Monday, November 03, 2008

Lodging a Euro cheque ... we'll have to post that up to your branch ...

Ulster Bank logo

There have been a couple of wobbles over the last seventeen years, but I’ve generally found the Ulster Bank to be a reasonable place to hold my personal account.

They’ve never felt like the bleeding edge of the personal banking world. it took them a good long while to offer online services. But the cheque books keep arriving, and they’ve always refunded the occasional bank charge when I’ve phoned up to query why it has taken so long for my money to lodge but so quick for them to give it away to other institutions.

But a question remains.

Why when I try to lodge a cheque in the Belfast city centre headquarters do they have to post it up to my branch on the University Road for it to be processed and lodged?

In one way it serves me right for submitting a Euro receipt for a six-person meal in a Dublin hotel’s bar into a UK expenses system. I never expected to be reimbursed with a Euro cheque! Next time, I’ll wait for the credit card statement to arrive and claim back the Sterling value.

But in an age of uniform processes being followed at all of a bank’s branches, what’s so special about my branch’s magic powers? And what’s so lacking about the bank’s headquarters abilities to do something simple?

If you’ve any idea, please drop me a comment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I lodged a couple of Euro cheques last week at my branch of Halifax in Donegall Square, and they had to be posted off to the International Banking dept in Yorkshire. Then there was a fee of £15 and £7.50 for the two cheques, and the funds from one of the cheques won't become available in my account until 28th November...

Sounds like you got off lightly...! ;)