MSE News: Santander to refund bogus card fees after latest gaffe

JStuart

i left santander 18 months ago, after having many many problems with my current account - unjustified interest charges being applied to my account, month in month out. i couldn't even close my own account, and it was a relief to finally be rid of them.

i have had an asdacard for around four years now, and was very pleased with the service i received from them... until santander took over the accounts. i have had problems since november now, unjustified interest charges again, and they are still not being resolved. i was told false interest charges would be automatically corrected, but they were not. so i had to phone to get this rectified. i phoned FOUR times, and spent over an hour on the phone, on their expensive phonelines, after having been cut off TWICE and being left on hold for an unthinkable amount of time. when i did get to speak to associates, they were all asian - i have nothing whatsoever against asian people, however it was very difficult to understand them. in addition, they did not seem to understand me fully, failed to explain the situation clearly to me, and ultimately were not able to resolve the situation satisfactorily.

the result so far is that the interest charges are not being refunded, and neither are all the cut-off phone calls. i tried to close my account, and i was told that i can't even do that yet.

there was a time when a company cared if they lost your custom, but this is not the case with santander.

i can not leave this company quickly enough - shoddy business practice, and disgraceful customer service do not interest me.

finally, i would like to add, it is scary how many santander branches are popping up everywhere - they have taken over abbey, alliance and leiceister, as well as several other credit card accounts. how are they allowed to dominate the high street like this????

JStuart

first direct are the way forward - customer service is second to none. i can not recommend them enough!!! and, in the correct circumstances, you get £100 for switching to them - fabulous!

JStuart

sooooooooo glad i am not the only one fed up with the most useless bank on the planet!

CiderBoy

Santander seem to be making mistakes left right & centre this month - there are also problems with the Paypal credit card.

With November's statement they sent out a notice of variation indicating that the minimum payment was changing from 3% of balance to interest charged + fees + 1% of balance from 31 December.

December's statements showed minimum payments based on 4% of outstanding balance. When phoning to query this I was informed that it was due to go up to 5% of balance with January's statement!

It was only when I pointed out the content of the notice of variation that they admitted that there had been an error. Apparently they moved to a new computer system in October and that was what was causing all of these errors.

I'm still waiting for a response to my formal complaint & the written confirmation of the error which I was promised.

[Deleted User]

Not only did they apply the £12 fee incorrectly, they also cancelled my Direct Debit (confirmed by my bank). They have charged me a futher £12 late payment fee and 2 months worth of interest so far. Called the 'Customer Service' line approximately 20 times over the last day and a half without getting through to anyone. Contacted them by their online system, see how that goes. Once this is sorted there will be no more to do with Santander, that's for sure.