santander direct isa holders check your interest!

burntbreadman

People who have a santander direct isa , check if you been paid your interest correctly!

I opened an account nov 2009 via transfer. It took 3 months to do and 6 visits to branch. They gave me £50 comp and promised to back date interest when bonus ends.

Went in and manager said he will do it. I checked my account and it was £80 under paid (not calculated compound) compaired to the 3% i signed for. I thought it was because it was variable rate.
I went home and checked my mail and I recieved a letter saying to visit your branch as your 3% rate is about to end.

Went back to the branch and was given a number to call. Gave them the details and was informed it will take between 2-4 weeks before someone will call me back to let me know whats going on.

Just wondering if anyone else has had issues with interest payments from santander or if im a one off case.

burntbreadman

I recieved a response to say that they have correctly calculated the interest and that they cant do anything more for me. My only option is the ombudsman.
I called up regardless and they said they could understand the error and a cheque would be sent out part for the intrest owed the rest was good will.
The problem now is its still wrong!
As I have had to fight for my case again and again, giving me hassle and stress, wasting me time. Combined with the 10 calls to the branch, 8 visits to the branch at their request (inc parking and fuel) and even having a partner visit on my behalf at their loss of a few hours earnings, over mutiple visits. (due to me unable to get time off work)
They offered me a grand total of £66 goodwill.
Do i have a case for the ombudsman? Especially as their final descision still underpays my interest (i think it was calculated as a percentage not through compound interest-so the difference im under paid is small ....around £12)????

ses6jwg

Which issue Direct Isa do you have?

ChrisQ

We are going down the same road as you.

21/3/09 - we opened a Direct ISA Issue 5 by transfer of funds (£12,800) from C&G. The pamphlet described this 3% inc a 1.5% bonus until 6/4/10.
7/4/09 - the transfer funds are finally in the account (17 days)
7/12/09 - Went to same branch, advised to move ISA to a better-paying 2 year Fixed Rate Cash ISA at 3.5%. Completed the paper work and believed this had happened.
1/1/10 - Gross Interest for 9 months £230 - no explanation of what rates used - internet is still showing the old name of Issue 5
5/1/11 - Gross interest for 12 months £180!!
20/1/11 - Appt with Financial Adviser. Discover that the account was not changed. The lady refused to believe that it had been requested as they didn't operate that way (implication being that we lied)
20/1/11 - Letter to Santander chairman's office detailing situation
24/1/11 - At different Santander branch moved money to 2 year "Postal" ISA earning 3.25%. (and added an additional £5100) Same process that "could not have occurred” on 7/12/09
4/2/11 - Letter to chairman's office answered by clerk in Bradford Office accompanied by a £50 "goodwill" gesture. More detailed information about interest provided with 4 incorrect dates, rates and amounts etc
19/2/11 - Letter to escalate the level of complaint with a promise that I would take this to the FSA - awaiting reply.
25/2/11 - Internet says that the account is still a Direct ISA Issue 5 - as it has done from 2009.

At a rough estimate we have lost around £300 interest so far. Every person we have dealt with - branches, call centre sent, internet advisers give different information and advice. When you open an account there is no account info given to you - we had to ask for photocopies of forms completed and prints from the computer account

The regulation of the ISA providers in the UK is patchy at best. It is only last year that they started to insist that providers told their clients that savings account were now earning only 0.5% base rate interest.

It seems that in some areas the senior management supervision of these so-called financial advisers is woeful.

I am now beginning to strongly suspect that many, many savers are probably receiving incorrect interest on accounts they open.

It hasn't helped your case specifically - but if I get a useful response, I will post again

Best wishes Chris

libra10

We had a similar thing happening.

My OH and I both opened Santander ISA Directs within a week of each other, same amounts. Mine went through first. Then a couple of months later, OH added another £1500 to his account.

However, I received more interest than him. I phoned requesting an explanation and they sent out his statement, in an envelope with no stamp on! It cost around £1.50 to collect from the P.O.

The statement didn't really explain the differences but we have taken it no further.

flossy_splodge

Any reason why not?:o

burntbreadman

I have filed a complaint with the financial ombudsman about 3 weeks ago now. Managed to get everything together, loads of letters from santander, wrote a time line of events (letters back it up), my calculations etc.
For a financial organisation as large as Santander, not being able to calculated something as fundamental as interest is shocking. Even a 12 could do better! Not only multiple people managed to calculate it wrong; but when the finally agreed, they take a short cut and not bother calculating compound interest Jwhich im sure i learnt how to do in school all those years ago)
Ive recieved my letter back from the ombudsman to let me know that they are working on it and contacting the bank for their side of the story.
Now its a waiting game. Ill post if anything happens eventually, thing someone said it can take up to 6 months.

burntbreadman

Its an on going saga with Santender. After sending all correspondance I had to the ombudsman, I eventually got a result.....kind of.
Santander agreed to pay the difference that was calculated incorrectly but couldnt pay anymore as they already gave me £70 goodwill already. So if I didnt spend the entra time and money fighting for what was rightfully mine to begin with I would have been out of pocket.
Although wasnt happy with the settlement due to the time, cost and distress its all cause; I accepted the settlement.
The ombudsman said it shouldnt take more than 4 weeks for the settlement to come through. 6 weeks later, nothing.
Time to call the ombudsman methinks or retract my acceptance of the settlement and take them to small claims- any thoughts?

In comparison to the months santander took. I transfered into a e-isa with Nationwide, within a week my account was opened and money transfered in. Beats the months it took with Santender.
At 3.1% its not as good as the currant Santender but as it accepts transfers whilst the santender does not, it works out better for me.
Never Santender again for anything, they cant calculate basic maths, are reluctant to accept wrong doings. And there is so much hassle and requires multiple attemps to even get them to understand the complaints.

Lets see what happens next.

rjm2k1

burntbreadman wrote: »

Never Santender again for anything

Lets see what happens next.

Agreed, they are yet another organisation that has become too large, everyone department is disconnected from the rest, few people you get to talk to actually understand anything you say and even when they say they've corrected an error, they actually haven't. Had issues with Cahoot and A&L now, will be avoiding the Santandare empire from now on, trouble is there doesn't appear to be much better out there!

burntbreadman

Arrrrr! I tried to retract my acceptance but the ombudsman said I can't even with me admitting my error and wanted to have the ombudsman review the case. I recon they just wanted to avoid the extra work. To be honest I wouldn't reccomend going to the ombudsman either. Whoevers dealing with my account, never answers their phone despite calling every day 4 or 5 times a day. They never call back when you leave a voice message. They never get back to you on anything they say they do.
Not too sure if I should take any furthur action else where as its now been 13 plus weeks since I've signed the acceptance, any thoughts?

Santander by far the worst financial company I've ever dealt with and want to make sure everyone knows.

burntbreadman

Finally its been resolved. 6 months after signing the agreement and badgering the ombudsman with phone calls and emails.....success.
After the 6 months I decided one more push at the ombudsman, and was given 'we have to give them 8 weeks before we can proceed with another complaint' (despite waiting 6 months already)
8 weeks passed and nothing. After more badgering, I ended up speaking to someone higher up at the ombudsman.
Two weeks later I get a cheque for £100 plus interest owed on my account.
Never ever use santander for anything.
Cant open accounts, transfer money, pay interest correctly not once, twice but three times. And disregards anything they agree upon with the ombudsman for over 6 months.

I hope people that see this post just think twice about using santander and others post about their bad experience with them.