Santander - !!! - downgrade Internet Banking

baublebag

Since Santander moved my A&L accounts onto their system, a fundamental change in the way the formerly A&L Internet Banking system operates has come to light which all former A&L account holders need to be aware of.

It started when the bonus rate on my A&L eSaver expired, so (as usual each year - sigh!) I had to jump through the hoop of opening a new one. Due to the takeover, the only account now on offer was a Santander eSaver. They assured me everything would work exactly the same as with the A&L eSaver and there is certainly no indication anywhere on the Internet Banking screens that anything has changed.

I previously reported how I noticed last month that a pre-programmed transfer from this new savings account to my current account to cover a bill payment did not arrive in my current account until after the pre-programmed date, causing my current account to briefly show a small overdraft.

Santander wrote me a bizarre letter saying this is because transfers take 'up to three working days'. I rang pointing out that I was not talking about payments to external accounts, but pre-scheduled internal transfers between my Santander savings and my Santander current accounts.

They have now written to me again (and the letter is even more bizarre) confirming in black and white that this is the new policy. Transfers between your eSaver account and your current account that you pre-schedule via Internet Banking are not, under the new regime, executed ON the pre-programmed day as was always the case in the past (and as far as I know is the case with every other provider), but according to this letter (from the 'Team Manager - Complaints') they are now treated as external payments and take up to three working days.

So - WATCH OUT FOR THIS IF YOU SCHEDULE A BIG BILL PAYMENT!!!!

I complained pretty vociferously about this and (rather unexpectedly - how desperate are they to keep customers?) they have given me 25 quid because they 'would not wish for me to remain aggrieved'.

Remain aggrieved? I am remaining SPITTING BLOOD! They have sabotaged the whole basis of Internet Banking as far as I am concerned. Everybody has their price but it would take a lot more than 25 quid for me to stay with Santander now (there has been a lot more hassle as well as this).

I would like to know why MSE still so vigorously promotes Santander, also propagating the big fib that their eSaver is 'unlimited instant access' . A&L eSavers have always been limited to £25k a day maximum withdrawal, so if this is still the case and you were daft enough to put a million quid in (which the MSE recommendation implies would be good plan), it would take you 40 days to get it all out. Most of us would not be troubled by this to that extent (!), but an unexpected delay of even three or four days to get all your savings out does not exactly amount to 'instant access'! Especially worrying if, say, you committed to put a deposit on a house on a particular day, and you foolishly assumed your account was 'unlimited instant access'. Big problem!

Now, as you can only operate this eSaver online (as they tell you very assertively if you even ask about it in the branch), the concept of 'instant access' has been further stretched to mean 'up to three working days', for pre-programmed transfers anyway.

Bizarrely (I know, I am running out of adjectives to describe Santander) when I tried an Internet Banking 'quick transfer' it did seem to still work instantly, which makes their assertion that pre-programmed internal transfers will now take up to three days even more baffling. Hm - come to think of it maybe the quick transfers work instantly only up to the Faster Payments limit, I only tried a small amount. More experiment needed here I think.

Anyway, anyone else now suffering under the yoke of Santander, watch out for this for goodness' sake if you pre-schedule a big payment.

Sorry about the essay!

Rochdale_Pioneers

I'd spotted this a few months back as I was bailing out of A&Santander to Co-op.

Happily have now cleared every last penny out of their grasp. they can shove it.

baublebag

Thx, I looked at Smile but their linked savings account only pays 0.25%.
I hate to say it but Natwest looks a better bet at 1%, I have an ISA with them and it's been fine.
But I think ateotd I'll probably go back to FD.

I had a charity credit card with Co-op with a decent credit limit that I kept for emergencies, it fell to the bottom of the wallet and didn't get used for a while (the lure of tesco points - he he), and so suddenly and with no warning whatsoever they cut the limit to £250, rendering it useless. They seemed to suggest that as I hadn't used the card I might not be a responsible borrower - presumably people who max out on cards all the time are 'responsible' ?

AnonymousForObviousReason

Lloyds did the same to one of my cards. Stopped using it for a year, it went from £10,000 down to £1000, then after another 18 months got a letter saying it's being closed, so would be dropping limit to £500 then £250 a few month later.

I think it's to make their balance sheets look better, showing they have smaller amounts of credit they are exposed to having to lend.