BANK WITH NO CASH RAISES HACKLES IN FERMOY
A ‘cashless’ National Irish Bank (NIB) in Fermoy is causing major headaches for many of its customers. The branch in Fermoy is one of seven other cashless branches within the NIB group throughout the country and for many of its customers the move has meant more costs and less convenience.
“I used to be able to put money into my account every week after I collected my pension,” an elderly NIB customer told The Avondhu.
“Now I have to walk to the credit union and get a bank draft which I have to pay for and then head back up to the bank so that I can lodge this to my account in NIB in Fermoy,” the pensioner said.
Other customers have also found NIB’s new policy in Fermoy to be less than helpful when it comes to business banking. One publican, who does not want to be identified, is considering moving banks.
“We deal in cash, and now every morning we have the added security headache of having to transport our takings from the night before to another bank or the credit union before we can lodge it at NIB. This really is dangerous and we are going to have to look at moving our accounts to another bank,” he said.
Other NIB customers have expressed their concern that the move to make the bank ‘cashless’ is in fact the first step in closing the branch altogether.
The Avondhu was furnished with the following response when it put these concerns to National Irish Bank’s headquarters in Dublin.
“National Irish Bank undertook communication with our customers so that we could work with them to identify alternative options for their cash transactions. Customers can also conduct transactions on the eBanking platform free - they can check balances, transfer funds within National Irish Bank accounts and to accounts in other banks, send euro payments to euro zone banks for free and set up standing orders for regular payments.”
Published:
Thursday 13th August 6:41pm
