Ulster Bank have stealthily charged over €250 since 2013 for an account I stopped using in 2006

born_again

joeyjoejnr1 said:

colsten said:

Obviously they did have your address if they sent you a letter. The question is how long have they had your UK address, and how did they get it in the first instance.

I know, I don't see how say they didn't have my address and then send me a letter. How else would they have gotten my address apart from getting it from me?

There are many ways a bank can get your address. Being told by the account holder is the easiest.

bigadaj

OP have you raised a complaint regarding the lack of bank response when you have tried to contact them, neither you nor the bank have handled this very well from what you report. Have you checked your credit files as this may be recorded as an adverse marker?

colsten

bigadaj said:

OP have you raised a complaint regarding the lack of bank response when you have tried to contact them, neither you nor the bank have handled this very well from what you report. Have you checked your credit files as this may be recorded as an adverse marker?

Surely a default with a bank in the RoI won't be reflected on UK CRAs. Unless you mean an Irish CRA? Which wouldn't be much of a concern if the OP lives in the UK.

kaMelo

joeyjoejnr1 said:

Anyone know what I can do in this situation?
Details
I live in Dublin for my "year out" from University (I went to Uni in the UK). I opened an Ulster Bank account to get paid and left Dublin in 2006. I got a letter from Ulster Bank in Nov 2019 (UK address) saying I owed around €220. When a requested a full statement this showed I was charged €25 overdraft fee in Oct 2013 and went €6.43 overdrawn. Since then they have charged me €250 in overdraft and interest charges. They sent no comms around this and locked me out of my online banking (I tried to reset details but I was locked out). I stopped using the account in 2006 and it lay dormant until Oct 2013 when they started charging me.

Is there any course of action I can take? When requesting the full statement I asked for more details and said this was unfair but they only sent me a more detailed statement. It feel so unfair and sneaky that they charged me this.

Timeline

-          2005/2006 – worked in Dublin for work experience during University

-          2006 – left Dublin and stopped using account

-          15th Oct 2013 – charged overdraft fee and got withdrawn €6.43

-          2013 onwards – charged overdraft fees and interest with no communication

-          Nov 2019 – they send me a statement showing overdue balance

-          Present - account now sitting around €250 overdrawn

The part I've highlighted in bold doesn't make sense. It says you were charged an overdraft fee of 25 euros that took you 6.43 euros into your overdraft.


What was the actual event that took you into an overdraft, it cannot simply be the overdraft fee as it would require you to already be in your overdraft for a fee to be charged. 

Consumerist

I'd say your only option for the moment is to start their complaints procedure. If not resolved within 8 weeks submit the complaint to the ombudsman and let them them sort it out.

If you are still being charged at the moment you might want to consider settling the account (without prejudice i.e. under protest)  pending the ombudsman's decision.

born_again

Seems the Irish timescales are 40 days...
https://www.fspo.ie/make-a-complaint

joeyjoejnr1

kaMelo said:

joeyjoejnr1 said:

Anyone know what I can do in this situation?
Details
I live in Dublin for my "year out" from University (I went to Uni in the UK). I opened an Ulster Bank account to get paid and left Dublin in 2006. I got a letter from Ulster Bank in Nov 2019 (UK address) saying I owed around €220. When a requested a full statement this showed I was charged €25 overdraft fee in Oct 2013 and went €6.43 overdrawn. Since then they have charged me €250 in overdraft and interest charges. They sent no comms around this and locked me out of my online banking (I tried to reset details but I was locked out). I stopped using the account in 2006 and it lay dormant until Oct 2013 when they started charging me.

Is there any course of action I can take? When requesting the full statement I asked for more details and said this was unfair but they only sent me a more detailed statement. It feel so unfair and sneaky that they charged me this.

Timeline

-          2005/2006 – worked in Dublin for work experience during University

-          2006 – left Dublin and stopped using account

-          15th Oct 2013 – charged overdraft fee and got withdrawn €6.43

-          2013 onwards – charged overdraft fees and interest with no communication

-          Nov 2019 – they send me a statement showing overdue balance

-          Present - account now sitting around €250 overdrawn

The part I've highlighted in bold doesn't make sense. It says you were charged an overdraft fee of 25 euros that took you 6.43 euros into your overdraft.


What was the actual event that took you into an overdraft, it cannot simply be the overdraft fee as it would require you to already be in your overdraft for a fee to be charged. 

Yes, this doesn't make sense to me. When I asked for details on the charges they sent a statement. Here are there first 4 rows of the statement:

eskbanker

joeyjoejnr1 said:

kaMelo said:

joeyjoejnr1 said:

Anyone know what I can do in this situation?
Details
I live in Dublin for my "year out" from University (I went to Uni in the UK). I opened an Ulster Bank account to get paid and left Dublin in 2006. I got a letter from Ulster Bank in Nov 2019 (UK address) saying I owed around €220. When a requested a full statement this showed I was charged €25 overdraft fee in Oct 2013 and went €6.43 overdrawn. Since then they have charged me €250 in overdraft and interest charges. They sent no comms around this and locked me out of my online banking (I tried to reset details but I was locked out). I stopped using the account in 2006 and it lay dormant until Oct 2013 when they started charging me.

Is there any course of action I can take? When requesting the full statement I asked for more details and said this was unfair but they only sent me a more detailed statement. It feel so unfair and sneaky that they charged me this.

Timeline

-          2005/2006 – worked in Dublin for work experience during University

-          2006 – left Dublin and stopped using account

-          15th Oct 2013 – charged overdraft fee and got withdrawn €6.43

-          2013 onwards – charged overdraft fees and interest with no communication

-          Nov 2019 – they send me a statement showing overdue balance

-          Present - account now sitting around €250 overdrawn

The part I've highlighted in bold doesn't make sense. It says you were charged an overdraft fee of 25 euros that took you 6.43 euros into your overdraft.


What was the actual event that took you into an overdraft, it cannot simply be the overdraft fee as it would require you to already be in your overdraft for a fee to be charged. 

Yes, this doesn't make sense to me. When I asked for details on the charges they sent a statement. Here are there first 4 rows of the statement:

Ah, that makes it all a bit clearer then!  You weren't charged an overdraft fee as such, in the sense of a fee charged for going overdrawn, but a standardised fixed annual facility fee, which they seemingly introduced in 2013.

A quick Google for 'Ulster Bank annual overdraft fee' returns the likes of https://www.thejournal.ie/ultser-bank-overdraft-fees-994879-Jul2013/, which unsurprisingly states that they'd write to tell affected customers, but if they no longer had a record of your address by then, such notification would presumably have gone astray, and they were perhaps only motivated to go looking for you in the UK more recently once the arrears hit a certain level?

kaMelo

I agree with eskbanker, the statement you've provided combined with that press release I would say clarifies what happened here.
The next question would be did you keep them informed of your whereabouts at all times? 
I would imagine they did write to you at your last known address but if this wasn't up to date then obviously you wouldn't have received it and not living in Ireland I think it highly unlikely you would have noticed the press release either.

I think a complaint and SAR (or Irish equivalent) to see what letters they sent, when and to where. Once you have this information then decide what to do with your complaint, maybe explain how your situation came about and appeal to their better nature.

warby68

The best way to complain and get a positive result at the first stage is to get the person reading it onside from the beginning.
Accepting your part in things, what you actually intended which was to maintain a euro account in case you ever needed it and apologize for not keeping up to date are good things to do. Then you can say as you haven't made use of the account you missed the point where a fee would be charged and then point out you actually haven't used the account or indeed the service which you paid the fee for. You would be very grateful if they would consider refunding the balance to nil (or even your small balance) and closing it and apologise for any inconvenience. The Bank's system hasn't picked on you, hasn't particularly done anything wrong - just following various system driven steps which cover thousands and thousands of accounts. Thet usually won't pick up the ones that look a bit off until the customer tells them and you didn't stay in touch.
Don't get me wrong - 7 years without action on the Bank's part for an otherwise dormant account is a bit rubbish but intertia is cheaper. However being super nice in your first letter does NOT prevent you ramping things up in later ones if you don't get the response you want. Some people think the more aggressively you complain the more likely you'll get a result but nice actually oftens results in nice with a lot less hassle.
Its not always the case if your complaint lands in an overseas call centre who have scripted procedures and can miss the nuance so I'd also recommend old fashioned writing to keep it in the UK. Not sure if that applies for Ulster Bank though.