iBanesto launches Blue Account at 5.5% to challenge ING Direct

iBanesto challenges ING: 5.5% on Blue Account and 3% on bills

Here you don't pay fees. With that argument—and a 5.5% TAE—iBanesto, Banesto's online bank, announced its "low cost banking" campaign on May 12, 2008, to dispute direct banking business against ING Direct, Openbank, and Uno-e. The Blue Account pays interest monthly from the first euro with no balance limit; the Blue Payroll Account refunds 3% of bills; the Blue Mortgage is Euribor +0.44%. On paper, a missile aimed at the waterline of the Orange Account. The landing has been much more disorderly than the announcement.

What the Blue Account offers compared to ING's Orange Account

The entity's deputy general director, Rami Aboukhair, justified the move by citing the market's "exponential" growth: iBanesto "could not stay out." The focus is on liability remuneration, without expenses or fees, with the confessed goal of acquiring customers first and "binding" them later. The bold text compares well: a 3% refund on the blue payroll account versus the 2% paid by the Dutch competitor, and a commission-free mortgage dropping to Euribor +0.38% if the client transfers the loan from another institution.

It is worth clarifying the details, because inflated versions circulated in the comparison. Some claimed that ING only reimburses water and electricity: false. ING refunds water, electricity, gas, landline, mobile, and internet at 2%. The real difference is one percentage point, not coverage. A point that, added to the extra half-point of savings remuneration, tips the scale for those who only look at the calculator.

Why does the 5.5% of the Blue Account appear as 5% in the contract?

Because, according to what several applicants reported, the conditions signed do not match the advertising. Several clients saw a screen during the contracting process showing a yield of 5.00%, not the advertised 5.50%. Others received particular conditions fixing a 4.89% nominal (5% TAE) until December 31 and a 3.44% nominal (3.5% TAE) from that date onwards. Against this, there are PDF contracts that state, black on white, the 5.5% until December 31.

Translation: the same product appeared with two different rates depending on the day and the screen. It could be a loading error, a version mismatch, or a poorly explained transitional condition; what cannot be said is that the entity clarified it then. The user who signed the 5.5% and the one who signed the 5% have different papers from the same launch.

Why can former Banesto clients only open the Blue Deposit?

Because the entity applied a historical relationship filter that no one had announced. Several applicants discovered when calling by phone that, having been clients of the group years ago, they were excluded from the Blue Account and could only hire the Blue Deposit. The most striking case: a person rejected for having been a Banesto client when making their first communion. Others carried a closed relationship from eight years ago.

The most cited response was invoking the Organic Law on Data Protection: demanding the cancellation of personal data—the controller is obliged to make it effective within ten days—and reapplying for the product with a clean file. If it works, it is good to know before signing up; if not, it is another turn in a pilgrimage between entities that is starting to cost many more time than money.

A sign-up that takes 24 hours or three weeks, depending on the day

The range is demoralizing. Some received the confirmation email an hour after filling out the form, the contract by email in less than 24 hours, and the paper envelope in seven days. And some accumulated PDFs after a week, calls with hidden numbers trinc by hang-ups, and forms impossible to send from certain browsers. The declared deadline to have the account operational is around ten days.

Among the curiosities of the process, one explains the care with the client's language: whoever marked Catalan in the application received the contracts in Catalan. Details like these are appreciated more than a Christmas gift, especially when what is missing is just the basics: that the form works and the contract arrives.

Zero commissions and an ATM that is no longer free

The promise of zero commissions coexists with two asterisks. The first, the ATM network: you can no longer withdraw money without commission at Euro 6000 terminals. The second, the fine print: some claim that the document they signed included Banesto's own commissions and not the advertised zero commissions. Office operations work, but contracting is only peine via the internet, which excludes the customer profile that wants a passbook and a counter.

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With these conditions, the Blue Account should take away from ING a part of the liabilities that had gone years without real competition. But the rates of 5.5% and 3.5% from December 31 will decide the final picture, and there the advantage narrows. If execution continues at this pace, it is likely that the orange will hold up more than suggested by the advertising of the orange split in half with the blue interior.