Ulster Bank in Republic still offers teaser rates on credit card products for new customers

Ulster Bank in the Republic has continued to offer teaser rates on its credit card products for new customers even though its parent company, Royal Bank of Scotland, scrapped them in the UK in 2014.

The bank has confirmed to The Irish Times that the special introductory rates have continued to be offered here since 2014, the date when RBS stopped using them in the UK and described them as “indefensible”.

The teaser rates were eliminated by RBS and NatWest in Britain, and by Ulster Bank in the North two years ago but continue to be available here for new customers.

A spokeswoman for the bank said: “Ulster Bank offers introductory rates of 0 per cent on its classic and gold credit cards for three months and six months respectively, and for 12 months on balance transfers on both cards. Ulster Bank offers products and services tailored to the Irish market and customers and these vary to products available in the UK.”

Ulster Bank’s classic credit card offers a three-month, interest-free period on purchases and an introductory interest rate on balance transfers for the first 12 months. The card is available to residents in the Republic aged 18 or over.

The gold card offers an interest-free rate on purchases for the first six months, and an introductory rate on balance transfers from other cards for 12 months. It is open to residents in the Republic aged 18 or over who earn €30,000 or more a year.

Once these periods end, customers move to whatever rate is being applied at the time to existing customers. The introductory rates are designed to attract new customers to the bank and to encourage existing customers to take a credit card with the bank.

It is understood that RBS’s view is that different markets require different products, as is the case in this instance.

According to reports in the UK in recent days, RBS is considering doing a U-turn on teaser rates, although the bank itself has said it has no immediate plans to change its policy.

In 2014, RBS’s chief executive Ross McEwan argued that teaser rates were a poor way to treat customers. He said new and existing customers needed to be treated in the same way if the bank was going to build trust over the long term.

“The customers that have been with you a long time hate it. They say: ‘Why would that person get a better deal than me?’ Staff end up having to defend something that is completely indefensible. I just think it’s a trust issue,” Mr McEwan said in an interview with the Telegraph newspaper in the UK at the time.