Santander

lulu999

I requested a closure of my account on the 4th Jan and was told the funds would be in the account I provided the details of within 3 to 5 working days.
Irritating when a BACS payment is only 3 days.
Today, the money is still not in my chosen account, some 9 days after instructing them.
I rang their call centre and was informed the account was closed on the 6th Jan the funds transfer was initiated on the 7th Jan, counting from the 10th means the funds will be in my account tomorrow!

What a bloody perverse way to conduct business in this modern age.
Why wasn't the account closed on the 4th?
Why wasn't the funds transfer initiated on the 4th?
BACS payments take 3 working days including the day instructions are initiated.
The funds should ahve been in my account on the 6th Jan.

All I got were lies and mealy mouthed answers from the call centre staff that didn't help anything, and, they still have my money.

Whatever interest rate they offer isn't worth it when your money's being withheld without accruing interest.

Disgusting organisation.

ChrisEvanson

Completely agree. My girlfriend has Santander accounts but not for much longer. She plans to withdraw the max amount in cash each day and pay that into her new bank, then close the account.

She had a ridiculous time trying to close a previous account, which was joint with her ex. They couldn't do it because there was interest pending so had to wait for the interest to be added. Then when it was added they would say there was more interest accruing but only after saying they would close it and then failing to do so. This went on for months.

They are unhelpful when paying in cheques where her name is mis-spelled and refuse them yet take them if paid in through the wall. I bank with HSBC and Natwest and was quite shocked when I paid some cheques in one day for her in Santander (or Abbey as it was then) how offhand the teller was.

I wouldn't touch Santander with a bargepole.

Why is it when I transfer money to/from HSBC/Natwest online it is instant yet with Santander it takes nearly a week?

opinions4u

If it's a current account, they need to wait for any outstanding electronic debits to come through which would justify a delay.

If it's a savings account, yup, awful!

They are unhelpful when paying in cheques where her name is mis-spelled

There is a law that says they shouldn't accept them. ensure the people drawing the cheque do it properly.

ChrisEvanson

opinions4u wrote: »

If it's a current account, they need to wait for any outstanding electronic debits to come through which would justify a delay.

If it's a savings account, yup, awful!

There is a law that says they shouldn't accept them. ensure the people drawing the cheque do it properly.

Her surname say is Chapleton and her married name Chapleton-Smythe. The account was originally in the name Chapleton. So she does get cheques now she is divorced in her maiden surname as people assume she will have dropped her partners name (Smythe) As the account was originally in her Chapleton name they have always accepted cheques to this name, but one teller at her branch won't. All the others do!

Also it was a credit (interest of 1p!) they delayed closing the account for. Not a debit. Then when paid the system would say interest was being calculated and owed thus back to square one. It was a joke as her ex was still using it so it needed to be closed as they had divorced.

shaftedbysantander

yup, santander are proof that the interest rate is irrelevant if they lose your money. santander paid out £750 out of my account to someone else, and after initially telling me the money would be back in my accouunt after four days, then said they needed to investigate. after six weeks, they sent me a letter telling me i had to get the money back off the people they gave it to, who surprise, have no intention of giving it to me. bank with santander at your peril ...

oldfella

next time you close an account move all the money out first

lulu999

Unbelievable.
A cheque's arrived in the post today.
I gave them account details to pay the funds into, now I've got a !!!!ing cheque that is too late to pay in today and I've got to drive into town to pay it in on the 17th and wait for it to clear.

They are a disgrace.

(This is not the end of matters.)

titannia101

Santander returned a direct debit to our credit card company without any reason -there was more than enough cash in the account to pay it. Been trying to get it sorted and the fee refunded by Santander that the credit card charged us, since November without any sucess. It's not the first problem over the last 6 months. I've just opened a new Co-Op account and will be transfering all our accounts to them!

baby_boomer

Thieves and liars is potentially libellous stuff. I've had not problems with Santander. Sorry to hear that the OP has.

Bundling together a few of our mortgage banks before ****ing off back to Spain was always likely to lead to bad customer service, though.

DavidHayton

oldfella wrote: »

next time you close an account move all the money out first

That's what I have done. They ignored the letter that I wrote to them asking them to close the account and transfer the funds to my new bank. I phoned them up and they said that they couldn't do this sort of thing over the phone. Their suggestion was that I empty the account (done) and then go into a branch with the account number and ID so I could prove who I was. I am going tomorrow! Wish me luck. David

rb10

ChrisEvanson wrote: »

My girlfriend has Santander accounts but not for much longer. She plans to withdraw the max amount in cash each day and pay that into her new bank, then close the account.

Why not just ask them to do a BACS transfer? Or get a cheque?

Does she really want to go through the hassle of going to two banks multiple times to get cash?