Halifax & Ulster Bank

Sizzler

Has anybody tried switching their credit card to Ulster Bank or Halifax lately?? Their adverts are great arent they but try sampling their customer service and you might come back with a different opinion !

Heres my experience :

Halifax: I was taken in by their great offer of 0% on balance transfers and purchases for 9 months. I apply online.....wait 7 days...get a repeat of the form I just filled in online and have to fill that out again and send off originals of bank statements and utility bills as well as a nice fresh copy of my passport. That gets sent off to a PO Box in Louth which then goes straight to Leeds ! Another 2 weeks pass and hey presto I get my card ! Great you may think...then I open it up and see my credit limit is practically the same as my balance Im transferring over, sort of defeats the purpose of a credit card eh? I ring their helpline and Im told if I want a "revised" credit limit I have to write in with a copy of my credit statement and they will review it. But Im like, I already gave you all this stuff why cant you just go and check it? Oh sorry, we need a written request as you are only a new customer !! RIDICULOUS! Not the call centre girls fault but I tell her that I will go to my local Halifax branch to sort it. Guess what ....they dont deal with any queries its all handled in the UK and I will have to write in!! I give up and tell them I wont be bothering as Ive already waited a month for the whole experience.

Ulster Bank:
Same sort of offer with 0% etc etc. I decide to speed up the process and go to a branch where I get to speak to a really helpful lady who takes a copy of all the paperwork, bills, passport etc etc and means I can leave the branch with all my personal details and also Ive avoided the wait be dealing with them direct. Result ...or so I would have thought! Two weeks pass and I ring to see how the application is getting along , guess what? They have no record of it !!! Heres the fun part...I was given business cards by the people I dealt with in the branch, they dont bother responding to a polite email asking if they can help, and to top that you cant ring an Ulster Bank branch (same as Halifax) you go through to a call centre and they ring someone at the branch to call you back. I've waited 2 days and heard nothing back, despite a call yesterday and today to the call centre. I'm close to giving up now to be honest.

Apart from being hugely frustrated by both banks I am amazed that they think that the fact that they think that not being able to ring a branch is their idea of customer service ! The fact that Halifax think they have an online application for their product when all it is doing is sending out an application form is a joke !

Ulster Bank may be around a long time as a brand in Ireland but their new owners have a lot to learn . Halifax, well all I can say is their customer experience is dreadful, I can only imagine how bad I would feel if I gave them a mortgage !!!!

Be warned !

Colonel Sanders

I recently tried to switch from MBNA to PTSB Ice. Got all the ID check documentation they wanted (eventho I am already a current account customer) and signed the declaration they posted to me. They never asked me for credit card statements.

Got a call from a guy a few days later asking did I want to transfer a balance from the MBNA card I would be closing. I said no as I owed flip all on it and was gonna just pay it off. Great I thought, I'll have it in a few days. After about 2 weeks I rang them. Someone looked into my case and rang me back that evening. Was told that I am now compliant with the anti money laundering bills but i needed to sign a declaration. i had signed a declaration and put it in with the stuff I sent off for the ID check. they got the ID check docs but not the declaration (they were in the same envelope!) Also despite not asking at when they asked for the ID check documents they also want 3 months MBNA statements, which means I will have to wait 3 months to re apply as I shred all but my last credit card statement. I also have to sign ANOTHER declaration which I was old would be in the post that evening but has not arrived (3 weeks later!)

Sizzler

Its amazing how they can make such stoopid mistakes :eek: Apart from the rant factor I hope someone else will avoid the shoite I had to go through with both banks by staying clear ! If you are actually interested in transfering a balance then all I can say is I hope you arent in a hurry and dont ever need to speak to someone in a branch!

cashback

It's also the case with BOI and AIB now that you cannot call the branches directly. They are now serviced by call centres.
Can be fairly annoying.

Sizzler

cashback wrote: »

It's also the case with BOI and AIB now that you cannot call the branches directly. They are now serviced by call centres.
Can be fairly annoying.

Really Im with AIB and have their number and only spoke to them last week...

Ulster Bank have lost all my documents and dont know where they are gone. Am I wasting my time going to the financial regulator

Colonel Sanders

Sizzler wrote: »

Am I wasting my time going to the financial regulator

Have to be honest anyone I know or have heard of who complained the the financial regulator have either got a bullsh!t response or no response.

dahamsta

I'm with BOI and have no problem getting through to my branch.

dublinli

i tried to switch to Halifax and I already have a current account with them, the guy in the branch gives me a sheet of paper with all the documents that are needed. I said I was alreday a customer and had supplied all those 2 months ago, he said I had to do it again. I said good luck and left.

What an efficient way of doing things and it has nothing to do with money laundering rules. Simply they can't be bothered keeping ur details and they would like you to send all documents again.

Or else the guy in the branch did not wnat to do any work?

Ms Inquisitive

I only rang my branch directly this week! Don't know about this call centre business!!

However, I was considering opening a Halifax savings account! Downside is taking forever to get it open but on the upside, reading all these posts I might never be able to withdraw funds!!! ;)

cashback

Well I called my BOI branch last week. They answer as though it were the branch but it is a call centre.
And I work for AIB and know that a call centre in Swords handles most of the branch calls.
But maybe it is possible to get through directly.

byte

I got a Halifax Visa some months ago, and after sending loads of documetation (which I never got back) I got the card, but with a very small limit on it. I then had to send a request for a limit rise (even though I was under the illusion that it would match the limit on my existing card). They rose the limit to the amount owing on my existing card (AIB MC) which was half its credit limit.

Anyway, I transferred it all to Halifax now, so I suppose I'm happy enough now, even though I've half the spending power

dahamsta

cashback wrote: »

Well I called my BOI branch last week. They answer as though it were the branch but it is a call centre.

The call center is just a frontend, like reception, in case you have general banking enquiries. If you need to talk to someone in the branch, say "put me through to the branch please"; they'll do it without question. Also, everyone in the branch has a DDI which they can give you.

adam

eth0_

A friend of mine is closing his Halifax account because it's so rubbish. He said he can't pay his Halifax credit card online, nor can he see transactions on the card online - just the balance!

parsi

cashback wrote: »

And I work for AIB and know that a call centre in Swords handles most of the branch calls.
But maybe it is possible to get through directly.

It sure is. I rang my AIB branch last week. The doorman who answered the phone (he seems to have been there for ever) reminded me that it being Wednesday they didn't open until 10:30.

Gillo

Sizzler wrote: »

then I open it up and see my credit limit is practically the same as my balance Im transferring over, sort of defeats the purpose of a credit card eh?

Don't go into figures, but was the balance you were tranfering over near the limit for the account you were transfering it from.

Sizzler

gillo wrote: »

Don't go into figures, but was the balance you were tranfering over near the limit for the account you were transfering it from.

It would appear that byte had the exact same problem as myself so at least I know its not just me !

To answer your question, the balance I was bringing over was 33% of my limit with AIB :eek:

byte

eth0_ wrote: »

A friend of mine is closing his Halifax account because it's so rubbish. He said he can't pay his Halifax credit card online, nor can he see transactions on the card online - just the balance!

I have to admit I find this a BIG downside to the Halifax CC, in that I cannot check my transactions, like I can with my AIB Mastercard. Leaves me open to fraud, as I can't check anything until the statement comes in the door. Or if I ring them, and answer a multitude of questions just to find out if my last transaction was what I expected it to be.

I asked about online access, and was told that they may have online facility in the future, but no definite timeframe