# ulster bank communications are terrible, i want to close everything



## pernickety (14 Apr 2007)

hello,
i'm having a hell of a time trying to close all accounts with ulster bank and get them outta my life!

they told me verbally "i don't see why not" kind of comment that I would get an increased overdraft to cover period when i was selling home and had no rent coming in. this never materialised so i was overdrawn for about 3 months, (after 15 years as a good customer) and they added on more charges and fines that i would have thought possible. instead of trying to fight it i just decided i would close all accounts with them.

I wrote to them about 10 times, each time sending a copy of last letter. My final letter said "in reference to my letter dated x/x/06 and y/Y/06 and w/w/06...." No response. 

Finally someone phoned me about some charge and I lit into her saying I want to close my accounts, why will nobody reply to my letters. Several weeks later I received a form to fill out to close accounts and i sent it in. Joy of joy when I received a cheque with balance due to me from dual account. Another from my current account and I thought I was done with them. No letter, no explanations though.

Yesterday I had a call from UB Visa crowd in the north asking why i hadn't paid the minimum payment on Credit card. I was furious and told her I would not even discuss it, I was sick of UB, she could discuss it with my branch (ex-branch) but she said she couldn't because they were not the same organisation or something, and I just put down the phone on her.

So, where do I stand? Can I just ignore this and hope it goes away? Who do I contact? My understanding is that when they send me closing balance, they have sorted out everything?

my first attempts to close accounts were around june of last year, please tell me what i should do now?


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## GeneralZod (14 Apr 2007)

Not paying your credit card bill will affect your credit rating. Don't wait for them to sort it, it will not happen. You need to pay the credit card bill yourself.

Your UB branch wouldn't know about the credit card bill or have the authorisation to take money out of your account to pay the bill before closing it. It's up to you to sort out any outstanding bills before closing an account. Did you send a separate instruction to the credit card people to close the visa account? Presumably they'd need the current account to be left open to direct debit out the final payment.

It sounds like you've more grounds to complain on them not responding to your letters.


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## ajapale (14 Apr 2007)

pernickety said:


> ......Yesterday I had a call from UB Visa crowd in the north asking why i hadn't paid the minimum payment on Credit card. .....I was furious and told her I would not even discuss it, ..........




Did you close your UB Visa account?
Assuming you did close it, did you pay off the balance in full?
Did you pay off the Government Stamp duty?
Do you have any (_so called_) Direct Debit payments from your UB Visa account? If so did you formally close these down?


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## pernickety (15 Apr 2007)

thanks for replies.
i paid off all my credit card and haven't used it in about 6 months.
I haven't been receiving monthly bill or any correspondence from them.
I didn't write to them separately, but did specify in my letter to UB to include Visa Account No; 1234, oh if only they could have replied and said I need to write to Visa separately.
I know i'm going to have to dig this all out again and sort it out even though it's really their turn to do some work.


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## emul (16 Apr 2007)

All I can say is that I feel exactly the same about UB as you do. They are absolutely useless at communication, unless I've gone overdrawn. In the last two weeks they have withdrawn money from my account without authorisation, written or verbal (apparently this was human error!!) and re-activated a DD which I had cancelled, via Anytime. After trying to contact the branch without success I eventually had to send a fax. I am awaiting a call and am going to ask for €150 for them to keep my account....reckon it might just cover cost of calls and my time!!

BTW I am with UB coolock - not same branch by any chance?


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## pernickety (16 Apr 2007)

no not coolock but baggot street. good luck with getting money back, at this stage i'd nearly pay them to answer my queries! (ok not really but you know what i mean!)


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## mo3art (16 Apr 2007)

I had similar difficulties with them last year when they managed to lose, yes lose, a cheque lodgement made via their "express lodgement" system.  It ended up that it was credited in error to another bank account - they discovered what happened 2 weeks after it was originally lodged, after I provided them with evidence of the account it was lodged to via the original cheque.

I have found that the only way that they will respond to written correspondence is if it is addressed to the branch manager by name and also copied to the head of customer service.  I always follow correspondence within 48 hours with a phone call directly to the branch.  It's not that I have a choice about dealing with them unfortunately but it is normally quite an effective method of making them sit up and take notice.

For your information, I received a monetary compensation from them for their banking error and if I were you I would be requesting similar.


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## mangos (16 Apr 2007)

*Re: Ulster bank communications*

My partner and I have closed our accounts with Ulster bank including our mortgage.  We had a number of probs with them which included not responding to phone calls/letters, waiting ages to reach their house mortgage team, mortgage funding drawdown amounting to about E10,000 put into a former solicitor's account and only discovered when I questioned the length of waiting for it, invoices not being actioned and leading to periods of waiting for money to sent to our solicitor, one member in a branch telling my partner about her sister's business with the bank and what kind of loan my partner's sister had with them, the list is endless.  I work with a number of people all who are experiencing probs with Ulster bank and who are also considering going to other banks.  We too complained and received a small compensation for all our hassle.  We were lucky to have found one member in their customer complaints team who knows how to do her job effectively.

Mangos


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## kellysayers (16 Apr 2007)

I am now waiting four weeks for a simple letter form them giving my mortgage balance and the amount we pay every month. I have rung them three times over this. I give up. Will have a great time telling them they can say goodbye to me as a customer very soon!!! It's not just Dublin i bank in the Tuam road branch in Galway. Last year i was waiting for a loan to go into the account and i had people waiting to be paid. Turns out form was left on they guys desk in the branch for three weeks while he went on hols. they are useless!


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## kellysayers (16 Apr 2007)

can someone give me the details of the head of customer service please?


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## pernickety (16 Apr 2007)

kellysayers said:


> can someone give me the details of the head of customer service please?


 
my question too, please, and the address? thanks forall your replies.


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## Towger (17 Apr 2007)

Can I add my self to the list. I posted two complaint letters (Dublin and Belfast Head offices) a few years ago and never got a reply. 

Towger.


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## elcato (17 Apr 2007)

Have a look at their [broken link removed] page on the website under step-by-step procedure. I tried the first 2 and when dissatisfied I wrote a letter to the manager. He must have passed it on to customer care as it was they who wrote to me to sort it out. Its currently still in the motions. So far I'm happy enough with the response but agree with most posters regarding the action I will take if not satisfied.


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## pernickety (22 Jun 2007)

Just thought I'd update on this.

I used the customer complaints address from the website and got a reply immediately to say my complaint would be dealt with within 2 weeks (or i'd be advised by then of further action). 

And they did reply. They summarized the problems, gave a reason for some of the misunderstandings (apparently my branch never received any of my letters, although they closed accounts as per instructions in one of them!!!), they reversed the incorrect charges on my visa account, apologized! and sent me a cheque  "for €100 euro as a goodwill gesture to reimburse you, I hope you will accept it as a tangible token for my apologies".

So finally the affair is closed and it was worth writing to complain!


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