Ambrand.com

We (the two or perhaps three writers of this website) do not like BOI for the following reasons

• BOI will not issue me a laser (maestro debit) card because my salary is not “mandated” to my account. This is a joke as their competitor AIB issue laser cards automatically on all accounts, even non-current accounts.
• BOI will not let me lodge cheques at the counter using my Pass (bank) card. They insist that I use the “express lodgement” letterbox which has no substantive receipt. I got around this problem by using a lodgement book which is accepted at the counter.
• BOI staff in all branches are the most disinterested I have encountered in any Irish bank.
• BOI bank tellers usually sit, making them too far away from the bandit glass for their words to be heard clearly. Most staff in AIB stand.
• BOI require a form to be completed by the customer when a Foreign Exchange draft is being purchased. AIB do not.
• BOI online banking is terrible in appearance and functionality. It does not offer IBAN transfers, or once-off transfers to other Irish accounts. I don’t know how their online banking was ”WINNER - Best Online Banking 2007″, did they sponsor the awards? were they the only competitor? indeed I can’t find out anything about the awards in question.
• BOI no longer issue American Express cards. They are so disinterested that in order to confirm that fact for my other financial website I had to apply for a card, be rejected, and then ask for the rejection reason. (The reason was they no longer issue AmEx cards. There is no mention of when the agreement terminated on their website. But the AmEx website suggest they still issue the Blue card, I would tell AmEx but they are yet another faceless corporation. I once contacted them back before the word phishing was invented to let them know about a fake “Buy a prepaid AmEx here” website and got no reply.
• BOI credit card application forms are sent from their Credit Card centre to a customers branch for approval via a non-recorded medium. They often get lost and to make matters worse the Credit Card centre does not diary the matters, so if and when a form is lost the customer is left in limbo and his application will only progress if he contacts the Credit Card centre to enquire.
• BOI uses a sepreate domain- boimail.com for staff emails, thereby faciliting phishing, as who is to know that they do not use foobar.com for email.
• BOI shares are almost worthless - but then again most shares on the ISEQ are right now because we are in a recession.