Ulster Bank's withdrawal policy towards existing customers

From today's press release

Changes to our Mortgage Business

On the 29th of October 2021, Ulster Bank ceased all new business for personal customers, with some exceptions. One of these exceptions allowed existing Ulster Bank customers to continue to apply for a mortgage. As a further step in our phased withdrawal, from 10 June 2022 Ulster Bank will close to new mortgage applications from existing customers and from 29 April 2022, will no longer offer approval in principle for existing customers.



This means that from 10 June, the only personal banking new business available will be the servicing of existing customers to switch rates or avail of offset and tracker ‘porter’ products; and on an exceptional basis, emergency, temporary overdraft, or credit card limit increases.



There is no change to new product availability for existing business customers – we remain open for all new products for existing business customers. For Lombard Ireland, we remain open for new and existing customers.

Brendan Burgess said:

As a further step in our phased withdrawal, from 10 June 2022 Ulster Bank will close to new mortgage applications from existing customers and from 29 April 2022, will no longer offer approval in principle for existing customers.

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Is it just me or does this sound contradictory?

Hi Paul

It's not just you. I thought I was too thick to understand it.

Brendan

I wonder if they mean 29 August 2022?

Approval in Principle lasts 6 months so existing customers will have until October to draw down. So they will be no longer offering that from 29th April which means no drawdowns after October. From the 10th June, they won't be accepting any new mortgage applications even if you are looking to drawdown straight away.

Sunny said:

Approval in Principle lasts 6 months so existing customers will have until October to draw down. So they will be no longer offering that from 29th April which means no drawdowns after October. From the 10th June, they won't be accepting any new mortgage applications even if you are looking to drawdown straight away.

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Let's say I'm a UB customer and I apply for a new mortgage on 20th May. Can I get approval in principal? Or are you saying that there will be no such thing as approval in principal after 29th April?

Paul F said:

Let's say I'm a UB customer and I apply for a new mortgage on 20th May. Can I get approval in principal? Or are you saying that there will be no such thing as approval in principal after 29th April?

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No such thing. You will need to go for full approval. So you won't be able to apply for approval in principle and then look for a property.

My current experience is that Ulster Bank will not now renew AIP for me as an existing customer. Last AIP was only issued for 3 months. All options for new AIP application for existing customers now gone. Is this everyone’s experience now? Anyone given option to apply for AIP this week?

Is it possible to tell from the above excerpt when Ulster Bank will stop offering mortgage topups to existing customers?

Or has anybody heard from UB when they will stop offering topups?

If you are in the market for a top-up, it's probably best to switch to another lender altogether.

I think it will be difficult to get anywhere with Ulster Bank.

Brendan