Ulster Bank Loan Restructure help

I took out a personal loan of 35k in 2009 with monthly repayments of 556 over 7 years. In July 2011 I was let go from my job. I continued to pay off the loan at the above rate until December 2012 when it was no longer feasable to do this.

I contacted ulster bank and asked to restructure my loan. They put me on a 6 month financial assistance plan which reduced the payments to a manageable 415 per month.

In April 2012 I started an intern-ship which seen my social welfare payment rise by €50 per week. I contacted UB again to advise of my situation and that after the 9 month intern-ship I was being taken on full time. By January 2013 I was in full time employment again and contacted UB to restructure the loan.

They then advised that I would need 3 months proof of wages so the loan had a temporary payment plan of €400 on it. In April 2013 I again contacted them to restructure now having 3 months of wages. What follows between then and now is a serious of dealings with incompetent members of staff in both their collections and complaints department.

Within the past month alone I have failed to receive 6 call backs, 3 from the collections department (the ones that I make an appointment to get so I can proceed with a restructure) and from the complaints department that I try to contact every time I don't get the call back from the collections department.

In between all of this I have been lied to on almost every phone call, ive been hung up on, I have taken time of work for the above phone calls that never happen and have been given conflicting information not to mention it takes on average 15 minutes for me to get through to them then another 5-10 minutes while they go read the notes on my account (clearly showing how much contact ive had with these people)

I am now so stressed and tired with dealing with these cretins I really don't know what to do. I just want to restructure the loan so I can pay back what I owe and get on with my life.

Im sorry that this is such a long post/rant (it could have been much longer had i posted all of the F**k ups they have made over the past year) and thanks for reading this far if you have.


So im basically stuck in limbo here, the collections people need to call me to go over my income/expenditure and have the forms sent out to me, but because they dont call me I cant move foward.

Can anyone give me advice on what I am supposed to do next?

I too had many months of issue after issue in dealing with Ulster Bank relating to a Credit Card debt I was having problems with. In a nutshell they are useless. Stop ringing them and write to them copying every listed director. If the loan is on DD stop the DD and send them a cheque each month advising them this is what you intend doing. Some of their services are run from the UK now which does not help

You read a lot of posts here about banks being useless, not nasty or ruthless just incompetent.

I suspect that UB is far worse than the other banks in this regard.

I used to think that just because I have my issues with UB, I notice these comments more than if they were about some other bank.

But I am coming to the conclusion that it isn't all banks it is just UB.

I have twice this year collected compensation from them for their mis handling of my account, not unfair or unreasonable treatment just incompetent, mostly taking weeks to do anything.

Can we do a poll is it all banks or are UB worse than others.

Can you shed 1500 people since 2009 in a smallish Bank without losing experience ?

Very true! There is practically no experience left and no decision makers available.

wbbs said:

Very true! There is practically no experience left and no decision makers available.

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I don't think that is the problem. When the had loads of staff it was the very same. I believe they have designed the system to deliberately to thwart customers getting through to them.

I too have been compensated more than once, and it was in no way reflective of the grief they caused me.

I have no idea if other banks are better or worse.

Can I ask what people are being compensated for? Queries on current accounts etc being unanswerd for weeks etc?

I got compensated partly for their slipshod manner of handling my complaints. The stress of dealing with them is horrendous. It's designed to make you give up long before you take the ombudsman route. They ignore phone calls, pass you from pillar to post, never call you back when they say they will, won't correspond by email (depends on the person and staff member) have a 'senior' person as gatekeeper to try and see you off. Just writing this is annoying me.

Finally I was so ..... with them I sent them a 7 page letter of complaint, with a list of all the people I'd spoken to, names, dates and times. I hate dealing with banks when I've a problem.

Bronte said:

Finally I was so ..... with them I sent them a 7 page letter of complaint, with a list of all the people I'd spoken to, names, dates and times. I hate dealing with banks when I've a problem.

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I know the feeling!

LoanStressed, have you done as Bronte did and kept a record of all contact?

There are two separate problems here.
1) You need to restructure your loan and cannot get a useful response of any description from them.
2) When you try to use their complaints process you find yourself in a rabbit warren.

I think you should outline in a diary or timeline format all your dealings with them. Write to complain to them and ask them to provide a response, set a deadline for the response. Keep a copy of the letter.
It might also be a very unwelcome suggestion to turn up at their office in Central Park up by Leopardstown Racecourse, which is where their collections department is, and personally deliver it. Doubt you will get a great deal of joy from it but it might feel better to talk in person.

so-crates said:

It might also be a very unwelcome suggestion to turn up at their office in Central Park up by Leopardstown Racecourse, which is where their collections department is, and personally deliver it. Doubt you will get a great deal of joy from it but it might feel better to talk in person.

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I know someone who did this recently with their bank (it was a different document) but the same idea. They got great satisfaction from it.