Santander no good for cruising!

dcwhittington

Following the advice on this website I got myself a Santander Zero card for travel overseas. However, on the 2 occasions I have wanted to register it for use overseas I have come up against their silly system! You can only register 3 countries at any time - that means that a european driving holiday (where you can cover up to 4 countries or more in one day) or a Cruise (my next trip covering 6 countries in the Baltic) is out, unless you are willing to commit to making expensive foreign phone calls to keep re-registering during your holiday. This is one of the worst cases of "Computer says no!" that I have come across. Cruising is now the biggest growing holiday industry and they cannot support it!:(

lisyloo

I've been on loads of cruises and we always use Nationwide.
I know there is a 1% fee outside of Europe but we've never had a problem with this.

Paul_Herring

Santander no good

To be honest, you could have stopped there.

This subject (of notifying banks) was covered on Radio 4's Money Box a few weeks ago, with Santander and Barclays being the worst offenders in IIRC demanding that you tell them where you're going, but putting restrictions on how many places you could tell them about.

Update: Found the HYS page regarding it, but not the article/podcast yet: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/8748436.stm

Update: Here we go:
(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/8748339.stm
(2) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/8759996.stm

And the article that came out of it all (I think):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10351371.stm

However Tim Meadowcroft from London travels a lot for work and often has to visit a whole series of countries in one trip.

He says his bank, Santander, has told him on several occasions it will not allow him to register more than three countries per trip.

He finds that frustrating, as he told BBC Radio 4's Money Box

"If you're going to America it may not be too much of a problem, but if you're going across Europe, you're going into France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland it can be a real pain," he said.

[...]

Kate Love from Rutland is planning a touring holiday through Europe this summer.

But she was told by Barclays she could only register her debit card for use in two countries.

She believes that is too restrictive:

"I'm taking quite a bit of cash with me which seems a retrograde step," she says.

hansi

dcwhittington wrote: »

Following the advice on this website I got myself a Santander Zero card for travel overseas. However, on the 2 occasions I have wanted to register it for use overseas I have come up against their silly system! You can only register 3 countries at any time - that means that a european driving holiday (where you can cover up to 4 countries or more in one day) or a Cruise (my next trip covering 6 countries in the Baltic) is out, unless you are willing to commit to making expensive foreign phone calls to keep re-registering during your holiday. This is one of the worst cases of "Computer says no!" that I have come across. Cruising is now the biggest growing holiday industry and they cannot support it!:(

Typical of Santander, the bank with the most complaints. I wouldn't go anywhere near them!

jamesperrett

I travel to some fairly odd places at times and I've always used my Nationwide card. I've never had any need to authorise it and the exchange rates have always been competitive.

James.

ILW

I believe George Michael is a bit of an expert on cruising.

lisyloo

I know that Nationwide is 1% outside of Europe (which is a very low charge) but personally I'd rather have a card that I know will be accepted,
I have been to 11 carribean islands (and most of them are different countries) and we've been to the baltic, adriatic, alaska, hawaii, canaries, mediterranean and not had an issue.

Given the hassle it is to make phone calls (extortionate on the satelite system of a cruise ship) then for the sake of 1% I'd rather have a card that works everywhere.
You could honestly easily wipe out your charges with one phone call from a cruise ship at about $10 (£6) per minute.

travellerboy

hansi wrote: »

Typical of Santander, the bank with the most complaints. I wouldn't go anywhere near them!

I have never had any problem with Alliance & Leicester (Santander). The best Bank without doubt if you keep in credit. 5% interest on my current account, where can you get a better deal than that ????
I have been with them for over 3 years without any trouble whatsoever with them paying me a much better rate of return on everything from my current acc., ISA's and Regular saver acc.

Also have a Santander Zero Card, no problem whatsoever when using it on my last Cruise saving me about £25 over other credit card charges.

TFD_2

travellerboy wrote: »

The best Bank without doubt if you keep in credit. 5% interest on my current account, where can you get a better deal than that ????

Santander are shocking. For such a large institution the service is unbelievable.

As for your 5% interest...... come on, explain the rest of the issue - i.e. what they cap this to.

bylromarha

ILW wrote: »

I believe George Michael is a bit of an expert on cruising.

Thought it was me alone who opened this thread fully expecting to read about another subject....

fleagle21

ILW wrote: »

I believe George Michael is a bit of an expert on cruising.

You might be getting that mixed up with 'cottaging'...