AIB CURRENT ACCOUNT customers will be charged for contactless payments along with more maintenance and transaction fees from 30 May this year.

A fee of 1 cent will be introduced for each contactless payment from this date, the bank told customers in a letter.

A quarterly maintenance fee of €4.50 will also be introduced for current accounts.

A spokesperson for the bank said based on existing usage, customers can expect to pay an average of €2.20 per year in tapping transaction fees.

At the moment, current account customers with a bank balance of at least €2,500 are not charged quarterly maintenance and transaction fees.

Student, graduate, advantage and basic bank accounts will continue to be free of maintenance and transaction fees.

Customers who have an AIB mortgage and pay their mortgage direct debit from an AIB current account are also exempt from the charges.

A statement from AIB said the bank has written to customers about the charges and issued advice for “how they can keep their fees to a minimum”.

The fees will be charged at the end of every quarter, with first charges sent on 28 September this year.

“The European interest rate environment has made it difficult for the bank to provide maintenance and transaction fee free banking,” the AIB statement said.

“We want to ensure that AIB can continue to invest in a market leading current account proposition and provide a high standard of banking services to all our current account customers.”