I would love to hear from anyone who is using or has used Banif bank. I've been using them since January and have had nothing but problems.
* They take 4-5 working days to clear a payment that most other banks would do in 3 days.
* When I pay for something they automatically 'freeze' that money so it is deducted from my 'available' balance. But if the merchant doesnt complete the payment within 2 days, they release the funds back to my available. This doesn't show on my statement so all I will see is that I have money available which I will then spend/withdraw. However most merchants take 3+ days to process payments so the funds are released back to me, spent and then removed again. I've gone overdrawn (only a few euro but it's the principle!) 3 times because my available balance isn't true. I now withdraw all my money on payday which defeats the object of having a bank!
* This month they 'lost' my wages. BOV paid my wages and a week later they hadn't arrived. After 5 days I was already calling Banif, sending them the transfer receipt. They ignored every single email I sent them and whenever I called said 'we have not received instructions from BOV, the fault is with them'. After getting our accountant to speak to a contact they have at banif, it transpired that they had received the funds but just no one had realised and I was paid days after my contractual payday. I've since emailed them asking for a full report on HOW the funds were able to go missing and how they are going to prevent this in future... to no reply!
To open an account with BOV they require a reference letter from a bank I had been with for a year, however as my company have an account there BOV agreed to let me have an account as long as I provided a reference from Banif (I have only been with them seven months) and a reference from my employer. This all seemed fine, so I toddled along to banif to ask about obtaining a reference- 'we don't do references'.
I can't get a reference from my old bank in the uk because we had a charges dispute and my debt got considerably cut and they will refuse a reference, I can't go with HSBC out here because it was them I had the dispute with. I have been told that HSBC in different countries is entirely independent of each other but to be honest after the trouble in the UK I never want to use them again!
So basically Banif are entirely useless but I am stuck with them because they "Don't do references". I can't believe that they can just refuse to give a reference when asked for- does anyone have any knowledge on this, surely they know it's something other banks need, BOV asked for it, so it must be pretty standard procedure?
Has anyone else had any problems with their customer service team just ignoring emails?
I'd like to know I'm not the only one having problems!!