Did Ulster Bank give the two months' notice it promised of the transfer?

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Paul F

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I was reading this post from @Okokokoknic from last month where they said:
The last email I have from UB relating to my mortgage is from Dec 2021:
It is likely that your mortgage will transfer to Permanent TSB in the future and as part of the Consumer Protection Code obligations we will write to you a minimum of 60 days in advance of any transfer. Please be assured that this announcement does not affect your legal and regulatory protections.
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And up to about two days ago, Ulster Bank's website said:
Now that Ulster Bank has received approval from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), is my loan definitely going to transfer to Permanent TSB?

While approval has been received from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), the agreement is still subject to regulatory approvals and the formal completion of the transaction between Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB post CCPC approval.

We will write to you again a minimum of 2 months in advance of any transfer of your mortgage to provide you with formal confirmation of the inclusion of your mortgage. Please be assured that this announcement does not affect your legal and regulatory protections.
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Screenshots:
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Now that question and answer has gone from Ulster Bank's website, and some UB mortgage holders are saying that they did not get the two months' notice that they were promised. As a result, some of them have missed the chance to fix/re-fix on a good UB fixed rate and can now only fix on PTSB's higher rates.

For example:
  • 5-year fixed rate, loan-to-value (LTV) less than 80%:
    • Permanent TSB: 3.0%
    • Ulster Bank: 2.45% (or 2.2% of your mortgage balance is over €250k!)
  • 10-year fixed rate, loan-to-value (LTV) less than 60%:
    • Permanent TSB: not available
    • Ulster Bank: 2.8%
If I were an Ulster Bank customer I would feel very aggrieved if I wasn't given the notice I was promised. I wonder if some customers will make complaints that end up going to the Ombudsman.
 
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Hi Paul

Interesting point.

But surely people knew that their mortgage was moving so why did they not fix when they could?

I don't have that much sympathy for anyone who did not fix their rate or switch to another lender.

They can switch now if they wish.

Brendan
 
But anyone who was thinking of fixing should fix now and demand the Ulster Bank rates which are still on their website.

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If they are refused, they would then have grounds for complaint.

Brendan
 
The information we have from PTSB indicates that they will no longer be able to avail of these rates if they don't have an options letter already or it has expired. We have some customers in mid switch to PTSB from Ulster who it seems can't now get the new business PTSB rates or the Ulster fixed rates.

The lack of the two months notice has put both the customers and brokers on the back foot here, we are still in discussion with PTSB about these issues, but I'd be interested to hear from other customers in the process to understand what their situation is.
 
Mark Coan said:
The information we have from PTSB indicates that they will no longer be able to avail of these rates if they don't have an options letter already or it has expired. We have some customers in mid switch to PTSB from Ulster who it seems can't now get the new business PTSB rates or the Ulster fixed rates.
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Ooh, that's nasty!

Mark Coan said:
The lack of the two months notice has put both the customers and brokers on the back foot here, we are still in discussion with PTSB about these issues, but I'd be interested to hear from other customers in the process to understand what their situation is.
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In this post, @newirishman says that his wife did in fact get a letter (dated 3rd August) from Ulster Bank saying: “the date of transfer will be a minimum of two months from the date of this letter”.

So it would be important to figure out if any affected customers got the letter or not. It's possible that they got it but they didn't read it, or they forgot about it.
 
Hi Brendan, PTSB have said they will only honour Ulster customers with Loan Offers already so those with AIP only will no longer be able to switch.

As for why you would switch to PTSB, some customers value the cashback, others the intro rate on the 4 year fixed product, if they intend to switch after the fixed or pay down the mortgage PTSB can still be an option, especially if they don’t qualify for other lenders.

They aren’t my favourite lender right now, but they can be a good fit for some cases.
 
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