Ulster Bank Bonus Saver - Quarterly Bonus not paid

D

denoyed

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I opened a bonus saver account with UB last October. I just realised that I was not credited the quarterly bonus of 0.25% (1%APR). When I queried this with UB I was told that the reason was that I had less than the required minimum for more than 4 calendar days. This happened as follows.

I opened the account by phone with the customer service center on a Friday so that the paperwork would be complete and account ready for the solicitors cheque to be deposited and earning interest asap. The letter with my account details was not received till the following Tuesday/Wednesday I think. I lodged the money to the new account at my branch on Thursday. The cheque in the meantime had taken several days to travel through UB internal post from the UB branch where my solicitor had attempted to lodge it to my UB current account. They could only accept this cheque in the branch where the account is held for some reason!

This equates to 6 days and so I'm not entitled to the bonus! I have not made a single withdrawal since so my balance has always been above the minimum with the exception of the initial opening and lodging to the
account.

I would have thought that the account would not have been activated until my initial lodgement which I could not do until I had my account details and UB had processed the cheque. Instead UB in their efficiency seem to have activated it the minute I made the initial phone call.

UB say there is nothing they can do about it. I am considering making a formal written complaint and referring this to the financial ombudsman should my complaint not be upheld. Any thoughts anyone? Am I wasting my time?
 
How much interest did you lose? Fair play to you for noticing it.I`d hardly notice if I was missing .25% interest. How much dinterest does the bonus saver pay .Is it still3.5%?. I suppose a visit to your branch to complain would be your first stop..at least you`ll take up some of their time.
 
It was proceeds from house sale and equivalent to about €150 in lost interest. In effect I got 2.5% instead for the quarter instead of 3.5% on an APR basis. The annual 0.25% bonus was credited on a pro rata basis Ok.

Looks like rate dropped to 3.0% from 15th February according to UB website.

I have had several discussions with my branch so my next step will be to write to the custromers relations manager in the UB service centre.
 
Fair play to you for doing something about this.

Previous posters have got nowhere escalating issues inside Ulster Bank. Be prepared to go to the Financial Regulator if/when Ulster Bank do not sort out your issue.
 
How does one know the rate for the bonus saver.They don`t inform their savers.
 
Fair enough, but do they tell the savers about changes in the rate for the bonus saver or do savers have to continually check the websit for changes?
 
denoyed said:
I opened the account by phone with the customer service center on a Friday so that the paperwork would be complete and account ready for the solicitors cheque to be deposited and earning interest asap. The letter with my account details was not received till the following Tuesday/Wednesday I think. I lodged the money to the new account at my branch on Thursday. The cheque in the meantime had taken several days to travel through UB internal post from the UB branch where my solicitor had attempted to lodge it to my UB current account. They could only accept this cheque in the branch where the account is held for some reason!
Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused by what you are saying here, how could you lodge the money when your solicitor had already attempted to lodge the cheque elsewhere?

Regardless, there is no requirement in UB for a cheque to be lodged at the branch where the account is held. The entire UB branch network are on the one system and you can walk into any branch and lodge a cheque to your account. If someone in the bank has told you otherwise then they have the wrong information. The one exception to that may be if the cheque was in a foreign currency and needs to be cleared on a collection basis.
 
sunrock said:
Fair enough, but do they tell the savers about changes in the rate for the bonus saver or do savers have to continually check the websit for changes?
Click to expand...

Most banks write to variable rate savers when the rate changes, I don't know if Ulster Bank do this.
 
Sbsox - Initial cheque lodgement was to my current account, which is what my solicitor attempted to do and yes for a reason I cannot remember they refused to process this cheque in the initial UB branch and instead sent it on to my own UB branch, I think it may have been to do with the amount and/or because it was a BOI cheque. When it was eventually lodged, I transferred a portion of this to the bonus saver account.

Sunrock - I have received no written notification as of yet but since the rate change seems to have happened relatively recently on the 15th February it may yet be posted. I wait with bated breath.

Anyway, some success to report. I rang the financial regulator and they gave me a name and contact number in the Dublin based UB customer relations unit. A letter also came from the 'Concerns and Queries Team' in Belfast explaining why they could not pay the bonus and if I was not satisfied the complaint could be 'escalated' by contacting the customer relations unit .... and if I was still not satisfied it could be referred to the financial ombudsman. I rang the UB contact provided this am explained the situation and lo and behold was rung back this afternoon to be told the bonus interest would be in my account tomorrow evening. Case closed!

For anyone with similar issues it is worth giving the financial regulator a bell. They gave spot on advice and gave me the right contact to sort this mess out... whatever about the other bigger messes.
 
Glad you got it sorted out.
A thought just struck me about these internet accounts,which generally don`t leave a paper trail, and as in the bonus savers case are no longer available.What happens when the account holder dies or gets dementia.I doubt very much if the bank makes much effort to "remind" the customer.
 
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