcement that AIB were bringing back fees. A spokesperson for Ulster Bank said: “We have seen a notable increase in both customer enquiries and switchers.”

Ulster Bank was unable to guarantee it would keep banking free into the future. A spokesperson said: “Current account fees, like all our products and services, are continually under review.”

Neither National Irish Bank nor Bank of Ireland have received an increase in enquiries about changing bank accounts. A spokesperson for Bank of Ireland said: “We have seen no significant upturn at this early point in time.”

National Irish Bank said enquiries for current accounts remained consistent. “National Irish Bank continues to receive a consistent level of enquiries for current accounts, and has not noticed a sharp increase in applications in recent weeks,” a spokesperson said.

Despite banks seeing increased enquiries from people considering changing bank accounts, AIB said it has not noticed any increase in the number of people leaving the bank.

A spokesperson for AIB said: “There has been no material increase in the level of people switching current accounts.”