Ulster Bank Systems Down, Many Left Without Money

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I have an esavings account with Ulster bank. I sent them a letter by registered post at the end of june to close my account and send me a cheque. I have rang them numerous times since then and they cannot give me any indication when I will get the money. According to them they are not going to start looking at account closures for another week. God knows how long it will take then. I assume they are not sure what peoples current balances are. The amount involded is a 6 figure sum. I am about to sign contracts on a house purchase in the next couple of weeks and need this money for the deposit and final purchase. What should I do in order to get my money from Ulster bank ? I don't have a branch account so I cant go to my bank branch. Should I be contacting the financial regulator ? Surely I have a right to withdraw my money ?
 
Don't think so, but I could be wrong. It transferred from a first active account to an ulster bank account.
 
Chipmunk said:
Don't think so, but I could be wrong. It transferred from a first active account to an ulster bank account.
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First Active and Ulster Bank are both brands of RBS. All the same.

Go into a branch, they should deal with your issue. If you kick up a big enough fuss, which you probably will need to do in this case, you should get access to your money.
 
My wages came in today - as it should - first time in 4 weeks. Now, the only thing that needs to be restored are txt message updates....
 
Chipmonk,

It is true that they cannot close your account at the moment. However you should be able to withdraw your entire balance without the accrued interest. You can leave the account open with little or no balance and then you will receive the interest when their systems are actually working and the account is closed down.

I did this two weeks ago when I withdrew my savings from an Ulster Bank savings account. It was a five figure sum. I withdrew it in cash, as I didn't trust that a cheque from their system would be honoured during their problems. I then walked down the road and lodged it with a different bank. I had to give them 24 hours notice so that they could have the cash ready. The savings account still isn't closed.

With the amount you are talking about cash certainly wouldn't be feasible. But they should be able to issue you the current balance of your savings account by cheque. I would contact them and arrange to have the cheque sent to you or collect it from your nearest branch. Also I think at this stage there would be no issue with the cheque not being honoured.

Then whenever their systems are actually working you can close the account and receive whatever remaining balance you had and all the accrued interest.
 

I lodged a cheque last Friday afternoon.
it showed up immediately but dont forget to allow for 5 days for a cheque to clear.

I could physically withdraw the money by the Wednesday though.
 
Still no bank statements for last month. I don't use online banking so I have no idea if my money is still there or not.
 
Most accounts up to date but, interest still charged on credit card in spite of account being cleared on time.
 
Credit card paid on July 4th by cheque (enough time left for cheque to clear). Payment credited (?) on July 19th. I have to wait for the August bill to check if all interest has been refunded though.
 
Just got a call from UB Complex Quieries Dept.
Basically they are now working on a compensation policy and are awaiting approval from the Irish Regulator at present.
 
Had a rant at UB credit card services this morning. My payment for June got held up due to the computer 'issues' and this resulted in an interest charge and a late payment fee. UB duly credited the late payment fee but only about 10% of the interest charge.

Leading up to the statement end-date last week I rang them to get the balance of the interest charge repaid. I pay my credit card off in full every month and was therefore only going to make a payment that reflected my purchases and didn't want the non-repaid interest to generate a further interest charge! Of course what happens? Exactly what I tried to avoid!! So I now have two interest charges...

Rang this morning and after explaining and being put on hold for an age, they have graciously agreed, as I pay my account every month and NOT because of their USELESSNESS I might add, to credit the interest charges!!

We shall see...
 
Same thing happened with my account - always pay on time but June's payment wasn't credited for about 4 weeks so I got hit with a late fee, an interest charge AND an over-limit fee. Happily though, when they credited the June payment, they kindly credited it twice. So when they get around to fixing the interest charge and the fees, I will tell them about the double credit...
 
I had the same problem with UB credit cards a few years ago - I pay my cc in full every month by transfer from my other UB account. One month for some reason UB took ages to transfer the money and it arrived a day late I got charged late fees and interest even though I had paid it at the same time as every other month previously. They would not refund and had a poor attitude so closed my UB credit card the next day.
I now have an MBNA CC and for all the bad rep they get - they were very good and understanding when my monthly payment arrived 10 days late due to UB mess they refunded the late charge and interest straight away.
 
I spoke to someone in the account closures section today, about closing my savings account and getting the interest I am due. I had sent in an account closure form two and a half weeks ago.

He informed me that they were still not processing any account closures as they were not 100% confident that everyone's balances are correct yet. He said he hoped they might be able to start working on the backlog of account closures late next week.
 
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I have a one year fixed maturing today. Are you saying that this account cannot be closed?
I don't want to roll it over for another year until I see that I got the right interest credited and DIRT deducted.
I was considering adding a few grand to top it up as well but I am not really confident that these bozos can carry out my instructions. Hence closing it today and going elsewhere.
Incidentally I too am still waiting on a bank statement for last month let alone this month that will be due this week.
 
I lodged a cheque on Monday, only cleared this morning. Every single month for the last 5 years the cheque cleared after 2 working days, not 3. Making me nervous!
 
SlugBreath, they were able to tell me over the phone exactly how much interest had accrued both including and excluding DIRT. The amount was exactly as I expected it to be. The interest continues to accrue until the date they actually close the account in my case, I'm not sure about a fixed account though.

I would imagine they won't force the account to roll over as it's not your fault, but they probably won't be able to pay the money out to you yet. I would advise ringing your branch directly rather than going through the generic help number. That way you can get the name of someone to investigate your query and can ring them back for updates, as opposed to the help line where you get a new person everytime you ring.
 
DB74 did you lodge the cheque in the branch? I lodged one yesterday and it cleared yesterday, is in my account this morning.
 
Ceist Beag said:
DB74 did you lodge the cheque in the branch? I lodged one yesterday and it cleared yesterday, is in my account this morning.
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Yeah I lodged in in my branch. It wasn't an Ulster Bank cheque but that never mattered before.
 
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