Switching to Santander, problems with card

simrgrs

Lots of negativity towards Santander, they seem to have hacked off a lot of people, has anyone had any good experiences with them?

AshCooper75

I switched my Barclays Current Account to Alliance & Leicester a few years back and everything was going along great until recently they have decided to put a block on my accounts and cards and I have been unable to access any of my money for the last week!

I failed security, but only because it would have taken a genius with my online account in front of them to have answered their questions and in fact unless you have access to the online statements and transactions you've got no chance of speaking to anyone there about your account - I lost internet; I lost my ability to bank full stop! They want to know exact details of recent transactions, and I am talking pretty much down to the name and shoe size of the person who served you. I am only slightly exaggerating here. I told them about 4 or 5 transactions, not one of them was good enough in terms of the level of detail....

When I finally proved my ID to them - by going into a branch with my passport, I was told to make one more call and it would all be sorted only to find that this wasn't true and I now need to go back into the branch.

Avoid Santander

I agree with the poster - Santander "Muppets" - I will be moving to a bank who deal with customers not just processes....

simrgrs

AshCooper75 Thats shocking, I won't be doing any business over the phone with Santander as I'm fortunate to have a branch about a mile away and having spoken to the telephone so called customer services I've already come to the conclusion that they are retards.

update on the original issue is that having spoken to the person in branch who I opened my account with, she admits I should have been sent a full Visa Debit and its on order now, aside from that, everything else is going to plan with the switch, so I'm going to remain optimistic but take the warnings from others onboard. Santander have a 2 month trial period to get things right, I will be keeping my Natwest account open for a swift move back to them if Santander balls up! They haven't earned my confidence just yet!

Megadebtor

Lots of negativity towards Santander, they seem to have hacked off a lot of people, has anyone had any good experiences with them?

I'm afraid not. I closed a business account which I had with A&L in August and received a letter from Santander in December saying that the transfer of my account to them is nearly complete and that charges will then apply.
Apart from that I had a credit card with Abbey National years ago just as Santander took over, when I called them up the automated message kept saying that I had made payments of £0 on first of January even though I paid and called a month earlier in December. That went on for nearly a year believe it or not and was blamed on teething problems.
Also my dad, who's a pensioner, has had them deduct 295 Euros in tax on 300 Euros in interest earned. I keep telling him to get rid. The list goes on and on...

simrgrs

once again, tale of incompetance, regretting the switch but so far along the process have to now give it a go or face a lot of work to switch everything back - although from the comments on here, sounding inevitable, cheers for the replys everyone

Bloomberg

simrgrs wrote: »

Sorry for the long post! Hoping someone can give an opinion or information on a bad start to life with Santander

In the middle of switching from Natwest Adavantage Gold to Santander Reward Current Account, have been credit checked by Santander, account is open, have been issued with a cheque book, however, I was suprised when the card arrived as I thought with the Reward account, a full Visa Debit card was issued but the card that arrived was an unembossed printed "Visa Debit" with "ELECTRONIC USE ONLY" on the back.

Ive since been into branch and saw on their screen that they have issued a Visa Electron which I complained about as I have a full Visa Debit with Natwest and in my opinion should have one with the level of Santander account that I have been credit checked for. I am now having to appeal the card type!!

Hoping someone out there might know if Santander can issue an electron card if I have been credit checked and accepted for that level of account, surely they should have told me at the time if there was a problem with my credit record, and if there was, I'd have been declined for that kind of account anyway?! Direct Debits and Salary are all transfered to Santander, if I'd known i'd be getting a limited card, I'd have stopped the switching process, not impressed with them so far!

Why are you changing to Santander? The world's local circus:rotfl:

simrgrs

Had a few problems with Natwest, they aren't very accomodating and have an old-fashioned approach to things and my partner is with Santander so I thought I'd switch over to align our accounts for a future mortgage at the same bank, she's never had a problem with them so I thought why not, plus there was the incentive of the £100 for switching..

paulmcerlean

simrgrs wrote: »

Had a few problems with Natwest, they aren't very accomodating and have an old-fashioned approach to things and my partner is with Santander so I thought I'd switch over to align our accounts for a future mortgage at the same bank, she's never had a problem with them so I thought why not, plus there was the incentive of the £100 for switching..

Just make sure you do not spend the £100 switching bonus on a plane or on a train :rotfl:

They did the same with me. Approved me for a full account with overdraft and sent me an Electron card.

I cancelled the switching process and have remained HAPPY with Lloyds. I have a tenner in the Santander account to keep it active just in case one day the become a good bank.

simrgrs

Haha yea well, theyve admitted the electron card was a mistake an a full visa debit is on the way, however, i'll remain skeptical until I have it in my hand, and if for any reason anything but a full visa debit arrives, the Natwest account is staying open for a swift return to! (problems as there are but at least they provide full facilities)

Out of interest, did they give you a reason why they didnt give you a full visa debit rather than the electron? Did you ask them to send you a full visa? A full account with overdraft ought to have one, I'm interested to know their story behind that one as the same thing has happened to me

thatsean

Just to chip in here, I'm in the process of switching here, and so far so good.