Just finished Switching from KBC to Ulster Bank

Thanks for the update. I already have a current a/c with KBC which is 100% fee free as long as my salary is received here so its unfortunate that I need to close my KBC a/c and use my UB current a/c now as my current a/c. I will also have to arrange for all of my direct debits to be updated.
 

They charge €6 per quarter unless you keep €2000 in your account.
As you were on the 4.05% rate and if you put that €2000 onto your mortgage you'd have been saving €6.75 per month rather than €6 per quarter.

UlsterBank give you free banking if you keep €3000 in your account. (http://digital.ulsterbank.ie/person...=I_PPC_GGL_MTA_MTAGen_AO_CURACC_1#waiver.html)

For me when I left KBC mortgages I closed my Current Account straight away. They're the same bank as that that was ripping me off for the mortgage so I didn't want to be their customer in any way anymore.

Moving direct debits is a pain in the hole alright but not too major. I'd recommend you do it yourself rather than rely on "switching teams" if they still have those.
 
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KBC extra current a/c has no charges at all (no transaction charges, no POS charges, no ATM withdrawal fees, no monthly/quarterly maintenance fees) on the current a/c as long as a salary over €2000 is lodged into the a/c once a month. You don't have to keep a cleared balance. If a salary of €2,000 is not lodged each month, you suffer a quarterly maintenance fee of €6.

However UB charge €4 per month maintenance fee on a current a/c unless you can keep a cleared balance of €3,000 in the a/c a all times. They also charge POS charges, ATM withdrawal charges, transaction charges etc.

Weighing up here whether to keep a UC current a/c just for the sake of the mortgage switch and pay the €4 monthly fee on the current a/c and not use the Debit card at all. Keep the KBC current a/c and debit card and suffer the €6 per quarter charge.

An thoughts on what the best option would be or are all of the above details correct?
 
Where are you getting the Ulster Bank POS & ATM & transaction fees from? I've never been charged them.

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It looks to me if you keep €3000 in your account most of your banking is free. I don't keep €3000 in mine as it's worth more than €4 a month for me to have it elsewhere. The only fee I pay is €4. It doesn't seem to be charged monthly for me. I suppose sometimes when they check to see if I'm eligible for the fee I might have €3k in there so they don't charge me. I don't consciously plan that though.
 
I would love to switch from KBC , but our earnings need to be 80k as opposed to 50k in 2007 when the mortgage was taken out first.

We arent really in negative equity, possibly slightly.. 26 years left

Have I any options, or must I just accept being shafted by KBC??
 
I've just finished switching to UB too. Two quick questions.

When I log on online, I can see my mortgage account and its IBAN & BIC. I presume to pay extra off I just do a bank transfer to this account. Is that correct?

Secondly, the mortgage was drawn down a couple of weeks ago. I've no sign of the €1500 hitting my current account. For other new joiners did it hit your account straight away, within a week / month etc.?
 
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You *should* be able to just transfer money using the mortgage account's IBAN and BIC (I haven't tried so I don't know for certain).

In may case it took about 3 weeks from draw-down of mortgage to seeing the 1500 euro in my account.
 
mickoneill30 said:
When I log on online, I can see my mortgage account and its IBAN & BIC. I presume to pay extra off I just do a bank transfer to this account. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

From looking at my own setup (mortgage with Ulster & current account with KBC) the IBAN I transfer to, in my standing order is not the same as my ulster mortgage IBAN
Instead (recalling from memory) it is a general mortgage account IBAN for Ulster mortgage customers.
What you need to do add your mortgage account number (8 digits) and maybe your surname into the reference field.
Best to call them 01 709 2500 and ask what the general IBAN number is and once you have this - include the above details in the reference field.
And probably a good idea to do a small test transfer (which I always do) to ensure all numbers are correct.
 
Hi all,

I just switched lenders from KBC to Ulster Bank earlier this week. In order to do so I opened a current a/c with Ulster Bank and arranged for my salary to be paid direct debit into this a/c and for the mortgage re-payments then to be withdrawn by direct debit from my new Ulster Bank current a/c.

However I also have a KBC current extra a/c and a KBC regular saver extra a/c.

I read above that in order to keep the KBC current extra a/c fee free, there must be a transfer of a minimum of one $2,500 payment via direct debit into the a/c each month. Is this correct and am I right in saying there does not to be a cleared balance at all times in the a/c. If so, should I perhaps arrange for my mortgage and salary to instead continue to be paid in/out of this a/c and therefore not to use the Ulster Bank current a/c at all??

In order to keep the high deposit rate on the KBC extra regular saver a/c, do I need to do anything additional also?
 
Just a word of warning for something to be aware of if you're switching from KBC.

If you pay your full amount off any time after the 22nd of the month there is nothing they can do (they say) to stop your normal payment coming out from your account by direct debit as usual even though your mortgage is 100% paid off.

I paid my mortgage off last month. Apparently it took several working days to get from a suburb to their office in Dublin. Every other extra repayment cheque has gotten there next working day and been lodged the same day but in this case for some reason it took several days. If I was a suspicious person I'd assume they were dragging it out to get the maximum amount of interest. I've worked in a bank before. I know other banks have systems like this to hold money over for an extra day or two. It doesn't make much money per customer but when you do it to thousands of customers it can start adding up to millions.

I rang last week asking if they'd gotten the cheque (as I'd heard nothing) and wanted to make sure that the mortgage was finished and nothing more would be taken from my account. I was assured that the lady in question could see the mortgage paid off and that I was finished.

Fast forward to Tuesday (2nd August) and my usual KBC direct debit was processed and I'm down well over a grand. Rang up KBC and was told that the lady last week was wrong and that because they processed the cheque after 22nd they took my next payment. This is normal for them.
She said she'd get onto whatever department process this stuff and arrange the refund and that this would take a couple of days. At the end of that call I said "so I should see this in my KBC current account by Thursday". She said yes.

Fast forward to today. Still no sign. I rang them again (as I've nothing better to do apparently) and was told that the lady on Tuesday was wrong and that these take 5 working days to process. I can transfer money from my UlsterBank account to my KBC current account and it takes about half a working day. But KBC transferring money from one of their accounts back to me as a refund takes 5 working days.

It's not a major catastrophe, just something to be aware of. Now that I've switched my new, real mortgage repayment is coming out next week. I'd have been really worried if this money was needed to make my repayment next week.
 
You probably should have cancelled the DD yourself to avoid this situation. Once a payment was taken you could have instructed the bank to refund the payment under SEPA rules and to cancel the DD.
 
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