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A&L/Santander Overdraft Account Problems/Warning
jhxmt
Posts: 164 Forumite
Hi all,
A quick warning regarding the Santander Overdraft accounts (experience is with A&L, but I'm guessing the same may apply to the current Abbey £5k overdraft offer along with any other similar Santander offerings).
Similar warning threads here from other posters:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1586429
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1640831
My brother applied in June for the A&L £2k interest-free overdraft account (online), requesting the full £2000 overdraft, and received an email the following day confirming that his application had been accepted.
About a week later he received the confirmation documents through the post. Unfortunately he was on holiday at the time and so only picked these up the following week (so, two weeks after application). Upon (very) close reading he noted that they stated he had a £200 overdraft.
Believing this to be a typo he phoned up Account Enquiries to be told that apparently he only qualified for £200, not £2000, of overdraft. In addition, all hi direct debits and standing orders had already been moved across (and no, there was no way for A&L to move them back across to his old account).
The limit on the overdraft was apparently because the old account (the one transferring from) needs to have been in credit for at least 5 working days (this length appears to vary per customer) during the last month. Obviously this is a little odd, given that most customers will be transferring from large overdrafts that are coming off an interest-free period!
My brother did ask why this requirement wasn't made plain in the application. The A&L rep couldn't say why that might be.
My brother has since closed the A&L account (or accounts, since they open up a saver account for you as well) and is now going through the somewhat arduous process of (a) setting up his standing orders on his old account again and (b) contacting his direct debit receivers to get them to change back to his old account.
Obviously this is, as far as he's concerned, absolutely appalling (and I agree with him).
While A&L are no longer advertising (or offering?) the account in question, I note that Abbey are offering a very similar deal (only with a £5k limit rather than £2k), and assume that the same issues may apply.
Would advise all people applying for one of Santander's overdraft accounts to be aware of this additional (and apparently well-hidden) requirement, as it's a pain in the backside to switch everything back if they do decide that you don't qualify for the deal they confirmed you had. :wall:
P.S. Oops, wall-of-text post, sorry! Just a bit wound up.
A quick warning regarding the Santander Overdraft accounts (experience is with A&L, but I'm guessing the same may apply to the current Abbey £5k overdraft offer along with any other similar Santander offerings).
Similar warning threads here from other posters:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1586429
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1640831
My brother applied in June for the A&L £2k interest-free overdraft account (online), requesting the full £2000 overdraft, and received an email the following day confirming that his application had been accepted.
About a week later he received the confirmation documents through the post. Unfortunately he was on holiday at the time and so only picked these up the following week (so, two weeks after application). Upon (very) close reading he noted that they stated he had a £200 overdraft.
Believing this to be a typo he phoned up Account Enquiries to be told that apparently he only qualified for £200, not £2000, of overdraft. In addition, all hi direct debits and standing orders had already been moved across (and no, there was no way for A&L to move them back across to his old account).
The limit on the overdraft was apparently because the old account (the one transferring from) needs to have been in credit for at least 5 working days (this length appears to vary per customer) during the last month. Obviously this is a little odd, given that most customers will be transferring from large overdrafts that are coming off an interest-free period!
My brother did ask why this requirement wasn't made plain in the application. The A&L rep couldn't say why that might be.
My brother has since closed the A&L account (or accounts, since they open up a saver account for you as well) and is now going through the somewhat arduous process of (a) setting up his standing orders on his old account again and (b) contacting his direct debit receivers to get them to change back to his old account.
Obviously this is, as far as he's concerned, absolutely appalling (and I agree with him).
While A&L are no longer advertising (or offering?) the account in question, I note that Abbey are offering a very similar deal (only with a £5k limit rather than £2k), and assume that the same issues may apply.
Would advise all people applying for one of Santander's overdraft accounts to be aware of this additional (and apparently well-hidden) requirement, as it's a pain in the backside to switch everything back if they do decide that you don't qualify for the deal they confirmed you had. :wall:
P.S. Oops, wall-of-text post, sorry! Just a bit wound up.
Anything I post here is purely my own personal opinion. As such it may be wrong, poorly worded or written very tongue-in-cheek. Please therefore treat it the same way you should treat anything you read on the internet from an unknown person - with a healthy pinch of salt and scepticism!
0
Comments
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I don't think this is unique to A&L/Santander (as much as I would like moan about their ways). I know at least Halifax has similar conditions about matching an overdraft.
Your brother did what all sensible people should do and that's read through all the paperwork to see what's what. However the trouble seems to have come because he went on holiday just after he applied. Had he been at home when the pack arrived he would have noticed the terms and stopped the switching process.
Yes, they could make it clearer before you apply (it just says "depending on your circumstances"). A lot of things could be made clearer with a lot of organisations. However, it would probably have been better if he had waited until he returned from holiday before applying.Remember this: nothing worth doing is easy.0 -
Agree with Dizl. I too set up an account under the same circumstances but without the holiday! Read the info panicked and cancelled as quickly as I could as I was terrified the direct debits would bounce almost immediately.
It was a nightmare to close, as I kept getting letters of confirmation my DD's had gone across etc etc. It took too many phone calls to cancel it. I think I also needed my card to cancel and that took a while too!
Luckily I was able to act quickly unlike OP's relation as it could have got messy!
xx0
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