Yesterday I started the process of transferring both our State Pension payments across from Ulster Bank to AIB. The first stumbling block was trying to register ourselves on the My Welfare website. A couple of problems. The system did not recognise my Public Services Card account number. Eventually I keyed in the account number for my Free Bus Pass and it recognised that.
It also needed for my phone number to be associated with my driving licence for some reason. In the end I opted to have my PIN number sent out to me by post.
We also opted to have our PIN numbers sent to us in the post. My wife has a smartphone....I don't. The system had asked me for my phone number in order to send me my PIN. I use the landline in our home that is not enabled for texts.
Anyhow, we both got our PINS in the post. I then went on to their site and entered my name, PPS number and Public Service Card number. (If you don't have a public service card, I don't know how you will be able to access the online services).
I entered my landline as my phone number, thinking that the PIN I got in the post would be sufficient. It wasn't. They wanted to send me an additional code to the smartphone that I don't have. I ended up having to use my wife's smartphone to get my text code to access the MyWelfare site.
I was then asked for my birth name, my mother's birth name. I was then sent yet another code to progress to the next step.
Finally I was able to enter my change of bank details.
My wife also changed her details and during the process she got 3 text codes to her smartphone.
It was a long and laborious process to change our bank details from the Ulster bank to our new bank.
You will need to have a public services card, a smartphone, a smartphone that is already linked to you via another state agency, otherwise you will have to get a PIN sent to you in the post.
I would advise you to get started as soon as possible.