How They Compare

Traditional Banks

Traditional Banks

When we talk about ‘Traditional Banks’, we’re referring to established institutions like AIB, Bank of Ireland, PTSB and EBS. These banks have a strong physical presence in Ireland with multiple branches across the country and a large amount of customer goodwill. However, as they’re legacy banks, they continue to be encumbered by outdated technology and processes which limit the competitiveness of their offerings.

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Written by:
Dan Malone

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What Are Traditional Banks?

The current accounts offered by traditional banks often come with a set of defining and common features that are strikingly different from that of digital alternatives. Unlike neobanks, which take a digital-first approach, traditional banks are limited in what they can offer based on their size and existing technology. That said, depending on your banking preferences, a traditional bank may be best suited to you.

How Traditional Banks Compare

Onboarding

Opening a current account with a traditional bank can often take between 1-2 weeks or even longer. Unlike digital banks which allow you to start banking within minutes of opening an account, the traditional banks require you to call them in order to activate online banking. In some cases, this can’t be done until you receive specific account details in the post. This makes the new customer onboarding experience for traditional banks far more time consuming than neobanks.

Fees

Traditional banks tend to have inflexible pricing for their current accounts - sticking to one single price for all customers. Only one traditional bank in Ireland offers a free current account. This is strikingly different to the pricing models used by neobanks. Traditional banks in Ireland use one of three models for pricing their current accounts.

This model is used by Bank of Ireland and PTSB, where they charge a monthly ‘maintenance fee’ that is intended to cover most of the costs associated with running your current account. With this model, you’re essentially pre-paying for banking features, irrespective of whether or not you use them.

Please note: AIB will be moving from its quarterly fee model to a monthly charge of €6 per month from July 2026. This will bring the bank’s model in line with Bank of Ireland and PTSB.

This model is used by AIB. The monthly fee, which is charged quarterly, is comparatively much lower than Bank of Ireland or PTSB. However, you pay for everyday banking transactions like ATM withdrawals, direct debits and debit card payments among other actions. This model could be a good fit for customers who primarily use their current account for receiving money, making bank transfers and using contactless to pay for goods and services. But it can be expensive for customers regularly using the transactions that AIB charges for.

EBS is the only traditional bank in Ireland that offers a free current account. There are no monthly fees or costs for everyday banking transactions. However, EBS offers a very limited banking experience, with no dedicated mobile app for banking.

Traditional banks charge extra fees for transacting in a foreign currency. These fees are most commonly seen with:

  • ATM & Debit Card Transactions: a flat percentage of the euro value of the transaction subject to a minimum and maximum fee
  • Bank Transfers: a flat charge and/or a percentage margin on the foreign currency exchange

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    Features

    The current accounts offered by traditional banks handle the basics decently well: receiving, spending and transferring money. Beyond that, there’s not much else in the way of features, but you may receive cashback and current account fee waivers with certain traditional banks. 

    Nowadays, if you’re paying for your current account, you should be expecting advanced budgeting tools, sub-accounts, virtual cards and loyalty programmes among other things from your bank. This is especially true considering the free plans of most digital banks can do everything that the paid accounts of traditional banks can and then some.

    However, the traditional banks handle cash transactions a lot better than digital alternatives, allowing customers to easily lodge cash and cheques at multiple locations nationwide.

    Main Traditional Banks in Ireland

    There are four main traditional operating in Ireland:

    Customer Support

    One of the biggest reasons that many Irish consumers continue to use a traditional bank for their everyday banking is because of the perceived superiority of their customer support. This isn’t all too hard to understand as the existence of physical branches will clearly provide some level of comfort to the customer, regardless of whether or not they use them. 

    But this is largely psychological and overstated in its importance. The value of in-branch customer support is limited and traditional banks seldom offer the same calibre of AI support, in-app support or FAQs as digital banks. Plus, most digital banks offer phone support nowadays.

    Digital Security

    From a digital security perspective, the traditional banks are lacking. The absence of disposable virtual cards leaves customers more open to ‘Card Not Present’ (CNP) fraud than neobank customers who have access to this feature. CNP is the most common type of card fraud in Ireland. Beyond that, traditional banks don’t offer the same level of digital security features in the way of transaction toggling, location-based security and wealth protection.

    That said, certain traditional banks offer physical security devices for customer authentication which, despite their unpopularity, are an extra way to protect your account.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    It depends. EBS is the only traditional bank to offer a free current account. PTSB offers cashback on card spending, specific bills and mortgage repayments which can allow customers to bank for free. AIB waives its everyday banking fees for certain AIB mortgageholders.

    No, both traditional banks and digital banks must comply with the same rules and regulations, making them equally safe for use. That said, traditional banks are often perceived as being more safe due to familiarity bias, existing goodwill and the presence of physical branches.

    No, traditional banks aren’t a competitive choice for spending abroad. They often charge minimum fees for ATM and debit card spending which can represent a sizable percentage of the overall transaction for smaller payments.

    It depends. Certain customers value the comfort of banking with a name that they’re familiar with, regardless of features or pricing. The psychological benefit of being comfortable with your bank is worth its weight in gold. That said, many neobank customers use the EBS MoneyManager as a free backup account.