COVID-19 - Live updates

Information from previous dates

• 30 April 2020 - Payment Breaks Extended from Three Months to Six Months

  A further three-month extension has been added to the payment break for personal and business customers who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for a payment break of up to six months in total.
  

  AIB will be contacting customers who are currently on the payment break over the coming weeks and months about this extension option. 
  

  This extension arrangement will also be available to customers who have yet to apply for a payment break, once they do so by 30 June.  

• 23 April 2020 - Rise in Contactless and Digital Wallet Use Due to Covid-19

  We have analysed how Covid-19 has changed the behaviour of Irish consumers since new contactless limits were introduced on April 1.

  Irish consumers are spending 30% more per transaction using contactless on their debit cards.

  Consumers are also using their Digital Wallets (Apple Pay and Google Pay) more, with average spend among Apple Pay and Google Pay users up 41% and 45% respectively. Apple Pay and Google Pay have higher limits than contactless.

  When broken down demographically, the data also tells us that, since April 1:

  • Contactless using a debit card is the most popular choice of instore payment method among all age cohorts, except those under 25 where it accounts for 28% of spend;
  • Digital Wallet spend accounts for 37% of all instore transactions by those who are under 25, with the average amount up 24% and 35% for Apple Pay and Google Pay respectively;
  • The average amount per transaction being spent by those between the age of 25 and 34 is up 41% among Apple Pay users and 45% among Google Pay users. However digital wallet transactions only account for 7% of the total instore spend by this age group;
  • Customers over the age of 45 are spending 31% more using their Digital Wallets.

  The data has been compiled from over one million debit card transactions between 1 and 12 April and has been anonymised and aggregated.

• 17 April 2020 - How to defer your business’s maintenance and transaction fees

  From today, business customers affected by COVID-19 can choose to defer the payment of maintenance and transaction fees for the period December 2019 to February 2020 until later in the year. 

  This option will allow you to reverse the payment made on 30th March and, instead, spread it across three equal instalments in September, October and November 2020.

  If you are a Corporate Banking or Financial Solutions Group customer, or your Relationship Manager is in one of our Business Banking Business Centres, please contact your Relationship Manager for further details and to apply.
  

  All other business customers can go to this page and have an authorised signatory on the account complete the request form by 5pm on 1st May 2020.

• 14 April 2020 - Refunding Unpaid Charges for March and April

  We are refunding any unpaid charges during the months of March and April 2020 for both personal and business customers.

  Usually, €10 is charged for direct debits that cannot be paid due to insufficient funds in a customer’s account. However, in order to give our customers time to make arrangements with the originators of the direct debits, we will refund these charges since 1st March.

  The refunds will commence on 14th April 2020 and will be continue to be applied daily until the end of April. Customers do not need to take any action.

• 9 April 2020 - AIB Covid-19 Research Hub at Trinity College Dublin

  AIB and Trinity College Dublin have come together to create the AIB Covid-19 Research Hub.

  Located within the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, the Research Hub will play a critical role in urgently accelerating the university’s Covid-19 Immunology Project, which is a collaboration with immunologists and infectious disease clinicians from St James’s Hospital in Dublin.

  We, as a foundation partner, have committed €2.4m to the project.

  The research will focus on:

  • Design of new drugs and vaccines to combat the virus;
  • The critical problem of supply and validation of commercial antibody testing kits;
  • The development of rapid antibody testing to identify current and previous COVID-19 infection in healthcare workers, and eventually the wider community;
  • The investigation of the immune response in infected and recovered COVID-19 patients to establish whether previous infection prevents re-infection, including serial sampling of patients at St James’s Hospital and other collaborating hospitals.

   

  On this initiative, AIB CEO Colin Hunt said: “This in an ambitious and pioneering project involving skilled researchers and cutting-edge technology that merits every assistance in developing solutions for the short, medium and long-term.”

• 3 April 2020 - Deferral of quarterly Maintenance and Transaction Fees

  In order to assist customers whose businesses are impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, we are developing a solution to facilitate the deferral of the quarterly Maintenance and Transaction Fees which were charged to your Business Current Account on the 30th March 2020.  
  

  This means that if your business cash flow is negatively impacted, you can apply to us to reverse the quarterly fees charged to your Business Current Account on the 30th March 2020 and instead spread the first quarter fees over three equal instalments payable in September, October and November 2020.
  

  Note: Quarterly fees for the period March, April and May are scheduled to be charged to your account at the end of June and fees for the period of June, July and August are scheduled to be charged at the end of September.
  

  We hope to have this option available to you shortly and we will update this page with details on how to apply in due course.

• 2 April 2020 - Launch Of Dedicated Phone Line For Over 65’s & Their Carers

  We have launched a dedicated COVID-19 phone line for customers who are over 65, their carers or for people concerned about financial abuse.

  The line is managed by a dedicated team of customer care experts and is open from 9am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. The team can help if:

  • You need help to organise banking from your home
  • You are caring for one of our customers and need support with banking arrangements
  • You are worried that someone else has control over your money without your permission

  The team can be contacted on:  1800 207 232

• 1 April 2020 - Contactless Limit On AIB Debit & Credit Cards Increased To €50

  For debit and credit cards with the contactless symbol, the contactless limit has been increased from €30 to €50 . Please be aware that some retailers may take longer to make the required changes to their card machines. Simply touch and pay for items that cost €50 or less with your card. Every now and then we’ll ask you to insert your card and do a Chip and PIN transaction instead as an extra security check.

  Mobile Payments refer to payments using participating Digital Wallets (such as Apple Pay, Google Pay™ and Fitbit Pay™) where your card is registered to your mobile or wearable device. When using your device, simply touch and pay. For items over €50 you can pay using your device in most retailers. For more, click here

• 23 March 2020 - Update on AIB Group supports for customers through COVID-19 crisis

  We have revised and updated our measures and supports to help customers through COVID-19. Customers can find updates, contact details, and further information at www.aib.ie/covid19. 

  From today, we have made available an online process, allowing customers to access a three month payment break (moratorium) on home mortgage, personal and SME loans.

  - Application forms are available now at www.aib.ie/covid19

  For SME customers, we are also providing working capital support and the rescheduling of loan payments for impacted customers. Information is available at www.aib.ie/covid19.

  We continue to waive contactless payment fees. This also applies to Apple Pay, Google Pay and Fitbit Pay Contactless transactions, which are not subject to the contactless payment limit of €30 in most merchants. We are working with the industry to increase this limit to €50 for Contactless Card transactions which is expected to become effective over the coming weeks.

  We have suspended the planned introduction of maintenance and transactions fees for customers who keep a minimum balance of €2,500 per fee quarter. Customers who received correspondence from the bank can disregard the changes to fees and charges advised.   

  Our AIB and EBS branches remain open to our customers, except for those locations on campuses that closed following advice from the health authorities.
  

  Priority banking time is allocated for our older and more vulnerable customers from 10am until 11am each morning.  We are asking our other customers to plan their branch visits outside this time.

  We are maintaining physical distancing in our branches and increased cleaning operations of branches, self-service machines and ATMs in line with HSE recommendations.

  Chief executive Colin Hunt said “AIB recognises the extraordinary pressure on families, individuals, businesses and communities as a result of the sudden disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. All AIB’s staff and systems are focussed on supporting our customers and economy through this unprecedented crisis. To that end we have in place a range of robust measures designed to buttress customers against the enormous challenges now facing us. I urge anyone experiencing difficulties to contact the bank as early as possible.”

• 20 March 2020 - Three month moratorium

  We have been working over the last few days to develop a three month moratorium for our Personal, Business and Home loan customers. This will be available from Monday morning March 23rd to all of our customers who require it.

  Customers thinking of applying for this moratorium should keep an eye on www.aib.ie/covid19 for further details.

• 18 March 2020 - Priority banking hours for our elderly and vulnerable customers

  We are making sure our customers and staff are as safe as possible. We have now introduced priority banking hours for our elderly and vulnerable customers until 11am each morning.  We are asking our other customers to plan their branch visits outside these times. 

  To maintain social distancing we are limiting the number of customers who can come into our branches at any one time.  This may result in some customers having to wait outside for a while.  As a reminder, many banking services are available online, on our mobile app and through phone banking.  Thank you in advance for supporting these initiatives to protect one another.

• 16 March 2020 - Full pay for staff with dependents whose partner is a public healthcare worker

  We will provide full pay for staff with dependents whose partner is a public healthcare worker.
  

  Following feedback from our colleagues we will be providing full pay to any of our staff with dependents whose partner is a public healthcare worker. This will allow these important healthcare workers to attend work and help our country through these extraordinary times.

  Geraldine Casey, Chief People Officer, AIB said “Coronavirus presents our society with unprecedented challenges. AIB is determined to play whatever part we can in helping society meet these challenges.

  We will not be found wanting in backing our staff and our customers in the communities we operate in. We are here to support and empower our people, and their people, within the public healthcareservice through this evolving situation.”