Yet another fiasco for Ulster Bank customers
Blunder means credits to accounts just vanish ‘Human error’ blamed Emergency cash offer
RENT, mortgage and other bills went unpaid yesterday after an Ulster Bank blunder meant accounts were not credited with salaries and other monies.
Customers were shocked when their accounts failed to show recent lodgments and payments, leaving them fearing a repeat of an computer meltdown six years ago that took weeks to sort out.
The bank was offering ‘emergency cash’ of up to €500 yesterday to customers.
Ulster Bank last night blamed ‘human error’, apologised and said accounts should be fully credited by this morning.
The bank said in a statement: ‘As a result of human error, a payment file did not process last night [Monday], which means that some transactions applied to some customers accounts since April 20 are temporarily not showing.
‘We investigated this issue as a matter of urgency and have already taken the necessary corrective action, which will see recovery actions overnight.
‘We apologise for the inconvenience caused and no customer will be left out of pocket as a result of this issue.’
Salaries and payments initially showed up in customers’ accounts but then mysteriously vanished yesterday morning.
The bank said it launched an ‘urgent inquiry’ into the problem and identified a human error, saying it was not a repeat of its IT meltdown in 2012.
But finance experts and consumer groups yesterday urged unhappy customers to consider switching banks. Ulster Bank has 1.1million account holders.
Financial adviser John Lowe, of independentfinancialadvice.ie, said: ‘There are plenty of banks out there who want your business, especially in current accounts. [The website] consumerhelp.ie will give you a great comparison of all the current accounts and then judge for yourself.
‘If you’re having problems and you’ve had problems in the past, move accounts.’
Brendan Burgess, of askaboutmoney.com, said: ‘So I think people should at this stage just say “That’s it.” Ulster Bank has good mortgage products and in that situation it doesn’t matter that much if their systems are up
‘Customers should switch banks now’
to date or not but current accounts need to be bang up to date. You just need modern technology.
‘It doesn’t matter whether it was human error or an IT problem: if someone went to pay their doctor and their credit card bounced; that’s extremely embarrassing. People should complain but move; they shouldn’t complain a second time.’
Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, said: ‘It has to be said that customers at that bank seem to be dogged with mishap after mishap. There really does need to be an independent review.
‘Any costs or losses or problems associated with late payments which will be critical to any individuals’ banking structure they need to remedy and to compensate if and where necessary, and most importantly they need to give undertakings to third parties that it’s not the customers’ fault and they accept and make amends in any way that’s required.
‘We all know how simple it is to have a glitch like this recorded against you on your credit rating and that’s the last thing that anybody needs.
‘They need to be accountable for any of these failures.’
One expert explained that the money which had been showing in accounts had not ‘disappeared’ but was in a payment file ‘that did not process as normal’.
That has meant some transactions are temporarily not showing on accounts because customers’ cash is in the payment file and is due to be credited to accounts ‘as soon as possible’.
A bank spokesman added: ‘We are working to do this overnight.’
Customers with credit on their account can carry on as normal but anyone who goes overdrawn as a result of the blunder will not be left out of pocket.
‘Any customer that is overdrawn as a result of this issue will have their account rectified as soon as the issue is resolved,’ the spokesman said.