Alliance & Leicester Now Santander!

[Deleted User]

Having been a Girobank original customer and recently been changed from A&L to Santander I was informed, this afternoon, that should I withdraw my Money, using a Direct Debit card, from an ATM in a Banco Santander branch in Spain I would have to pay charges!

Can this possibly be true?

Can a bank charge it's own customers to withdraw their own money from their own Bank?

Dave101t

really, will this bother you? are you going to go to spain to 'try'.
please do!

[Deleted User]

Of cause it does! ****!!

Yes I will be going to Spain and I will need to withdraw money BUT where is the cheapest?

Bullfinch

According to a letter sent out to former Alliance and Leicester customers this week, if we have a current account funded by at least £1000 per month we can make fee free withdrawls in Spain from Santander ATMs. Apparently this is already the case for former Abbey customers. I emailed A&L and they dont seem to know anything about it. Can anyone clarify the situation please.

dzug1

Yes it could easily be true - other banks do the same.

Whether it IS true or not, no idea. Nor does the average Santander helpline operator I would guess. Even if they understand the question they will only half know what to look up on their screen

doedeer

Santander trade with a UK license. Why on earth would you think you could jaunt to Spain and use the cash machines and NOT be charged?
HSBC - can you go to Hong Kong and withdraw free cash? I'd vote no.

Also, you can. It's our zero account - for mortgage and investment customers.

[Deleted User]

This is part of their reply yesterday:

I can confirm that, when Abbey became a part of Santander, for a period of time our customers were not charged for withdrawing from Santander machines abroad.

Please note however that this was only a temporary goodwill gesture, and all future transactions with incur charges in line with the terms and conditions of your account.

For your reference, I can confirm that, as per the terms and conditions of all Santander accounts, any withdrawals from foreign ATMs do incur a withdrawal handling charge. This charge is currently £1.25, plus 1.5% of the value of the withdrawal.

So it would appear we have to pay or not? As an ATM in their Bank is not foreign!

Bullfinch

Quote from the Welcome to Santander letter:
"If you are a current account customer you can also benefit from no foreign transaction fees when using any of the 4,300 Santander cash machines in Spain. To qualify , simply pay a minimum of £1000 into your current account each month , use your Visa debit card to make the withdrawl and select to have your withdrawl processed in Euros."
I queried this with A&L via email and they confirmed that as my account has now migrated accross to Santander, my A&L visa debit card will benefit from totally fee free ATM withdrawls from the Santander ATMs in Spain.
Has anyone tried this in Spain?

apt

On my current statement (exA&L current account) it says in black and white 'Simply use your Electron or Visa Debit card in a Santander cash machine in Spain and have the withdrawal processed in Euros for the transaction to be entirely fee free.' This is providing you deposit £1,000. It is pathetic that a bank does not know its own products.

[Deleted User]

At last! A supposedly definitive reply to my question?

To clarify, customers who make cash withdrawals overseas, irrespective of the cash machine being used, will pay charges for doing so. The charges were outlined in our previous email. There is no issue as to you being charged to withdraw your funds; the charges simply cover our costs in having to process the transactions to your account from EUROS to Sterling.

SO ALL Customers WILL pay charges.

however

At present we are advising customers who visit Spain that they can take advantage of not paying those fees by using any of the 4,300 Santander cash machines to withdraw cash. All we ask is that you use your Visa debit card and chose to make the withdrawal in EUROS. Please be aware you must use a Santander cash machine; do not use the bank's counter facility.

SO the first paragraph SHOULD have been ...machine being used EXCEPT Santander cash machines!!!!!

Isn't nice to see THE answer which changes it's mind half way through

msgnomey

I for one am moving to another (British) bank!