RaboDirect Ireland will be closing in May

Just shut down two Rabo accounts. One ordinary savings and one 90 day notice.
Ordinary saver showed money transferred immediately to nominated account.
90 day showed interest transferred immediately but took a while before principal sum transferred to nominated account.
 
Reactions: mtk
I’ve spoken to two banks and trawled the website of a third and can find no such products. Ptsb and boi told me accounts for 12+ are current a/c.
 
Yes that’s better than the others but it’s a sole account in child’s name and they can access at any time. I’ll give aib a call. Some bank must do trust accounts though I would have thought.
 
I just got Rabo to transfer money from 30 and 90 day notice accounts into my Rabo savings account so I can transfer the money to wherever I want before I finally close the Rabo accounts. Just e-mailed them from within their own platform, and there was no problem but it did take a week.
Their reply e-mail mentioned: "For urgent queries please call our Customer Care Centre on 01 6599731. Please note that following RaboDirect’s announcement to withdraw from the Irish Market on 16th May 2018 our customer care team are particularly busy and you may experience longer wait times than normal." Just for anyone who was thinking of waiting till the last moment...
 
I closed my account using the automated close process and had no difficulty. Money appeared on the other side next day. Only delay was the closing statement which took a few weeks (not an issue as I only needed it for record purposes)

Duke of Marmalade said:
4 year National Solidarity Bond? Do you have a joint or single max?
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Great spot - when I went to check this I was maxed out on National Solidarity Bonds 10 Year Issue 6, but had forgotten that the 4 Year bonds are subject to a separate limit. So filled my boots there.

I also discovered that my local credit union have an excellent online platform and reading their accounts appears to be one of the well managed ones. I’ve put €40k, the max allowed, on deposit there (well within the Government Guarantee Limit) and tested the online platform inward and outward and its working well - full value within 24 hours.

I’ve also put €50k on deposit with BOI, with the intention of drip feeding it into their Goal Saver and 365 Monthly Saver Accounts (currently yielding 1.35% and 1.2% respectively) - bit of a pain and you’d wonder if it is worth the bother. The BOI online platform is noting short of cringeworthy.

Security on most of these online platforms is really poor. Nothing compared to Rabo and Ulster.
 
Just been speaking to Ulster Bank about taking some Rabo money. It seems they may be willing to bend the advertised upper deposit limit on their juicy 0.6% one year rate. Waiting to hear back, but yiz can form an orderly queue until I get my foot in the door, and you didn't hear it from me. (Offered BOI the chance to match the UB rate but they politely declined, not unexpectedly).
 
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Slightly off topic for this thread ... but slightly on topic too ... my Rabo accounts are now closed and I am still looking for a home for cash. Am I right in thinking the banks aren't crazy about taking deposits because their margins on them are low, and that's part of the reason Rabo left? I'm asking because the other banks I've approached are trying to persuade me (I would call it hounding me) to talk to advisors about equity investments. I know what I want and I have no problem resisting their charms as vociferously as necessary. But I'm thinking the average punter could easily be persuaded to stick money in a very uncertain market. And yes, they get you to answer a risk assessment questionnaire but, no, I don't think it's worth the paper it's printed on. If the bank is going to make a better margin by selling you an investment, then that's what they're going to sell, as they are doing their utmost to do with me. I'll write a report on my travails in trying to open a simple deposit account once it's done.
 
dub_nerd said:
Am I right in thinking the banks aren't crazy about taking deposits because their margins on them are low, and that's part of the reason Rabo left?
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Most banks have surplus deposits over loans. Additional deposits effectively end up parked at the ECB which costs -0.40%. Most, but not all, banks simply do not need more deposits. There is no positive margin, there is an effective marginal cost.
 
Any idea how/why Ulster Bank are offering 0.6% for 12 months? It's way out of kilter with other banks and with UB's other rates. Does it mean they have a temporary use for the money?
 
They only increased it very recently if I remember correctly - post-Rabo, so the cynic in me thinks it is a deliberate ploy to get some new custom in and mop up the rabo funds, to get new customers on board. They may be willing to use it as a loss leader in that respect - they could potentially upsell new customers their higher margin products like mortgages, investments etc. more easily once they are "in the door" so to speak. Or I could be completely wrong!
 
UB website states that existing Online Banking customers can open this account online. Tried doing that today - "We are currently making improvements to our Fixed Term Deposit application form, please contact your local branch". Great
 

I don't think it's a secret about trying to get the Rabo money. But that's an interesting angle about the upselling -- you may be on to something. I went in to UB last week about opening a deposit account and casually inquired about whether the advertised max on the account was a hard limit. I was told it would need managerial approval but shouldn't be a problem. Then we spent an hour and a half going through a risk assessment (for a deposit account!!!) and I was given info about investment products which I said I wasn't interested in. Next I was told sorry, actually, the approval has to come from a regional manager. (Meanwhile I dropped into Bank of Ireland to see if they had any interest in matching the UB rate -- no, but they had some nice investments I might be interested in ). A week later I still hadn't heard anything so I chased UB. Was told it was still in the pipeline but it would help if I spoke to a customer relations person about investments "just so the manager could see all options had been explored when approving it" (!!!!!). I agreed in order to get it expedited and was told someone would ring me that day. Two days later, not a dickybird, so I chased again. This time someone rang me back saying the first advisor had told them I was interested in investing. I explained to them that I would listen to their spiel but had no interest whatsoever in investments and had no intention of pretending. So, now heading for two weeks into applying for a deposit account and still awaiting "approval". I'm wondering if they've lost interest after failing to hook me for other business. If they were that interested they should have tried getting my name right, which I had to correct twice.
Come back Rabo, all is forgiven. How I'm gonna miss the simplicity, the AA rating, the online ease of access, the one day (or less) transfers... and not having to deal with people!
 
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In fairness, that is one of the good things about buying state savings in the post office - they don't ask you if you are interested in a few books of stamps or foreign currency instead!
 
Yep, UB have come back and said there are no exceptions to the max. deposit limit on their 0.6% 12 month account. It only took them 12 days to give me an answer. Now I have to queue for another interview slot, to change the amount on the form that they filled out. With a bit of luck I might get the account opened with the lower amount within three weeks of originally applying.
 
Shocking that Ulster Bank don't simply put the account opening process online and save their customers and their staff time and money.
 
I opened an account online recently but I was a current customer. Interestingly Firefox browser would not redirect me and gave the please ring us error but chrome allowed me to go and do the process.
 
elcato said:
I opened an account online recently but I was a current customer. Interestingly Firefox browser would not redirect me and gave the please ring us error but chrome allowed me to go and do the process.
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Ulster have the account opening process online for some product types but not all.
 
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