Banking hotline inundated

MORE THAN 6,000 calls were made to a banking hotline in the past three months, with the majority related to credit cards.

The emergency hotline, set up by Bank of Ireland last May, has answered around 600 inquiries every week with 43% of callers looking for advice on credit cards.

Calls from holidaymakers checking funds, others who had reached their limit and were running out of money and those who had forgotten their PIN also flooded the hotline.

Figures showed 16% of inquiries related to lost or stolen cards, 16% sought special banking services and 25% of calls were for general customer concerns.

Other queries included people who needed to check if a transaction had been put through correctly from abroad. Calls from others checking that salaries were paid also flooded the helpline.

And worryingly, many callers rang from abroad in the middle of their holidays when they discovered that they had no Cirrus card and could not access funds from ATMs overseas.

BoI director Brendan Nevin said the helpline acted like a one-stop shop to solve problems when overseas. “Customers who lose or have their wallet and cards stolen or have other money issues when abroad find it very traumatic,” he said.

“Generally the experience has been that they can never find the right contact number and would access us through family or friends at home.

“The introduction of our Emergency Helpline means our customers can now access a broad range of services through one channel from anywhere in the world and we are delighted with the positive response.”