Santander have degraded my bank account!

ukznmcl

Hi,

I have been a customer of Santander (old Abbey) for over 12 years and have owned a bank account with them.

My Visa Debit card recently expired so i had to get a new one from the bank. So i ordered a new one and they sent me a cash card which i cannot use to pay for goods with. It is only usable to withdraw cash from the cash machine.

I rang up and spoke to somebody last night and they said that i was no longer eligable for a visa debit card!! I was told that this was due to information recieved from the credit agencies!

My credit rating did take a bit of a hit back in January due to not recieving an income for 3 months as i lost my job. But as soon as i got a job again i repaid all my mortgage/loan arrears in full.

Can they remove my bank account rights without any notice or written letters or anything?! Nobody has contacted me to tell me thet were going to do this or neither has nobody rang me.

I am a good customer to them wth a salary of £40k per year and I find it amazing and unbelivable how they can treat somebody this way.

Anybody else had a experiene like this and how did you deal with it? I am going to discuss it with the bank manager this morning but i am absolutely disgusted and fuming with them. I applied for a bank account with first direct last night and shall be taking my business elsewhere as soon as i can pay off my overdraft and close my account

zppp

ukznmcl wrote: »

Hi,

I have been a customer of Santander (old Abbey) for over 12 years and have owned a bank account with them.

My Visa Debit card recently expired so i had to get a new one from the bank. So i ordered a new one and they sent me a cash card which i cannot use to pay for goods with. It is only usable to withdraw cash from the cash machine.

I rang up and spoke to somebody last night and they said that i was no longer eligable for a visa debit card!! I was told that this was due to information recieved from the credit agencies!

My credit rating did take a bit of a hit back in January due to not recieving an income for 3 months as i lost my job. But as soon as i got a job again i repaid all my mortgage/loan arrears in full.

Can they remove my bank account rights without any notice or written letters or anything?! Nobody has contacted me to tell me thet were going to do this or neither has nobody rang me.

I am a good customer to them wth a salary of £40k per year and I find it amazing and unbelivable how they can treat somebody this way.

Anybody else had a experiene like this and how did you deal with it? I am going to discuss it with the bank manager this morning but i am absolutely disgusted and fuming with them. I applied for a bank account with first direct last night and shall be taking my business elsewhere as soon as i can pay off my overdraft and close my account

I don't see what the issue is. If you have admitted that your credit score was poor at the start of the year, bearing in mind they have to put a credit scored application through, what do you expect? It is not that they are refusing you a bank account, they are ust refusing to upgrade the card. Additionally you could earn £150K and still not have a mutlifunction card, it is not based on your income, it is based on risk.

ukznmcl

My issue with them is that i have had a visa debit card for over 10 years and due to financial circumstances for a temporary 3 month period they take that facility away from me without any notification or discussion. That is just plain bad customer service in my eyes

heloid

Threaten to move bank unless they provide you one, and if they don't follow through. There are plenty of better banks out there.

Fiddlestick

ukznmcl wrote: »

That is just plain bad customer service in my eyes

So take your business elsewhere then if they won't reinstate the facility.

stator

Seems a bit odd. It's only a debit card, not a credit card. You only have two choices though, appeal their decision or move your account.

ukznmcl

I went into the bank this morning, explained the situation and they have ordered me a visa debit card!! I asked why this wasnt done previously and she couldnt tell me. 2 weeks ago they blocked my account for no apparent reason aswell. Sounds like they have some serious issues!!

paulmcerlean

You are best moving to a better service to be honest. If you have any niggles on your credit reports, dont expect an acceptance from First Direct as they are extremely strict.

bengal-stripe

ukznmcl wrote: »

My credit rating did take a bit of a hit back in January due to not recieving an income for 3 months as i lost my job........ as soon as i can pay off my overdraft and close my account

ukznmcl wrote: »

Sounds like they have some serious issues!!

How was your account run during the first half of the year? If it was in a mess: exceeding your overdraft, bouncing DDs etc. (which I presume it was), that will have been the reason for the down-grading.

Good, you could convince them that had changed and you had resolved your serious issues.

ukznmcl

As soon as i knew that i had lost my job i cancelled all my DD's straight away as i knew they were going to bounce so my account wasn that bad. No money went in, and no money went out. I didnt pay my mortgage and abbey loan for 2 months but i paid the arrears straight away as soon as i recieved a salary again.

I didnt have any savings which was pretty stupiud of me but i have learnt my lesson the hard way and now put away as much as i can.

bengal-stripe

ukznmcl wrote: »

No money went in, and no money went out. I didnt pay my mortgage and abbey loan for 2 months.

I don’t know if you kept the bank informed about your financial predicament earlier in the year. If not, just see it from the bank’s view point:

A good customer, so far, but one who owes the bank mortgage, loan and overdraft disappears from the face of the earth, has no monies going in and fails to pay his/her debts. For all the bank would have known you might have died or left the country for good. No wonder, they got nervous.

If you have kept them informed all the time, that is a different matter.