Bank of Ireland customers have shared their frustration after the online banking facilities and mobile phone app went down.
In an inconvenient move for prospective shoppers, the outage has occurred on one of the busiest shopping days of the year ahead of Christmas.
Bank of Ireland have said they are aware of issues for customers accessing its mobile app and 365 Online and are working towards a fix.
‘We are aware that customers are experiencing difficulty accessing our Mobile app and 365 Online at present. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience,’ Bank of Ireland said.
Sharing a further update they added; ‘We are working to restore it as soon as possible. We do not have a definite time frame yet unfortunately. We do apologise about the inconvenience caused by this.’
Customers were quick to share their grievances online, with many greatly frustrated by the outage.
‘I am trying to buy some xmas vouchers , and the credit card app is down as well. Folks should not be making any environment application changes during the busiest time of year,’ one user wrote.
‘Again !!!!!! What a joke of an app,’ a second added.
‘Once a month now, time to switch to a more up to date bank at this stage,’ a third added.
We are aware that customers are experiencing difficulty accessing our Mobile app and 365 Online at present. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience.
— Bank of Ireland (@talktoBOI) December 13, 2024
Bank of Ireland has been hitting headlines this year, after they announced they’re cutting their fixed deals by 0.5 percentage points.
The cut will save homeowners around €1,000 on a €300,000 mortgage compared to the bank’s previous four-year fixed rates.
The lender cut fixed mortgages by 0.5 points from yesterday for new and existing customers and for all homes with a Building Energy Rating (BER) from A to G. The reduction means a four-year fixed interest rate is available from 3.1%, depending on the home’s BER.
A 25-year, €250,000 mortgage at 3.6% was costing €1,257 a month, but after the 0.5-point cut to 3.1%, the monthly repayment will fall to €1,193 – a monthly saving of €64, or €768 a year. The bank is also introducing a new one-year fixed-rate product with no cashback, with rates from 3.3% for mortgages of at least €250,000.
The latest cut could spark a ‘rate war’ between lenders, according to campaigner David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO).
‘It’s good news and going in the right direction and a welcome relief for many,’ he told the Irish Daily Mail. ‘Please God it will start a bit of a war on rates.
‘Hopefully somebody else has to react to it because it is a competitive environment, but I’m always dubious – when you’ve got a slight monopoly with only a handful of providers, it’s always a challenge for consumers.’
He added: ‘People have to shop around. People can’t blame the banks for paying too much if they don’t shop around for the best possible rate. You’ve got a bunch of regulated brokers you can use all round the country, the cost of moving with many of the lenders is covered and there’s also non-bank lenders now still around.’