HUNDREDS of Ulster Bank customers in Fermanagh have yet again been left without access to their money after a technical problem meant they could not use cash machines, debit cards or access online or telephone banking on Monday evening.
This is the second technical problem in the last six months in the North after thousands were unable to withdraw cash or access their Ulster Bank accounts for weeks after a software upgrade on June 19.
In this instance Ulster Bank paid out more than £18m in compensation to 300,000 people affected in Northern Ireland by the glitch.
One customer who has been affected by the problems more than most is Sinead McLoughlin originally from Killesher, now living in Cambridge, England. She not only has a Ulster Bank account, but when she moved to England set up a Natwest account, part of the same Royal Bank of Scotland group and a victim of the same technical problems.
Speaking to the Herald yesterday she explained: “I went to a supermarket last night over here in England to buy my weekly shop and my Ulster Bank card was declined twice. I was a bit worried, but thought I’d use my other bankcard which is Natwest, but it was declined too. I wasn’t aware there were nationwide problems so I left the store without my goods and extremely worried I’d somehow been hacked on my online banking.”
She continued: “I was very angry when I realised it was an IT error as I had huge problems last year when Ulster Bank went down for weeks, just as I was going abroad.”
In a cruel twist for Sinead now both her banks have let her down.
“I signed up for a Natwest account over in England to ensure if anything goes wrong with my Ulster Bank account I have access to a card and branch service from Natwest. I’ll definitely be switching to Halifax!”
Local MLA Phil Flanagan has said the senior management of Ulster Bank and RBS have serious questions to answer.
“This has caused serious disruption for customers and once again front line employees of the bank have had to deal with the fallout. Customers have been seriously inconvenienced by another technical glitch, but thankfully the problem was sorted out quickly.”
As of Tuesday all systems were back to normal and the issue had been resolved. As yet the exact cause of the problem is unknown.
An Ulster Bank spokesman said:”We would like to apologise to our customers. If anyone has been left out of pocket as a result of these systems problems, we will put this right.
“If any customer is experiencing issues this morning, they should get in touch with our call centres or come into our branches, where our staff will be ready to help.”
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