Declined opening new bank account

Macman38

Hi, Just a quick question regards opening a new current bank account. I recently applied to open a new current account with Ulster bank and Hallifax and was declined on both applications. Admittedly i dont have a very good credit rating but I dont understand why I was declined when all I wanted to do was to just open an account for my wages to get paid into. Anybody else had the same problem or any suggestions why this has happened.

old boy

join the credit union

Macman38

I have a credit union account. Doesn't answer my question.

Outkast_IRE

maybe cause you owe other banks money that your behind on and they dont want you opening a account with them to just avoid paying it ?
I have a friend in a similar situation to us it seems like the banks are working together to get people to use their existing accounts.

Macman38

I can understand being declined if I was applying for an overedraft or a bank loan but not upon opening a bank account.

sold

Did you get a copy of your credit rating? https://secure.icb.ie/cr_personal.jsp?js=true Get a copy and see for yourselve why they don't want to deal with you. The don't need to deal with you if you have a bad credit rating as you are a liability.

Jet Black

I think its because there is a visa card with the account. Another thing is once you open the account you can request a cheque book, so they see it as a risk that you could write cheques without money in the account.

I think the post office will let you open an account and I think anyone can open one regardless of their financial situation.

Toots

Have you ever defaulted on a loan? If you have, they'll be able to see it on the ICB, or on internal systems if you have had anything with them in the past.

naughty1205

anyone can open a regular current account, I work in a bank and all you bring is your photo i.d and proof of address- you could have a million other current accounts in other banks, it doesn't matter, we cannot not open an account for someone. Not sure if this helps..

Macman38

I dont see how trying to open a bank account can be seen as a liability. Requesting a check book ( not that I would want one ) if the application had been successful I would not have an issue with something like that being declined.

Macman38

Hi naughty1205. Thanks for your reply. I filled out the application form, provided them with photo ID, and supplied them with proof of address I even gave payslips to prove I had a regular wage that would be lodged to the account every week but was still declined by both Ulster bank and Halifax.

Macman38

Toots* wrote: »

Have you ever defaulted on a loan? If you have, they'll be able to see it on the ICB, or on internal systems if you have had anything with them in the past.

As I have said I dont have a very good credit rating. Why would this prevent you from opening an account. I'm not looking to borrow from them.

Jet Black

naughty1205 wrote: »

anyone can open a regular current account, I work in a bank and all you bring is your photo i.d and proof of address- you could have a million other current accounts in other banks, it doesn't matter, we cannot not open an account for someone. Not sure if this helps..

But its still at the banks discretion to open an account for someone. The government wanted all banks to have a current account that anyone could open. This still has not come to pass in the most of banks.

Macman38 wrote: »

I dont see how trying to open a bank account can be seen as a liability. Requesting a check book ( not that I would want one ) if the application had been successful I would not have an issue with something like that being declined.

Ok. But if anyone could open an account then have 25 blank cheques to write there would be a lot of problems.

Macman38 wrote: »

Hi naughty1205. Thanks for your reply. I filled out the application form, provided them with photo ID, and supplied them with proof of address I even gave payslips to prove I had a regular wage that would be lodged to the account every week but was still declined by both Ulster bank and Halifax.

As you've said you have a bad credit rating. This is the most obvious reason why you were declined.

Macman38

Ok. But if anyone could open an account then have 25 blank cheques to write there would be a lot of problems.

Point taken, but dont you need to apply for a cheque book when your account has been opened, this is where the banks can then decide to decline the cheque book application and prevent that situation.

Jet Black

Macman38 wrote: »

Point taken, but dont you need to apply for a cheque book when your account has been opened, this is where the banks can then decide to decline the cheque book application and prevent that situation.

When you apply for a account you can choose a 3in1 or 2in1 account, the difference is the 3in1 automaticly gives you a cheque book and the bank gurantees the cheques for €130 each. With the 2in1 you do not automaticly recieve a cheque book, but can request one.

Macman38

Mask wrote: »

When you apply for a account you can choose a 3in1 or 2in1 account, the difference is the 3in1 automaticly gives you a cheque book and the bank gurantees the cheques for €130 each. With the 2in1 you do not automaticly recieve a cheque book, but can request one.

I dont recall any of the above options been offered when going through the application in both banks but I could be wrong. At the end of the day all I wanted was open an account where I could have my wages lodged into. Obviously they dont want the business. Considering the current climate in banking I didn't think that I would have this problem trying to lodge money or opening an account. Thanks for your reply though.

kippy

Have you asked either bank or an official from either bank the logic behind your being declined account services?
The very obvious item is your credit rating......whether or not it makes logical sense to you is irrelevant. There may be other items on your credit report that effected you application etc.
As someone mentioned the issue may be that since you may possibly have outstanding loans from other banks, the only reason you are setting up a new account is to "hide" money from those institutions that you owe money too......


Anyway, ask for info from the banks.

Macman38

kippy wrote: »

Have you asked either bank or an official from either bank the logic behind your being declined account services?
The very obvious item is your credit rating......whether or not it makes logical sense to you is irrelevant. There may be other items on your credit report that effected you application etc.
As someone mentioned the issue may be that since you may possibly have outstanding loans from other banks, the only reason you are setting up a new account is to "hide" money from those institutions that you owe money too......


Anyway, ask for info from the banks.

Hi kippy. Thanks for your reply. I never at any stage tried to hide anything when completing the application. I told the bank about my situation. I did question their decission and got told that that's the decission they had come to and that they were sorry.

kippy

Macman38 wrote: »

Hi kippy. Thanks for your reply. I never at any stage tried to hide anything when completing the application. I told the bank about my situation. I did question their decission and got told that that's the decission they had come to and that they were sorry.

You may not have been hiding anything from the banks you were applying to, but in their eyes you were trying to hide money from the banks you owe money to.
Do you have other bank accounts?

stepbar

It's very simple. If you have a bad credit history the bank in question don't want you as a customer. Regardless of the fact you don't want facilities the bank don't want to take you on as a risk. Don't get me wrong, I agree that there should be a facility in this country where by someone should be able to open a simple bank account but at present it does not exist.

Long Onion

You will not be able to open a current account due to adverse info on the ICB, for the reasons mentioned above relating to the issue of debit cards and cheque books. You could open another type of MTA - with the Ulster Bank, I believe this is called a Dual account, it will allow you to set up DD's and Standing orders and you will get an ATM card but there are no credit facilities attaching, my advice is to try this.

petes

I think they have such an account in the U.K. It's the most basic accounts available but as others have said not available here yet.

Go with what Long Onion advised, see what UB say.

Macman38

kippy wrote: »

You may not have been hiding anything from the banks you were applying to, but in their eyes you were trying to hide money from the banks you owe money to.
Do you have other bank accounts?

I did have an account with one of our main banks but they closed the account because I got into difficulties with an overdraft, but I now have an agreed payment plan with them to pay back the money owing to them. I am slowly starting to turn things around a bit and trying to get things back on track but I keep coming up against in my opinion a brick wall. But hey I will keep trying.

Macman38

Long Onion wrote: »

You will not be able to open a current account due to adverse info on the ICB, for the reasons mentioned above relating to the issue of debit cards and cheque books. You could open another type of MTA - with the Ulster Bank, I believe this is called a Dual account, it will allow you to set up DD's and Standing orders and you will get an ATM card but there are no credit facilities attaching, my advice is to try this.

Insurgent wrote: »

I think they have such an account in the U.K. It's the most basic accounts available but as others have said not available here yet.

Go with what Long Onion advised, see what UB say.

Hi guys, Thanks for the advice. I will look into the MTA as you suggested Long Onion.