Ulster Bank Reviews 

About a day all told in my life I won’t get back. On the 1st of January I started the process of applying for an Ulster Bank account to get just over 1% extra on my savings.
The day is made up of the following;
• A few hours hitting all the brick walls placed, seemingly in the way to stop one from investing
• Not so long with the virtual assistant, they are so proud of it, they named it “Cora”.
• Less than an hour actually talking to a real person, the very nice Joy.
• Hours of starting from scratch, thinking ‘I must be doing something wrong’
• Giving up, longer than it should have been, in fact had I visited Trustpilot first, I would have saved myself a lot of bother and time. I consider myself to be reasonable tech savvy, this process gets you doubting your own name.
• Here’s the kicker, after forgetting about opening an account, I get an email from hooyu.ulsterbank. ‘Let’s get you an account, its quick, easy and safe¬ - Really? I think you would be hard pushed the developed a name to raise red flags than ‘hooyu’. Yes, I get the attempt at humour in it but my wife was against me doing anything with it.
• The final hour or so. I did open and follow the instructions taking a photo of my driver’s license then tried the ‘Liveness’ part (a little video clip to make sure you have a pulse), failed, I do have a pulse, I can feel my BPM getting faster with frustration.
• The error message read that it was unable to open the browsers camera with a list of instruction to rectify this. These I tried without success and as the was a button the dismiss the whole process, I tapped it. Instantly I received an email stating ‘You’ve completed the I'd process’ and goes on to state they will be in contact with an update about my account.
Before internet I used telephone banking, even on ‘dial-up’ I used online banking when it started. Never have I encountered any company like this. PayPal, Google Wallet and my other online accounts work seamlessly. I feel for the other reviewers who have lost financially…STEER CLEAR.

Opened a savings account on-line for a good interest rate without any problem. It takes a little longer than some banks but the added security is welcome. Once open I transferred money into the account without any issue.

Should be zero stars.
Recently I went to the Ulster Bank to lodge 1500GBP. The staff member at the counter asked for my bank card and I inadvertently gave him my credit card. He quickly swiped my card and the money was deposited. Shortly after when I checked my account I could not see the deposit, then I noticed it had been deposited into my credit card account. I returned to the bank where I was told nothing could be done but, the bank had a similar issue the previous week and all I needed to do was call the credit card department and they would transfer the money into my current account. I returned home and duly called the credit card department only to be told they could do nothing, and it was the branch where I had made the deposit who should sort the matter out and transfer the funds to my current account. That individual then put me through to the banking customer service who on hearing the story also referred me back to the branch who said it was they who should and could sort the matter out. I returned to the branch to be told both the credit card department and the customer service were not correct, and nothing could be done at the branch. I was then told it was my fault for handing over my credit card when asked for a bank card. I was told to call the credit card department and ask them to sort the matter out. This all took in excess of three hours to get absolutely nowhere.

On the morning of the 29th I contacted the credit card centre and I spoke with a very helpful Rebecca who after looking at the case assured me she had dealt with the matter and the funds would be in my current account by 7pm that day. 7pm came and went and no funds. On the morning of the 30th I called the credit card centre again and I spoke with a very helpful Aaron who told me that there was indeed a note on my account to say the funds were to be transferred after 7pm on the 29th but that had not happened and he had no idea why not. He then assured me the funds would be transferred on Tuesday the 2nd January 2024 as the 1st was a holiday. Ten minutes later, helpful Aaron called me again to inform me it would take seven working days before the funds could be transferred to my current account, the details of which he had. Hoping to get somewhere I canned the credit card centre on the 2nd of January where helpful Simon implied that I was money laundering, and the funds would not returned to my account until the bank had finished their investigation. Unbelievable, but all conversations are recorded and its there for the bank to listen too.
It would appear to me that no one at Ulster Bank had the slightest clue nor did they care as to how to sort this matter out. Staff simply 'pass the buck' rather than try and do something to help the customer. While I am part to blame for what happened, the way the matter was dealt with has been extremely unprofessional. What I also learned today was that being a premier customer makes absolutely zero difference on how you are treated by Ulster Bank staff. As a premier customer with HSBC the level of customer service is on a different level and on the rare occasion when I have needed assistance by their customer services the matter has always been resolved by their very professional staff. I know where I will be banking in future and its good bye Ulster Bank.

Applied for a credit card with Ulster Bank and was accepted. Received confimation by email with contract etc only to then be told repeatedly that I had to reload the image of my drivers licence because my ID verification had failed. I phone them up only to be told that it was because my driving licence has my middle name on and I applied using only my 1st and last name. No problem I thought; it's the same 1st and last names, same address, same DoB, this kind lady that I'm speaking to will obviously be able to manually overide this online bot glitch and my credit card will be on its way. Turns out that obviously she couldn't. Online bot it seems is the only method of ID verification that they have and if it says no then the answer is no, end of story. What a way to run a business!

Persuaded my wife to transfer a lump sum to Ulster Bank for a higher interest rate, following a comparison on moneysavingexpert in November 2023. Big mistake! Transferred the lump sum 4 weeks ago using the credentials sent by post by UB but since then have tried numerous times by different methods to get an activation code - all to no avail. Have they got our money? Who knows.

Money saving expert is going down the pan. Yet again, I trust them to open another account with a new bank and yet again the experience if horrendous. You cant open an online ISA without specifying a branch, but when you try and find a branch, you get an endless '0 branches' error. So after wasting 30 minutes of my life, it turns out I cant actually open an account after all. AVOID

Went to this bank because of the competitive interest rates. Mistake. Red flag after RED FLAG. Having avoided the security system (as advised by this site) I sent off a PAPER application to open the account. Fatal mistake here by them, because in the wait time to then have my account opened, I thought long and hard about whether I even wanted to bank with Ulster, and the answer was, no. Having followed the advice on the website on how to close my newly opened account, I rang the phone number. "You can't close your account over the phone". Fine, I'll do it on Anytime Banking. Didn't work either. I was told I didn't need to provide account details if I didn't have another Ulster account, but of course, I couldn't close the account without this information. My last option is to write a letter to the bank, which is just ridiculous. Really poorly put together and just not worth the endless pain to sign up with them.

Well, like some other reviewers have mentioned I was briefly lulled into a false sense of security seeing this bank advertised by ML and connected to a more well known bank (Natwest) but upon registering I found it odd no verification text or email came through as advised, usually banks are very fast on this.

I double checked initial confirmation email and details were correct. Nothing for over a week but I put this down to Christmas, had a letter today advising I should have had a text/email to verify myself and if not sign and return paper form. Alarm bells rang and made me think perhaps this will be an issue in future, each time it comes to being verified. Called the bank, annoying AI trying to push me online, then spoke to advisor who advised they cannot speak to new customers until fully registered? seemed odd and told I could only use Cora on website as new customer, I advised I was on the website and the Cora chat had an error message saying they are aware of errors and chat feature not working properly and silence was the response, he said the Cora team could set up my verification online.

So after being told about using app/online banking by Cora (useless as I am not fully registered / activated.) Eventually, I connected to someone who quickly passed me on and the second colleague asked me if I wanted to change my email address, which was odd as I had explained the above that the details were right but why had the verification process not taken place, the answer: None really. Just that it was sent paper and I just needed to send it back but again this was not what the letter stated and was put across rudely.

There was also no offer of setting up verification like I was advised and I did notice none of the staff on Cora gave their name or seemed to be competent: An example, I was told they would read my previous message, then was asked for my ref no, which was already listed in the above message? does not fill you with confidence. I should add the person confirmed my details were all correct, so why nothing was ever sent who knows, the person at the bank certainly didn't know.

I no longer feel comfortable using this bank and would urge others to think carefully, these companies will not change or re-think customer service unless we vote with our feet and take business elsewhere, which is what I will now be doing, thank goodness I had not sent the paper completion form. No savings account is worth the drama.

If you have time to waste and enjoy merry-go-rounds, this is the bank for you. After completing the application form, the 'liveness check' was problematic and took several attempts to get accepted. Then I waited and waited for the Welcome Pack, Customer Number and Activation code which never arrived. I had written confirmation (and Ref Number) for my application but no contact phone number. For online CORA to help me I needed the Customer Number which I had not received. I then found a contact phone number but they said that only CORA could help me. I eventually got in contact with an agent who said that my webcam photo was not clear enough (although HooYu had indicated that my second attempt was good) and that I would have to reapply. Presumably my failed first attempt at getting an acceptable photo caused my application to be cancelled even though the second attempt was good. No one advised me of this so I wasted two weeks waiting for my account information.

why do I alwasy go on Trustpilot AFTER I'vr had a bad experience?! excately what everybody has said. what an utter waste of my time. tried to apply twice (half-day off work to go to brach etc) but processing and commuication so poor that each time the application expired and i was invited to apply again. Not a third time, i'll give my money to someone else!

Paperwork to open account was sent ten days late.
Customer support is through AI in their app
- close chats in the middle of a conversation so you have to restart
- send text messages to say you have received a new message but there’s no message there.

When I called support after being locked out of internet banking no one was able to help.
- First person said I would get an activation code to my phone.
- When I didnt get the code, I called back and was told they can’t send codes to a phone, only by post. she then said she can send it to my phone after all but didn't.
- on the third call I was told they could send the activation code to my phone and then cut me off.
I still don't have an activation code and it's 3 weeks later.

worse than useless. How I agree with all the other reviews about their antiquated systems but also their inefficient and incredibly unhelpful staff. Its not worth the effort. And yes I then went to Tesco Bank and opened an account within 15 minutes. Ulster Bank needs to wake up to the real world

Never in my life have I ever experienced such a disgrace of a bank. I had to query a payment taken from my card using the app and the customer service member was incredibly rude, very impolite and made me out to be an idiot. "The interest is taken if your card is not fully paid off" I had a bank statement, letter and email all saying there was nothing further to do as the card was 100% cleared and no interest would be taken, despite this they still took it! I requested to close the account and was not allowed till I paid the money, I did so and they ended up taking 2 payments which really irritated me, I have never known such bad service before, I queried this and again the representative was extremely unhelpful, I advise everyone to be watchful of their accounts if you're still a customer with these people, you never know how much is being snuck our of your account on the sly. Absolutely Disgusting!

Dear, dear, dear - do not try to open a savings account with this incompetent company if you want to retain your sanity and hair. I've had to give up after six days and lost interest on the money I'd hoped to invest in the process. Their processing system is literally antiquated, ridiculously complicated, long-winded and not at all joined up - they instruct you to enter information and then there's nowhere to enter it etc etc. Their directors should be appalled and embarrassed but, then again, I bet not one of them has ever tested the system and tried to open an account themselves. Oh, and don't think you can call anyone to get any help - what a waste of my valuable time. PS - I set up another account with Zopa and it was all done and dusted within 15 minutes!

I tried 3 times to lodge a cheque the male member of staff told me I needed a reference number and account number and 8 digit sort code from barclays the cheque was made out to barclays .I went home rang barclays who told me you have been paying your morgage for 20 years you only need your account number and sort code ,I went down again no ulster bank said I need a 8 digit number I explained barclays said I don't NO we cannot take that cheque. So I went home rang barclays they said no you have all you need 3rd day I went down the male bank official started to tell me no I need this number I told no you don't he told me I did I went out to the car park rang barclays who ask me to take my phone in to they speak to him .I went in stood in waited ask the male his name at first he wasnt going to give me it I told him there's someone from barclays here wants to speak to you I listened as the gentlemen from barclays he told Mr luney has the right information at this point the male ulster bank official said OK. I went to sit down to be told by him I was being rude and he was not going to serve me iam disabled went out got my wife I went back in where he say pointing a pen in my face telling he could stop this payment finally my wife ask him to put it through which he did asking me for my identity which he had already checked .If you work in a position like this pointing a pen saying I can stop this payment going through is not helping or very professional ,I think this gentleman should think before he starts pointing a pen at any customers .30 odd years with this bank to be treated like this when I was right I had the correct information but he didn't want to except he might just have got it wrong not a merry Christmas in my books for this incident

I have just tried opening a savings account with them. Seems a bit amateurish:
- During the application you are told to enter some random code and then choose Belfast as your nearest branch (if you live in England!).
- Account does not open instantly, which is the norm these days.
- No confirmation emails arrive, so it seems like something might have gone wrong.
- Several days later a letter arrives, which says "ignore this letter and use the dodgy text message we sent you to verify your identity".
All in all: a bit of a clown show.

Tried to open a saver account, form filling is easy enough but then nothing! Any query and you are directed to a bot which is as useless as they all are. Found a phone number eventually and having negotiated with an automated voice that didn't understand much I spoke to a person who didn't have access to any info on the account opening process but gave me the exact words to use for the chat bot! I then found out from the bot that the confirmation email takes 5 days! Since found out about the "last century" card reader required and something called Anytime Internet Banking which I still cant find a description for how it works or what it is - telephone banking? Not sure I will go through with this, prefer a modern company.
UPDATE!
I did sign and return the form they send you after the online process, took a while then eventually a text to say I'd be getting an email; then the email the next day saying to wait for an activation code by text; that came 4 days later. Opened the a/c downloaded the APP (good by the way) now a week on and card and card reader arrived - why? Website says its for use with Anytime Banking, whatever that is, not clearly explained. I can use the App anytime so is that it? Haven't been asked by the App to use the reader? Have been used to an app only savings a/c which is much much better than this faffing around.

Only giving a 1 star as no lower option ! Thanks Martin Lewis for recommending.... NOT ! A bigger bunch of amateurs I've never had the misfortune to deal with. OK, so an attractive rate for an instant access savings account, but there's nothing instant about it ! It took days to get the account open due to the antiquated processes this company still employ. But that's nothing compared to trying to get your money out !! I have the app ( on 2 devices ) I have the web version.. I managed to withdraw £1000 over the weekend and none so-far today ! I've spent a day on web-chats with a BOT that you can't get past and then several phone calls that kept dropping out.. Currently awaiting yet another call back & not feeling very festive !!!

I opened an account on line and have been sent my account details. I've cleared the id issue too. However, I have tried several times to register for online banking and the mobile app but keep running into problems. Today I found a number to call for savings enquiries but after 20mins I was cut off. I have already spent too much time on this so am now backing out. I'll invest my money elsewhere. Horrendously poor service and that's before they have got my money. God forbid what they would be like once they have my hard earned.

Terrable!. I tried to open a savings account because the rate was ok 5.2%. They ask you to prove identity via 'HooYoo" ?. The stupid identity software would not accept 14 Photo's of my driving licence. Nor 7 photos of my passport. So I scanned them and emailed them over. The next day they replied it was accepted. HooRay!!!. However it wasn't and still no open bank account 9 days later. I used their 'Cora' to speak to 'someone' who told me I'd need to re-apply!!!. "How can I ??? their HooYoo thing 'DOSENT WORK' . Then I was 'cut off'!!!...So back onto Ulster Bank via their 'Cora' computer chat. Eventually another real person who tells me to 'Re-Apply' ! I told them they have about 23 photos of my I'D. This operative then cut me off. (Rude Eh?) So...undaunted....I went back onto 'Cora' . Another operative asked the same 'ID' questions. Then they cut off. !!! .....GOOD JOB I REALLY COULDN'T TRANSFER ANY MONEY TOO THEM..... I expect they would have been even more unhelpful then, once they had my cash that is.. ..So...Ulster Banks Loss.....Metro Bank are offering higher interest anyway. Don't wast your time with Ulsterbank