Bank of Ireland gives customers more time to update phones for mobile banking

There was a huge backlash from customers who have to fork out hundreds of euro on a new device because the bank will stop issuing security updates for older operating systems.

The issue was first reported in the ‘Sunday Independent’.

The deadline to replace the older devices was this Sunday, but the bank has now made a concession and set a new deadline of July 1.

Older phones and tables are not supported by Apple or Google, which means they no longer get software updates from those manufacturers.

Today's News in 90 Seconds - March 28th

Bank of Ireland said that when a device stops getting the latest software updates, over time it can mean the phone or tablet is more exposed to security issues including potential fraud.

“For this reason, we make sure that the Bank of Ireland app is supported by the most up-to-date operating system for both iOS (Apple) and Android devices,” it said.

Customers faced with the prospect of having to spend thousands of euro on new devices had reacted with anger to the bank telling them recently that the BoI app will not be supported on older devices after March 31.

The new deadline of July 1 will give them more time to replace their devices with ones that will be able to download the latest security updates.

But despite having the deadline extended many still face the prospect of huge expensive getting a replacement phone or tablet.

The bank said today that from July 1 its app updates won’t be available on a device which hasn’t been updated to iPhones and iPads using iOS version 15 or above.

It said its app updates will only be available on android phones and tablets using Android version 11 or higher.

The bank said this does not mean that affected customers will need to buy a new phone to use its app.

After July, customer phones and tablets will still have access to the app and customers will still be able to use the app.

However, any device that is still using an old operating system (OS 14 or lower for Apple devices and OS 10 or lower for Android), will not be able to update to any later versions of its mobile app.

The bank said this means these customers will not have access to new features or improvements and over time, access to existing features will also be affected.

Crucially, they will not be getting any Apple or Android security patches or updates, the bank said.

If customers cannot use the app through a mobile phone or tablet, they can still bank online by using a browser (e.g. Safari, Chrome, MS Edge) through the Mobile Phone/tablet or a computer by using a Physical Security Key (PSK), the bank said.

The PSK is required to ensure customers are fully verified before accessing an account, which is a very important protection for our customers.

Customers using Huawei cannot update their operating system since US authorities prohibited access to Android stores for those devices in 2019.

The bank said this was outside of its control. Huawei device users can still access their online banking via a desktop/laptop and a Physical Security Key device, the bank said.