A decade-long reign of terror by AIB over Irish consumers with its card reader is coming to an end with the introduction of its new ‘Selfie Check’!
AIB is set to gradually phase out the use of its infamous card reader, which is fantastic news for anyone who has a habit of misplacing things!
The bank has announced the introduction of its new ‘Selfie Check’ technology which is initially set to replace the card reader for making online transactions up to €10,000.
This news comes as AIB and its peer banks continue to try and catch up with the likes of Revolut and N26 in the online/app banking space.
AIB Card Reader
For years now, every AIB customer has had to put up with the frustrating practice of buying, storing and using their dreaded card reader. The device is almost infamous among Irish consumers with countless (hilarious) reviews scathing it across the internet and social media.
Introduced around 15 years ago, the security feature requires customers to generate a code by inserting their physical card into the reader in order to carry out various online transactions.
While fairly revolutionary and secure at the time, the requirement has since become unnecessary, inconvenient and impractical. Not least because you never had the reader on you when you needed to do something!
But now finally, well over a decade on, AIB has heard our cries for mercy and released ‘Selfie Check’. The process can be set up in seconds right from your phone, and simply uses face recognition to verify payments.
How to set up Selfie Check
Setting up Selfie Check is pretty easy and only needs to be done once. But you can only enrol in it while in the Republic of Ireland.
To get set up:
- Log into the AIB app
- Go to "Settings"
- Tap on "Security and access"
- Enrol in "Selfie Check"
- Read and accept the terms and conditions
- Take a picture in good lighting - you may need a few attempts!
- Choose accept
Then, going forward, when carrying out certain transactions online, AIB will ask you to take a pic in its app to verify it's really you and match this against the pic on file.
Consumers in Ireland should be no strangers to this technology, with Revolut having introduced a similar feature for extra security purposes a few weeks ago.
Don't throw away your card reader just yet!
As of right now, the card reader isn't totally obsolete as ‘Selfie Check’ can only be used for sending payments up to €10,000.
However, AIB has assured us that there is more to come for ‘Selfie Check’ as it's promised you'll be able to use it for other services in the near future. And with any luck, we'll all soon be breathing a sigh of relief as our AIB card readers are finally banished back to 2011.
And one would hope that AIB will have more big updates to its app over the coming year as it vies to remain competitive in the fast-paced, highly innovative online banking industry.
How does the AIB app compare?
At bonkers.ie, our pick for best banking app is still Revolut followed by N26. But there's always a need for traditional banks and this new feature could see AIB start to close the gap as well as gain some momentum over main rivals Bank of Ireland and PTSB.
Read our article, ‘Which bank has the best mobile app’ to learn about how all the main banks compare.
