Have Your Say

Cashless in New York thanks to AIB:Sarah Lynch contacted us to give out about AIB. She went to New York in February for five days. When she got there, she withdrew $305 from an ATM using her Laser card and a day later withdrew more money from her current account. At midnight on February 18th she went to an ATM to withdraw more cash, and was told she had breached her daily limit, which was odd as she hadn't withdrawn any cash that day.

“On Saturday, I tried again and received the same message. By gradually reducing the amount requested, I managed to withdraw $100. I had managed to check my balance and knew that my account had not been compromised, so it wasn’t a funds issue,” she says.

She was travelling with five others, four of whom banked with AIB and they also experienced the same difficulty.

“I rang AIB on the Saturday and was told that AIB had just launched a new policy to combat fraud. Essentially it limits withdrawals at non-chip and pin ATMs to €100 per 24 hour period.”

Lynch asked if customers had been informed and was told no. She said AIB said it was common policy not to inform customers of fraud policies. “I expressed my frustration that I was stuck in New York with access to only $100 a day, with a hotel bill to pay, and three days of my trip outstanding. While apologetic, the girl explained that it was beyond her control. I then asked if there was a list of chip and pin ATMs for America, so that I would know which I could use, she said no, they didn’t have any information on ATMs. Having spoken to a teller in a bank in NY, it seems that no ATMs in New York are chip and pin enabled.”

Lynch was told her best option was to use Western Union – “to transfer my own money to myself. I asked if AIB would refund the significant charges for this and was told no. I then asked if I could speak to anyone else to lodge a complaint and was told that my complaint would be logged and someone would contact me. As the staff member had informed me that it was a fraud issue, I visited the AIB site to make sure we hadn’t missed the information, which we had not.”

She says that friends also contacted AIB, and received similar feedback. A friend asked if they could transfer cash to their credit cards to withdraw cash at an ATM but they were informed that the transaction wouldn’t clear until Tuesday or Wednesday, which was of no use as they were leaving on Monday.

“I can’t believe that this level of customer ‘care’ still exists. Had we been informed of this policy before leaving Dublin, we would obviously have made alternative arrangements, but the lack of communication and lack of any response from AIB is astounding. In these times, many people cannot rely on credit cards, and are using cash, so AIB cannot assume that their customers will not be affected by such policies.”

Women and their running away money

Not a reader’s query but a survey from lastminute.com which caught our attention. Apparently one in 10 people in a relationship keep a bank account secret from their other half while 21 per cent have had a partner lie to them about cash. The study also shows that 16 per cent of more than 1,000 people polled hid bank or credit card statements from their partner, with women aged between 35 and 44 being the most keen on covering their tracks. When asked how financial infidelity had been uncovered, female intuition took over – 44 per cent of women suspected their partners of being dishonest and confronted them, while women were also most likely to come clean with 38 per cent of women confessing all to their partner.

Putting the finger on a fishy pricing strategy

Jennifer Joyce sent us an e-mail saying people have to be on the ball when shopping. “For example, I buy Birds Eye fish fingers for my son. As we are trying to cut back on the amount of packaging coming into the house, I would prefer to buy these in 16s rather than 10s,” she writes. “However, for a long time now, the 16s have been much more expensive. She writes that 16 fish fingers, a total of 448g, cost €5.69. This works out at €12.70 per kg. A pack of 10 which weigh 280g cost €2.74 or €9.79 per kg. “They seem to be a similar price in Dunnes and Tesco.

“The same (but there is not such a difference) can be said of Zip wrapped firelighters. It is cheaper to buy the smaller pack.”