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Lessons learned: Why students should read the small print on bank accounts Pricewatch: Your questions answered
Little or never-used bank accounts are occupying the minds of readers this week. First up is Fergus who emailed in connection with a letter Bank of Ireland sent to his 25-year-old son, Mark. When he was a student, Mark was persuaded to open an account with the bank with an introductory offer of a small sum of money “and some sort of phone charger that he was delighted to take”.
This all happened years ago and Mark never actually used the account and no correspondence was ever received at his address right up to the start of April this year. The charger probably doesn’t work now either. Early last month a letter came. It confirmed that there had been no transactions on the account but Mark had been overdrawn for the previous six months.
Making Cents: The good, the bad and the ugly of current accounts
Reporter:
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There are about 5.3m current accounts in Ireland, and it’s always a bugbear of a topic for people, especially when they see banks increasing their charges so frequently. That extra cent or two to lodge or withdraw money, that quarterly bill that lands in our account is incredibly annoying.
But despite our irritation, the rate at which we switch is incredibly low.
The most recent data available shows that only 0.00029% of current account holders actually moved providers over a calendar year.
And banks are very aware of this. They know people are less likely to switch their current account than any other banking product which is why they can increase their charges. They know, the % that will move will be minuscule. They know we’ll complain, and we’ll be outraged, but a week or two after the increase, it will be old news and we’ll have done nothing about it.