Ulster Bank is part of Royal Bank of Scotland – and the chief executive Stephen Hester has released this statement on the RBS website.
” The problems of the past few days have caused disruption and inconvenience for our customers as well as for many customers of other banks.
I am very sorry for the difficulties people are experiencing. Our customers rely on us day in and day out to get things right, and on this occasion we have let them down. This should not have happened.
Right now my top priority, and the priority of the entire RBS Group, is to fix these problems and put things right for our customers.
This is taking time, but I want to reassure people that we are working around the clock to resolve these problems as quickly as we are able.
I also want to be clear that where our customers are facing hardship or difficulty we can and will help them. Our staff have already helped thousands of customers to access cash and we will continue to provide this service on a 24 hour basis while we work to resolve the problems. I also want to reassure customers that no one will be left permanently out of pocket as a result of this, and again, they should contact us directly about this.”
Ulster Bank will extend the opening hours of approximately 50 branches across Ireland from 9.30am until 7pm every day this week . They ask customers to bring photographic identification and their account details with them.
Their dedicated help desk phone number for Ulster Bank customers in Ireland is 1800 205 100. If you are calling from abroad you can ring +353 9156 2910.
Ulster bank were probably getting plenty of new customers in Ireland during the past few weeks – since AIB started charging fees for many customers. (Ulster Bank are the only bank in Ireland that don’t charge fees for day to day banking.)
This fiasco will make some people think twice about switching to Ulster Bank.
The problems are still not fully sorted out – and it could be several more days before it settles down. The worry some people have – is how can they be sure that the bank has kept an accurate record of what transactions went through during the problem period.?