Ulster current accounts not moving to permanent tsb

My account is with the Ulster Bank Blackrock. This is one of the branches that the Permanent TSB will be taking over. I assume that I would not have to close my Ulster Bank account? Would it just move to being a Permanent TSB account?
 
Both my wife and myself are both aged over 66. We bank with the Ulster Bank. We want to start planning our new account in either the AIB (Advantage account) or Bank of Ireland (Golden Years account). Is one better than the other?

I can't see any differences between the two. When we start travelling abroad again we would like to use an account where ATM fees are the lowest.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
It just seems easiest to do it before the rush.

Brendan
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Can't deny there's some truth in that, but I think a lot of customers have a 2nd a/c just sitting in another bank. A week or two will sort a lot though. I would agree about direct debits, this could be the biggest issue especially for the older generation.
 
Is there some huge advantage in keeping a current account with Ulster Bank until the bitter end?

It's not like moving a mortgage where you have to pay a much higher rate with the new lender.

Most current accounts are roughly speaking the same.

I wouldn't worry about fees because they are not that significant and not that different from each other. I would pick one for functionality and service.

It would be a good time for someone to do a survey of users of AIB, BoI and permanent tsb to see which has the greatest customer satisfaction.

In the UK, Which? would have done this a long time ago.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Is there some huge advantage in keeping a current account with Ulster Bank until the bitter end?

It's not like moving a mortgage where you have to pay a much higher rate with the new lender.

Most current accounts are roughly speaking the same.

I wouldn't worry about fees because they are not that significant and not that different from each other. I would pick one for functionality and service.

It would be a good time for someone to do a survey of users of AIB, BoI and permanent tsb to see which has the greatest customer satisfaction.

In the UK, Which? would have done this a long time ago.

Brendan
Click to expand...

Brendan I'd have too disagree with the part you mention "I wouldn't worry about fees because there not that significant "

My current account with UB has no fees and fees are the most important thing I would consider befour opening an account,no matter how small they are.
 
I'm one of a small number of "ufirst" account holders, which gives me a 25% ticketmaster discount amongst a few other not so useful perks for the cost of €10/month - so I will hold out until the end.
I actually attempted to use the current account "switcher" process about 4/5 years ago (Ulster to KBC :) ) to move the direct debits, eventually about 2 months later I got a letter from KBC with a copy of a letter received from UB stating they couldn't activate the DD switching process as the signatures (about 15 years between them!) did not match. Beyond this, I had zero contact from either bank, and ended up keeping both accounts, and moving the DD's myself some time later to a joint EBS account for household stuff.
 
I have a current account with N26, the online bank based in Germany. As I understand it, it benefits from the German deposit guarantee scheme.

I have had a very positive experience of the bank and the app.

Pros
  • You can set up the account in under 10 minutes by means of a video call through their app
  • You get a German IBAN, and so you are fully entitled to set up Irish direct debits on the account
  • You get a contactless+chip-and-PIN debit card
  • There are no fees for day-to-day transactions
  • The "spread" (basically, commission) when buying items online or in a shop in Sterling or dollars, etc., is really small – around 0.25% (I think UB charges 1.5%)
  • You can do everything on the smartphone app, including instantly disabling the debit card for different types of transactions (online, in a shop, ATM)
  • You get notified of every transaction on your smartphone just a few seconds or minutes after it hits your account
Cons:
  • No branch network
  • You must have a smartphone (iPhone or Android) to open and use the account. It can't be an ancient smartphone
  • The first 5 (or perhaps 3?) ATM withdrawals per month are free but after that there is a €2 charge
  • Transfers to/from Irish bank accounts take one or two days
  • N26 takes a 1.7% commission if withdrawing foreign currency from an ATM (but other banks charge even more)
  • They don't offer credit cards
I have slowly moved most of my direct debits from UB to N26 without any problems. Some services make it easy to update your direct debit details on their website. Others make you print out a form and post it back to them.

N.B. Certain Ulster Bank mortgage rates require your salary to be paid into your UB current account, so if you have a UB mortgage don't change the account that receives your salary (yet).
 
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Paul F said:
  • Transfers to/from Irish bank accounts take one or two days
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I've found N26 no worse than UB for this - I get paid into AIB and transfer money to N26 and UB at the same time in the morning, both transfers arrive at the same time later that afternoon.

We use UB as a joint account for household stuff - there doesn't seem to be an equivalent account from any of the online banks (N26, Revolut etc) - you can use shared spaces/vaults but it's not the same thing and you need a premium subscription to use them. And whilst you can have more than one card on a single account you can't have the app on more than one phone.

PTSB looks like the best option for a replacement account with their cashback offers making it more or less free.
 
Having had a current account with PTSB in times past, it's one place that I definitely won't be going back to.

Anything, other than the most basic of things, quickly became problematic (including trying to close the account).
 
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