Just finished Switching from KBC to Ulster Bank

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Miley07

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Just finished a switch from KBC to UB. Experience was far from smooth but i would do it again tomorrow out of principle alone.

I was with KBC 4.05% Variable (in current acc). Qualified for UB 3.2% Var Rate due to >250k <80% LTV. Now i'm paying a little less per month (~€50) but for 4 years less now than with KBC.

Began in Feb so whole process took ~4mths. A little longer than i thought but its the waiting that takes so long rather than your actual time. I've probably invested ~2 days of my time into the process but the banks/solicitors are very very slow. All fees covered by UB €1,500 and a little to spare for myself.

My summary. Its not simple but a bit of patience and a willingness to wait for it to sort itself out there is real savings for people to make if you can switch.. I know not everybody can switch but for those that can i would highly recommend it.

Thanks to the great advice on this website i steered away from the 2% gimmicks and only AIB/UB were ever on my radar due to the way they treat new/existing customers. Hopefully as the SVR campaign continues any rate reductions will be reflected in my new mortgage with UB, but if not i will move again...

I have another hour of work still to do... Close my KBC Current & Savings account!
 
Congratulations Miley07. I'd say I'm anything from about 1 week to 5 years behind you.
1 week if they were anyway efficient. 5 years based on the current speed of Ulster Banks response to queries.
e.g. They ask me a question or for some documentation. I respond that day. Don't hear anything again for another week.
Or they say somethings in the post. Apparently coming from Scotland adds a week to postage dates so it took about 3 weeks to get the offer letter emailed to me. I told them to give up on the post as it didn't seem to be working for them.

Can I ask you a question as I seem to be a bit stuck. They sent the offer letter to me which needs to be witnessed by my solicitor. The solicitor told me they normally send a solicitors pack at the same time and coming down to sign the offer letter without having the solicitors pack is pointless. Does that seem similar to your experience? I've sent my mortgage advisor the question but he's off on leave so I'll wait another week for him to respond.
 
qwerty5 said:
Congratulations Miley07. I'd say I'm anything from about 1 week to 5 years behind you.
1 week if they were anyway efficient. 5 years based on the current speed of Ulster Banks response to queries.
e.g. They ask me a question or for some documentation. I respond that day. Don't hear anything again for another week.
Or they say somethings in the post. Apparently coming from Scotland adds a week to postage dates so it took about 3 weeks to get the offer letter emailed to me. I told them to give up on the post as it didn't seem to be working for them.

Can I ask you a question as I seem to be a bit stuck. They sent the offer letter to me which needs to be witnessed by my solicitor. The solicitor told me they normally send a solicitors pack at the same time and coming down to sign the offer letter without having the solicitors pack is pointless. Does that seem similar to your experience? I've sent my mortgage advisor the question but he's off on leave so I'll wait another week for him to respond.
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Yep, what they posted me i might as well have throw in the bin as it was only for reference. Solicitor should get a loan pack around the same time as you that has everything they need to read & you need to sign.. they had my pack for a while before I signed as they need to get the deeds/life assurance and lots of other paperwork in order also
 
Thanks Miley07. Before your post I assumed I was the first customer who ever switched to Ulster Bank :) , the amount of repetitive questions and chasing up to get an answer or letter posted is really annoying. Our finances are perfect, our jobs are good and our house is well over what we're borrowing so we don't have an issue on our end that we know about.
You wouldn't think that this is a product that is going to make the bank about €100,000 profit over its life. Before dealing with UB I was dealing with BOI and they were actually much worse. The major advantage of having a KBC mortgage is that no matter who I move to I'd be saving money so I would have saved money even with BOI.

I think it may be just me.

What's more annoying is that every month that Ulster Bank delay I might as well grab €112 and light fire to it. That's what I'm giving extra to KBC :(
 
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Hi Miley

Great post and hope it motivates others.

You must be glad that you didn't switch to Haven as you discussed in this post.

Apparently they are going to "differentiate" their offering from AIB. In other words fleece existing customers while tricking new customers with 2% cash back.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Hi Miley

Great post and hope it motivates others.

You must be glad that you didn't switch to Haven as you discussed in this post.

Apparently they are going to "differentiate" their offering from AIB. In other words fleece existing customers while tricking new customers with 2% cash back.

Brendan
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Absolutely. At the time my broker ensured me that there was no difference between AIB & Haven. Brokers cant deal with AIB so thats really going to hit their business if haven don't respond accordingly
 
Well done Miley.

More and more people are now beginning to switch but as im with Totally Sh#t Bank (TSB) and in Negative Equity i have to wait a coupla years.

However I am in talks with AIB and they havent rejected me yet even though im in negative equity.
 
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Just one question, Are you assessed on your track record of mortgage payments or on the new Central Bank rules in regard to being accepted by another bank for transfer of mortgage?

I would imagine alot of people like myself would not qualify on the basis of the latter if that were the case and therefore locked into my current provider.
 
@Nordkapp: I'm talking with AIB about switching to them. They said the new CB rules are not applied to switchers, and the 3.5 Loan to Income isn't taken into account either.

They said they will need us to have a disposable income of €2,050 after mortgage payment, childcare costs, maintenance etc.
Personally they need us to meet an LTV of 75% or less as the loan is on a 1-bed apartment.
A person switching mortgage on a house/2-bed apartment wouldn't be held to the same LTV as me.
 
Correct - the CB rules do not apply to switchers. You just have to prove you can afford the mortgage. The killer for a lot of people here is childcare costs, if they had kids since the applied for the original one.
 
Miley07 said:
they had my pack for a while before I signed as they need to get the deeds/life assurance and lots of other paperwork in order also
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did you have any issues with re-assigning your existing life assurance. I'm in the process of switching to UB and they're giving me hassle over this, saying I have to do it before drawing the funds (which is obviously impossible as it's assigned to my current mortgage provider).
 
shweeney said:
did you have any issues with re-assigning your existing life assurance. I'm in the process of switching to UB and they're giving me hassle over this, saying I have to do it before drawing the funds (which is obviously impossible as it's assigned to my current mortgage provider).
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I had this issue, however ulster bank backed down after I got a letter from the life company
 
Miley07 said:
Just finished a switch from KBC to UB. Experience was far from smooth but i would do it again tomorrow out of principle alone.
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Just completed a Danske/Pepper to UB switch myself. Took just over six weeks. No problems, I just nursed it along.
 
shweeney said:
did you have any issues with re-assigning your existing life assurance. I'm in the process of switching to UB and they're giving me hassle over this, saying I have to do it before drawing the funds (which is obviously impossible as it's assigned to my current mortgage provider).
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I had this issue last year when I switched. I reduced the term by a number of years and this caused carnage for them all. I ended up having to cancel the original policy and take out a new one instead. It was an annoyance if I am being honest.

This was further complicated in my case that a broker took out the insurance policy so they would not deal with me directly, and the broker had gone out of business and sold their clients to another broker, who did not want to talk to me without making money out of the deal. As the original policy was a few years old they would make nothing out of it, so being honest I think it was the new broker more than anything else that caused the issues.
 
gnf_ireland said:
I ended up having to cancel the original policy and take out a new one instead. It was an annoyance if I am being honest.
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It could have been a lot more than an annoyance if you had a medical issue.

The whole process around re-assigning mortgage protection policies seems to be a recurring practical issue with switching. A lender should be happy to accept an assigned policy and an insurer should be neutral on the issue. This is simply a case of agreeing a protocol - a prime case for a a switching code.

If we are serious about facilitating competition in our mortgage market we really have to do everything possible to simplify the switching process.

Italians can switch mortgage provider in 30 days - we have ample room for improvement.
 
I am in the process of switching from my KBC SVR of 4.05% to a Ulster Bank High Value Loyalty Discounted Variable rate of 3.2%. I receive €1,500 towards legal fees for my trouble. However I was advised that I needed to open an Ulster Bank current a/c also. Did anyone else need to do this?

Also as there is a €4 monthly maintenance fee for having a current a/c, I am hoping to close this a/c once the mortgage switch has been completed. Has anyone else gone through this process and is this possible?

Finally even though I requested not to receive any debit cards and cheque book as part of he current a/c opening process, Ulster Bank still sent these docs to me. I called Ulster Bank and they advised to simply discard them if I do not wish to use them. Does anyone know that if I do this and don't use them, will I still be eligible for government stamp duty next year for having a Ulster Bank debit card and cheque book even though I will never use either?

Thanks
 
Donnie said:
I am in the process of switching from my KBC SVR of 4.05% to a Ulster Bank High Value Loyalty Discounted Variable rate of 3.2%. I receive €1,500 towards legal fees for my trouble. However I was advised that I needed to open an Ulster Bank current a/c also. Did anyone else need to do this?
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I already had an account with UB when I was switching so this condition didn't bother me.

The wording in the offer letter was

"Drawdown of this loan is subject to you having and maintaining an Ulster Bank Current Account and having your monthly salary or main source of income mandated into this new account. If at anytime during the term of this agreement the current account is closed or the salary or other main source of income is not mandated into it, Ulster Bank, may at their sole discretion, choose to remove this product from you"

I've no idea how strict they are or if they enforce this at all. It is called a "High Value Loyalty Discounted Variable". I presume the Loyalty bit means you're a banking customer.

The silver lining is that by switching from KBC to UB I saved €112 a month so I don't mind the €4 fee.
 
Having the current account with Ulsterbank is part of the deal. As mickoneill30 above, I already did my current account business with them so no change for me.
i don't think that 4 euro a month is an outrageous fee (less than a pint of beer), and the current account services are as good or as bad as any other Irish bank IMO.
 
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