By Aine Kenny
AIB has announced it will be refunding its personal and business customers any unpaid charge fees, which incur when there are insufficient funds in an account to pay a standing order or direct debit.
In a statement, AIB said: "To further assist our customers who are impacted by Covid-19, AIB is refunding any unpaid charges relating to items presented on AIB current accounts during the months of March and April 2020.
"The unpaid charge to be refunded is €10 per item and is applied when there is insufficient funds in a customer’s account for a payment to be processed.
"We will begin refunding any unpaid charges since March 1 on April 14, and refunds will be applied daily until the end of April. Customers do not need to take any action."
AIB said this was to give customers impacted by Covid-19 time to make alternative arrangements with the originators of direct debits, such as utility companies and suppliers, as well as to give customers time to apply for a payment holiday on their SME Loan, Personal Loan or Mortgage.
"We continue to waive contactless payment fees and have increased the Contactless card transaction limit to €50.
"We also waive the contactless payment fee on Apple Pay, Google Pay and Fitbit Pay Contactless transactions, which are not subject to the Contactless card limit in most merchants."
AIB's Managing Director of Retail, Jim O’Keeffe said: "Over the last number of weeks we have developed an increasing range of supports for our customers impacted by the Covid-19 emergency, and we will continue to review and innovate customer supports as the situation evolves."
This move comes after AIB faced fierce criticism for trying to bring in quarterly maintenance fees and transaction charges for account holders who kept a balance of €2500, who were previously exempt from such charges.
The new charges were scrapped by the bank after public outcry.
