Ulster Bank BEWARE

Tommaso46

That was similar to my experience. I resolved the issue by going to my local NatWest branch in London, where a very kind lady took me through the process of closing the account, which included her writing a letter to the Ulster Bank, on NatWest headed paper. It took weeks but I eventually got all my money back, with the interest that had accrued. I had trouble with Natwest before, years ago, when I opened an account at a good rate of interest but then discovered I was not being given that rate but a much lower one. So the moral is: never have anything to do with any bank in the NatWest group. They seem to have policies that are deliberately designed to lure savers into traps.

Biffo1967

It got worse today. After going through the long palaver with customer services and being told that the account would be closed, I asked "how soon". She said to wait then said "sorry there's a problem". It turns out that you can't close this account over the phone or on the app or website. The only way for me to close it is to send a LETTER to Belfast giving the details of the Ulster account and the receiving account and, of course, my signature. So much for their self-serving anti-fraud measures where they spend twenty minutes on the phone making you confirm that you understand that it's not their problem if something goes wrong.
I really wish I'd known about this - I would never have opened the account.
But maybe I'll get the Franz Kafka memorial award for going through all their hoops.

jameseonline

Am I right in thinking there's more than 1 Ulster Bank &/or you have to be in Ulster to get certain accounts?, don't know much about it tbh but judging from this thread it doesn't seem very good.

I don't have major issues with RBS or NatWest though.

Tommaso46

Ulster Bank is part of the Natwest Group

Bridlington1

jameseonline said:

Am I right in thinking there's more than 1 Ulster Bank &/or you have to be in Ulster to get certain accounts?, don't know much about it tbh but judging from this thread it doesn't seem very good.

I don't have major issues with RBS or NatWest though.

Ulster bank is part of the NatWest group and you can open/manage Ulster accounts no matter where in the UK you live, there's no need to be in Ulster. I've found Ulster's account opening process to be slow (nothing difficult, they just took a few weeks if I recall correctly and the process is a bit old fashioned).

Once you have the current account set up though it behaves the same as NatWest and RBS do and the app is just a carbon copy of NatWest/RBS. For me applying for the Loyalty Saver was just a case of logging into the app and applying, this took me about a minute and the account was fully set up and showing in the app the next day. Payments in/out are instant in my experience and I've found once the account is open it is one of the easier ones to manage (I've banked with over 60 different banks/building societies so read from this what you will). 

You'll inevitably get some who have had a bad experience with them, though to be fair this is likely to be the case with any bank/building society you care to mention.

jameseonline

I was while searching for information about a Savings Builder account recently Google came up with an Ulster Bank site that's part of RBS international. 

Was looking for NatWest/RBS info at the time 

Just done another search, might be getting confused with NatWest International, damn I don't think my brain wants to understand all the parts of NatWest group 🤣

Still that NatWest International Savings Builder looks nice at 5.25% compared to the RBS/NatWest ones I have 

jameseonline

Also might of confused things with Isle Of Man bank (seems you can only have accounts if living in area), however it seems Ulster did have or still does have a Savings Builder account because I found references on their site.

Sorry if I confused people.

daeargwr

Closing the account is like pulling teeth!  Finally managed to do it after speaking to someone on the phone. 

friolento

The easiest to close a current account is to CASS switch it. You can request this from your sofa.

You might be able to use the account at some stage for a switch offer, or, if it's really urgent for you to close it now, just request the switch from an existing current account in your name.

daeargwr

daeargwr said:

Closing the account is like pulling teeth!  Finally managed to do it after speaking to someone on the phone. 

I spoke too soon - turns out they didn't manage to close it because I didn't provide them with the details of another Ulster bank account to pay the outstanding interest into.  Except I don't have an Ulster bank current account only the Loyalty Saver.  They then advised to visit a branch (I live in GB where there are no branches) or to put the details of any friends of family with an Ulster bank current account.....!

I've finally written to them snail mail asking if they can close the account.  At least I know who I'll never be opening an account with again.