40,000 checked bank account on Christmas Day
From Independent.ie
By Charlie Weston
Saturday January 19 2008
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When the majority of people were tucking into turkey and ham on Christmas Day, thousands of others were worrying about their finances.
New figures from AIB show that 40,000 people took time out on the big day to
check their online bank accounts.
And instead of putting their feet up and switching off from money worries, a
further 100,000 people logged in to their bank accounts on New Year's Day.
On a normal working day some 125,000 log-ons were recorded, the bank said.
Bankers said the figures showed some people never stopped fretting about their finances.
The majority of transactions at Christmas and New Year's Day were people topping up mobile phones or transferring money to pay bills, or refund money to a friend or relative.
A leading AIB banker said yesterday the heavy online banking activity showed that there was no such thing as a bank holiday any more.
Sean Jevens of AIB said a quarter of a million consumers conducted online
transactions between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day.
This was not much behind the volume of transactions on a normal week, he said. The big bank was taken by surprise by the level of internet banking activity over the holiday period.
Huge numbers of people used the Christmas period to transfer money to a friend or relative. Nowadays, many people electronically pay a debt to a wife or friend instead of withdrawing cash, Mr Jevens said.
Others used their online bank accounts to pay off credit card debts or switch money from one account to another.