Ulster Bank Reviews 

I opened an account with Ulster Bank because they were offering good interest rates, everything seemed to work well until I wanted to close the account a couple of years later. Four times I went through the process of doing this on line, after each attempt I got an email telling me to ring customer services, everyone one I spoke to was friendly and tried to be helpful. However, it was only the last person who told me the only way to close the account was by sending a letter or going into a branch. The first three just put me back into the same circle of trying to close it on-line. If your "digital banking" still requires people to go into a branch or write a letter at least let your staff know that. This would save both me and your staff an awful lot of time!

This is the worst bank in the world. It should be closed down. The customer service is terrible. You're writing with some chat bot that doesn't know what you're talking about. It should be closed down. How do you treat people?

What a terrible place the Ulster Bank Lisburn is. Tried to open a saving account today ( I have a 40 year old current account with them) with a large desposit to lodge and was told I couldn't! at least not in the branch. I was told to go back home a do it myself online. I walked up the street to the Nationwide were they were happy to do it for me. Ulster Bank! useless people and useless bank.

I can't believe what a torrid time I'm having with this bank. It's proving impossible for close my savings account AND get Ulster Bank to give me my interest back.Ive phoned for advice, tried closing g my account electronically, but they still won't give me my accrued interest. I've been told to go into a branch......err ..there aren't any in England!!!
I'm now told several things to do to get my hands on my own money...all without success.
This Bank is hiding behind a smokescreen of confusing information and should be shut down.
Don't use them.

Do not open any account with Ulster bank. The app works perfectly until you wish to close the account and move your money elsewhere. Diabolical,frustrating,their representatives give out false information. My fourth attempt at a resolution still no joy. They couldn't even raise me an official complaint number. Ombudsman here I go.

Excellent. Ulster Bank Loyalty Saver and the Ulster Bank app are super. The app is excellent, and the interest rate on the Loyalty Saver is very good. It's so easy in the app to schedule payments out up to around 24 weeks in advance and I manage many transfers with the app. The only (minor) observation is that the balance in the app won't update if you're logged into the app whilst a payment is transferred into the account, but log out of the app and log back in again and the balance then updates, alas this is a very minor issue and I'm giving Ulster Bank with their super app 5 stars. Excellent.

Update 24/10/25 - I have now transferred all of my money here into a Limited Edition Saver with a superb interest rate, I remain very happy with Ulster Bank, their app and their savings products!

Warning to all savers with Ulster. I tried closing account with about £1000 interest owed. So far I have tried calling, writing and getting all kinds of excuses. 1 month later account is still not closed and no closing interest paid. On call they said visit a branch but none in England. Then they said write to the branch holding the Account. 1 month later NOTHING. Next call will be to financial Ombudsman. Really. Do not open an Account.

How difficult could it be to open a SAVINGS account with your own bank?
Although I have been an Ulster Bank current account customer for over 30 years, I was shocked to find that Ulster bank say they cannot verify my address! Same address for over 10 years. Have no other addresses and am on all the government systems here.
To start with, the Ulster Bank Current Account is fine and I have never had any problems with it. It is with opening savings accounts that the nightmare begins.
I find it impossible to understand why, after being an Ulster Bank customer for 30+ years, U Bank considers my address ‘unverified’ and I have to go though a monopolistic US verification agency called MITEK to open a savings account. I am obliged to allow this foreign company to capture and retain live webcam video of myself and send them images of my driving licence. Is it reasonable for Banks to expect all their customers to have smart phones, or web cams, or come to the branch with a laptop in order to set up savings accounts. Many older customers might find that highly inconvenient but highly beneficial for the bank – it means lots of money sitting in interest free current accoutnts, instead of savings accounts.
It seems to me, this is not to do with government anti money laundering regulations. This is to do with NatWest Group farming out verification to Mitek, a USA artificial intelligence company building a semi-monopoly in UK banking, in this area.
MITEK has terrible reviews on Trustpilot.
Why would the people of these islands trust this kind of US monopoly harvesting such highly personal and sensitive data?
This gives an idea of the hassles involved.
24/04/2025 decide to open an Ulster bank Loyalty Saver
Almost completed the process on-line then hit something called mitek who wanted a live webcam video plus would have to submit photo id photograph via a smart phone. Didn’t have a viable smart phone or web cam - did not expect this being an existing customer - cancelled out. Mitek sent texts with a link to mobile phone but they won’t send them to e-mail.
25/04/25 ring U bank to see if can open Loyalty Saver in branch, told NOT without a laptop! Told I could could do it on the phone now if transferred to ano team.
Told bank could NOT do a callback to me – ie I had to pay for the call. Was also told would still have to produce driving licence at local branch in person, as an ID check, then account could be activated. I told them I would go to my local branch about 3 miles away.
50 minutes in phone process almost completed when told could not proceed as my cancelled-out-of on-line application of day before was technically still open – so the entire phone application process had to be cancelled. Laborious very frustrating call lasted 60 m. A check for open applications should be done at the START of the call, not at the end. 28/04/2025 The same call handler rang to say the team was NOT able to cancel the applic, wh would only expire in 28 days so could not apply for 28 days.
It was not explained until 4 days later in this 3rd call that if I could get into link on my mobile I could cancel the application by a certain process - Followed process, Then still have to go to bank with driving licence following which should be able to apply on line. May 1 go to my local branch U Bank to show ID. To my surprise the branch had been CLOSED.
The U Banks complaint process is an utter shambles. They channel complaints into a chat bot CORA and may respond with a text message (not an e-mail). CORA lacks the basic functionality to work. You cannot attach documents. Amazingly there is no secure message inbox – so how do you communicate? Incredibly there is no e-mail address. CORA is simply the cheapest possible way for them to PRETEND to be open to complaints. Its just a way to make complaining v difficult so people give up.
Frustrated, I had to POST my complaint and 21 days later have received no response.
I rang (no free phone number) but got ‘we are experiencing technical difficulties please call back later’ message.
Lacking a free phone number, they should at least have an e-mail address.
ULSTER BANK needs to take responsibility for verification. I would guess it is simply due to NatWest Group signing a contract with MITEK. MITEK it seems does not have access to the right data and has to harvest new personal information to build up its monopoly position. The banks seems to be be telling customers this is due to government regulations.
The Government has access to all benefit, pension and tax systems and is in a perfect position to verify addresses and identities. The Government should take over this function and run this service at a profit. 1) to remove unnecesary barriers to setting up savings accounts (2) to raise revenue (3) to prevent our highly sensitive data being harvested by tax dodging US software monopolies

Absolutely disgusting customer service. Been asked in appropriate questions on phone and in branch. Making judgments on how I spend my money. Breaching my confidentiality ina. Small community setting. Disgusting behaviour. Then when phoen up to make a complaint. Noone yo speak to about it. Promised phone calls that didn't happen. Avoid ulster bank people.

They have had my benefits for 4 weeks now and they ignore my emails and the lot don’t use this bank £437.00 still nothing so I’ll do all reviews I can I have proof everyday I send a email and they don’t reply !! Sort code 98-00-60 account number 26627794 you know the rest Ulster bank

Put a fixed sum away for a year and now I can't close online. It's part of Natwest so as useless as service as they provide. Have had to go through almost an hour of conversation, going through all the security checks and then uploading of ID and selfies to get money back out that will be sent in batches. Go with someone more straight forward like Tesco or Virgin. The member of staff was very nice. I feel for her having to go through this every time

I thought using the app was bad (it wouldn't let me increase my payment limit - but more on that later). The hoops required to jump through are ridiculous; it is fortunate for me that I work in the world of IT!
Concerning the app, it would not let me adjust the payment limit, as mentioned. When I spoke to a support rep from Ulster Bank she suggested turning the wi-fi off, then on again and/or switching to airplane mode, then turning that off. And as a third suggestion, restarting my mobile. This is ridiculous and clearly implies a problem with the software.
Get this fixed Ulster Bank, it is really poor!

Disgusting service, needed a new card and pin when i rang was told 3 to 5 working days my card came but no pin after a few more days rang back up to be told it can take 10 to 12 days. but if i down load the app i can transfer money using that without my pin, did this but i was only able to transfer a small amount where as i wanted to transfer £20, 000 to a new isa ( they had been told this ) i rang back to be told that i can not transfer large amounts until i open face recinition tried this but unable to do it as i had only resently down loaded the app. after 15 days i rang them back and spoke somone who said go into a branch this would mean 45 minute trip, paying for parking £1.80 an hour and a 10 minute walk to the branch as there is no parking near it. He said he was going to put me though to customer services part of the way being asked a question the phone went dead. Thats a further 41 minutes wasted. wasted now over 2 hours. Not ringing them back to waste more time. Account number 19754985

Shocking experience. Debit card declined five times, unable to take money from cash point. Plenty of money in the account. Waiting hours with the dreadful, useless, Cora, for someone to respond. Left without money.

Awful customer service. Takes very long to contact an employee and if you manage to they tell you to refer to a chat bot which cannot help you with every problem. Employees at the Omagh bank branch very unhelpful and rude

This is the worst company I have ever dealt with. No human customer service, just a bot that must have been programmed in the 1970s, its language comprehension is so useless. I will be closing asap.

What a nightmare bank. I'm in the process of shopping around for another bank. When you lodge a complaint they bounce you around with email addresses, websites. The customer service is non existent. Withdrawals are being taken from my account without my permission and they have informed me that they cannot prevent this!!!

Horrible company I wouldn't recommend as they are a useless bank with no personal skills app is shocking. They charge u a fortune an and all there staff in andersonstown is clueless, banks are biggest reason why the world is in as much trouble as it is shouldn't need banks. Not one this bad anyway.

I have never dealt with such a terrible customer service. I have left the UK and closing my account with them has been impossible. No real human agents to talk to just their online bot which is useless. They use antiquated 1990s methods of verifying identity. For someone who lives outside of the UK, you basically cannot close your account. I have had to contact the financial ombudsman to resolve the issue. Bunch of crooks. DO NOT USE.

We had an UK online savings account through Ulster bank (rec by MSE) and needed to transfer a large sum of money for a house purchase. It took some time!. Ulster are part of the Nat West group but as the account did not come with a debit card we were unable to do this through our local Nat West bank as they could not access the account without the card.
We then had to rely on telephone/robot support!
Getting past all the options and getting to speak to a real person took some perseverance but once there the people we spoke to at Ulster bank were really helpful and patient. Explained what we needed to do (send a Fax!) and went above and beyond to resolve the situation. A CHAPS payment and download of a fax app onto phone and we finally got there! If you bank with Ulster from the UK ensure you open an account with a debit card to save you some sleepless nights!