Ulster Bank wants a fee for closing my current account?

Can ulster bank charge a service fee to close your account, they want to charge me a service charge?
When I queried it they said even if I waited until the account was closed by the bank themselves they would be levying a service charge. Surely this can't be right as it is the bank's decision to close the accounts not the customer's

You could transfer the balance to another bank, and leave them with an empty account

That's what I have done - they can come looking for a service charge if they like, but I am not paying one

joe sod said:

Can ulster bank charge a service fee to close your account, they want to charge me a service charge?
When I queried it they said even if I waited until the account was closed by the bank themselves they would be levying a service charge. Surely this can't be right as it is the bank's decision to close the accounts not the customer's

Click to expand...

I'm curious, who said this to you. Was it someone in the branch

Bizarely one of my kids got the letter to close her savings account before any of the rest of us got them to close our current accounts, no mention of fees in the booklet with it

Having said that, I have seen comments on another website with someone saying they were charged €4.60 for the privalege

As another poster said, I'm simply going to move my business elsewhere, reduce the balance to zero and they can sing for their charge

Hi jpd

when the account is empty, just close it. Assuming that there is no hassle in doing so.

You dont' want the hassle of letters looking for repayment of charges.

Brendan

Having read through the Ulster Bank Fee & Charges booklet, there is absolutely no mention of any fee for closing an account.

There are the usual transaction fees for using debit cards, etc along with the monthly charges (for some customers and accounts)

I suspect that the poster has misunderstood the explanation that was given to him by the bank

How ironic it would be of them too charge you a fee too close your account.
Would the fee be for issuing you a cheque for the full balance ?

Are you sure it's not outstanding account fees not yet posted? These would be added on if ac closed at some stage between the dates they are usually charged to account.

There are various fees for an Ulsterbank current account that used to be capped at €4 a month. Recently they removed the cap.

When I closed my current account in January the cashier asked me to insert my card in the pin machine. I told her that I didn't want to be charged Government Stamp duty and she told me that I wouldnt be (I hadn't used the card at all in January 2022). She told me that it would cost aprox €4 to close the account so I gave her the €4. Account was closed and I left the bank. When I checked the Ulsterbank app it showed that about €2 was account fees and another €2 stamp duty (approx). The only time I used the card was in the bank to close the account.

I closed my account with Ulster leaving 10EUR for the last month's fee in it. I had also gotten a 6ct interest credit, so the balance when requesting closing was 10.06EUR. I used the link in the app to the closing form and completed it over the long May bank holiday weekend.

On Tuesday I logged in and saw 10EUR account maintenance fee deducted AND 5EUR closing fee!!, account showed at 4.94EUR overdrawn. During the day I got a correcting entry of 4.94 credit with the account balance now 0 and by end of the day the account had disappeared from App altogether.

I forgot to take screenshots of these last day movements ...didn't expect it all to happen so quickly. I have so far not received any documentation that I closed my account and both web and app tell me my accounts can't be displayed. I had a spend a bit of time downloading 2yrs worth of statements as usually I never bothered (sure its all online )So I am glad i have that now.

I do wonder if I would have left more money in it would I have had to pay the 5EUR. So my recommendation is to leave as little money if any in the Ulster main current account when requesting closing.

EDIT - got final bank statements with note "ACCOUNT CLOSED May 3rd" in the post today (May 10th)

Peanuts20 said:

Bizarely one of my kids got the letter to close her savings account before any of the rest of us got them to close our current accounts,

Click to expand...

Just on this, the notifications are being phased over months, so this is to be expected.

Leo said:

Just on this, the notifications are being phased over months, so this is to be expected.

Click to expand...

yes, but UB stated they would be targetting the "heavy" users of their accounts first. A kids savings account with one DD going into it a month is not a heavy user

Peanuts20 said:

yes, but UB stated they would be targetting the "heavy" users of their accounts first. A kids savings account with one DD going into it a month is not a heavy user

Click to expand...

I thought it was other way around and they were writing out to those that don't use accounts much first?

No, heavy users first, I think. We moved to AIB last year and stopped all inwards and outgoing transactions with UB. Haven’t heard anything from them, don’t expect to and don’t need to.