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Santander stitch up

To say I'm apoplectic with rage is an understatement.

I inherited some money in 2008 and invested it into an E Saver account on the advice of my local Abbey branch. After a year I received a healthy interest payment of £2K which I left in there and subsequently, following the very stressful sale of the inherited property (I am grateful but it took over 18 months to sell and endless hours and bill paying to maintain), I added that money to it.

I have been patiently waiting for my annual interest to be added to my E Saver account with the intention of using the expected £4K to buy a much deserved and needed holiday to hopefully see my family in the USA who I have not been able to visit since they moved there.

I received the interest payment last week all £153 of it.

It turns out that if you don't refresh your E Saver account every year it only pays .1% interest, Santander do not bother to tell you this although they assure me they sent a letter and it was in the small print in the welcome pack for the E saver account.

Is this really a bank acting in the best interest of their Customer? Should they not have a flag on an account to say 'there's a lot of money in here doing nothing, contact the Customer and offer advice'? After all they have my phone number as they ring me regularly to offer loans, insurance and everything else I don't want.

I know it's my own fault but come on, surely this organisation has some Customer service?

It certainly doesn't have anyone on the end of a phone you can talk to and it's no good going in my local branch as all I got told on Saturday was to ring the overseas call centre number that I've been calling all week to find out if the payment was wrong. My waitng times varied from 20 to 30 minutes and each time I was told to eaither go to my branch or ring another number which took me straight back to the overseas call centre.

The person in my branch was supposed to call me back today to tell me if the interest paid was wrong but no call was received, I eventually got a number for the Milton Keynes head office and found out through them that the account was not refreshed.

To add insult to injury it took 5 minutes on the phone to refresh the account to the latest interest rate plus the bonus, so why could they have not mentioned this in one of the many phone calls I received throughout the year when they tried to sell me insurance or loans?

After being an Abbey Customer my entire life I now have no option but to part company with them and take my investment elsewhere, I do not intend to spend the money as I don't feel that it's mine, I would rather pass it on to my nephews to give them a leg up when they need it hence why I was only prepared to spend the interest it earned.

Thanks for nothing Santander (I really do mean nothing as well) I hope you enjoyed profiting from holding my cash for a year as you will profit from me no longer.

Comments

  • Reaper
    Reaper Posts: 7,356 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    (This replaces my last post which I think had the wrong figures in it. There are a variety of similarly named accounts.)

    Am I right in thinking it was the standard eSaver issue 1?

    You can see the rates here.

    These type of accounts are pretty clear that they include a 1 year bonus to the interest rate. You do need to make sure you understand the account and don't just go by the headline rate, particularly when saving larger sums.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 120,195 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    It turns out that if you don't refresh your E Saver account every year it only pays .1% interest, Santander do not bother to tell you this although they assure me they sent a letter and it was in the small print in the welcome pack for the E saver account.

    Most of the banks are giving short term incentive rates at the moment and have been for a few years. They dont hide it and its pretty clear when you view the rates what they are doing.

    For those that dont mind moving it around each year, they can actually benefit from it (in the same way insurance tends to give first year discounts which encourages you to move rather than stay). For those that prefer to stay put, it isnt a good idea to use an account with a first year discount but one with a more consistent rate.
    Is this really a bank acting in the best interest of their Customer?

    What makes you think a bank has to act on your best interests?
    Should they not have a flag on an account to say 'there's a lot of money in here doing nothing, contact the Customer and offer advice'?

    Should you not have a flag in your diary telling you that you should review your finances because the rate is reducing? Banks are not there to replace personal responsibility. In fact they rely on that.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • sabretoothtigger
    sabretoothtigger Posts: 10,036 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    edited 10 May 2010 at 7:22PM
    I think esaver allows for monthly interest, this is a good example of why I prefer it. Theres all sorts of small print trying to trip you up unfortunately, the whole industry is a minefield.

    You could maybe try and find someone like Nationwide who supposedly try to benefit their members as they are a mutual but even then I'd double check everything and assume the worst

    Banks make billions every year and one of their most profitable lines is retail banking, they'll do anything they can get away with generally.
    I had one guy tell me it was reasonable to charge 200 pounds for going a pound past my overdraft, their own small print said it was ok not to tell me what was happening.

    Even after I sued and got it back (thanks to FSA) they were adamant it was not their concern to give any warning communication in return for charging 10 pounds a day. Only a regulator can change this kind of thing really

    There is an ombudsman who can rule on things like this, Im pretty sure I would have won in my case but as said above this interest trickery I think they can do. Considering the amounts involved you may want to try anyway


    With the official BOE rate at 0.5% you may have a hard time arguing in a review for anything reasonable.
  • Pendle_Gazza
    Pendle_Gazza Posts: 144 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    dunstonh pretty much sums it up perfectly. Unfortunately, you clearly had other things to worry about which took your eye off the ball, but ultimately it's up to you and us as the customers to take control of our finances.

    Bonuses are a pain in the ar*e admittedly, but it's pretty much the way banks - not just Santander - do things these days, and the only possible consolation is that you aren't likely to fall foul of this again.
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