Hurling Fan
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We have 3 Ulster Bank accounts and an UB credit card so am afraid our fees are going to be high! Do you think there will be a charge for transferring between UB accounts online?
Ulster Bank Introducing Transactions Fees
- Thread starter PolkaDot
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Rym Shanley
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The outrage is misguided. It's driven by the fact that people dislike banks.
But banks are entitled to charge for their services - do you expect other businesses to operate on zero profit margin or for free?
Changing banks and all the hassle that goes with it - moving salaries, direct debits, standing orders - all for the sake of saving a pretty small amount of money each month. Seems like a waste of time and energy - reminds me of people who drive miles out of their way to avoid paying a toll on the M50.
EDIT: Brendan - agree with your point re mortgage rates. Much more important.
But banks are entitled to charge for their services - do you expect other businesses to operate on zero profit margin or for free?
Changing banks and all the hassle that goes with it - moving salaries, direct debits, standing orders - all for the sake of saving a pretty small amount of money each month. Seems like a waste of time and energy - reminds me of people who drive miles out of their way to avoid paying a toll on the M50.
EDIT: Brendan - agree with your point re mortgage rates. Much more important.
Banks that don't charge current account fees (e.g. almost all banks in the UK) don't operate on zero profit margins. They take their clients' money in exchange for little or no interest and lend it for much higher rates of interest. This spread is the core profit generator in retail banking. Account maintenance fees, transaction charges and so on are just add-ons that banks get away with in quasi-cartel-like settings such as Ireland. They tend to disappear once genuine competition sets in.
SlurrySlump
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Does anyone know the department in Ulster Bank where I can send an email about my uFirst Gold Account. The uFirst Gold accounts/rewards are handled by Affinion. I want to bypass Affinion and go directly to Ulster Bank. Thanks
They have 24 hour chat on Anytime Banking, outsourced of course.
I just setup an N26 in response to this issue.
I can send money from UB without any fee to the German IBAN of the N26 account.
You can also send money back from N26 - BUT... it seems UB charge €2 to receive any payment in euro from a SEPA European account? Surely I'm misunderstanding this?
Has anyone used N26 to send money back to UB current?
I can send money from UB without any fee to the German IBAN of the N26 account.
You can also send money back from N26 - BUT... it seems UB charge €2 to receive any payment in euro from a SEPA European account? Surely I'm misunderstanding this?
Has anyone used N26 to send money back to UB current?
No, it's €0.20
I could live with that. Thanks. Their website says €2 per incoming payment received. I can't include link here as I'm new. Will validate soon enough. I've sent 2 euro to n26 and will send it back when it arrives.
Very good point Mr. Burgess.
Getting back to the matter of UB's current account charges ....
I think the Banks tend to work like cartels to a greater or lesser extent, it's no coincidence in my opinion that the Banks generally all tend to announce changes to their Homeloan rates, or Deposit rates, in relatively quick succession. In this instance, we've had PTSB and now UB amend their current account charges - both taking their charges somewhat closer into line with the charges from BoI and AIB. It will be interesting to see if KBC or others, don't also make amendments to their current account pricing, over the next couple of months. Is there a big difference between them, no .. but is it worth shopping around, yes.
When Banks don't benefit from the surplus funds in current accounts, then it's natural for them to look elsewhere to generate additional revenue, or the revenue they historically earned from using those surplus fund in peoples current accounts. Add to that, the additional costs Banks now have to incur to comply with additional reporting and regulation etc. but lets not forget, that Banks are generally capitalist in nature and want to make profits.
When we talk about current accounts, we need to consider not just the proposed charges, but also what services are provided. PTSB for example, are a limited bank (in terms of their abilities, and range of services), and don't offer me GooglePay, whereas Ulster Bank does. Add to that the fact that I reckon UB will work out slightly cheaper for me, than PTSB would, if I stayed with them. So in this instance, I reckon I've benefited in terms of service, and possibly a little in terms of cost saving, by moving from PTSB to UB. Could I have saved more by going to KBC, or N26 etc. most likely, but I didn't see them offering everything that I might want, so they just were not right for me at this time. Other people, will come to different conclusions, depending on their needs and wants
I think the Banks tend to work like cartels to a greater or lesser extent, it's no coincidence in my opinion that the Banks generally all tend to announce changes to their Homeloan rates, or Deposit rates, in relatively quick succession. In this instance, we've had PTSB and now UB amend their current account charges - both taking their charges somewhat closer into line with the charges from BoI and AIB. It will be interesting to see if KBC or others, don't also make amendments to their current account pricing, over the next couple of months. Is there a big difference between them, no .. but is it worth shopping around, yes.
When Banks don't benefit from the surplus funds in current accounts, then it's natural for them to look elsewhere to generate additional revenue, or the revenue they historically earned from using those surplus fund in peoples current accounts. Add to that, the additional costs Banks now have to incur to comply with additional reporting and regulation etc. but lets not forget, that Banks are generally capitalist in nature and want to make profits.
When we talk about current accounts, we need to consider not just the proposed charges, but also what services are provided. PTSB for example, are a limited bank (in terms of their abilities, and range of services), and don't offer me GooglePay, whereas Ulster Bank does. Add to that the fact that I reckon UB will work out slightly cheaper for me, than PTSB would, if I stayed with them. So in this instance, I reckon I've benefited in terms of service, and possibly a little in terms of cost saving, by moving from PTSB to UB. Could I have saved more by going to KBC, or N26 etc. most likely, but I didn't see them offering everything that I might want, so they just were not right for me at this time. Other people, will come to different conclusions, depending on their needs and wants
Brendan Burgess
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That is the key point. The charges are so low, that it's the quality of the service which should matter.
If Ulster Bank were free, I don't think it would be worth it. Their service outages seem to have been the most severe.
Brendan
Apart from the obvious answer reminiscent of the joke that starts "Why does a dog ...", Irish banks carry far more risky assets (a.k.a. mortgages) and as a result need to keep reserves, money which would otherwise be lent out and earning them interest.
In other words, in Ireland we're still paying for the financial crash, and will be for a very long time.
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Quality of service should definitely be considered. For example EBS offer free banking but no app, no contactless, no Google Pay, no Apple Pay and feature-less online banking. One has to balance service offering with price.
Great customer service, good app, Google Pay and Apple Pay support, decent paying regular saver linked to the Extra Current Account product. No cash lodgements.
In addition to what @PinkLloyd said above, these bank funds are placed in the market at negative 0.4%. The GBP 1 month rate is positive 0.75%.
So the UK banks are earning money on the balance in your current account.
Interestingly, if you are referring to a debit /ATM card, if you have an Irish address your UK bank should be charging you this.
-0.40% only applies to small portions of deposits (as most is lent out via mortgages etc) and only applies to certain banks as not all have surplus deposits. PTSB for example do not have any surplus deposits at -0.40%. The vast majority of the deposits at banks are re-lent out by the banks and not parked at the ECB.