What banks are NOT part of Santander

Benson

I desperately want to move away from Santander but every bank i seems to look up has been acquired by or has a link to Santander, and no doubt will eventually by run by them or similarly etc

On my high street are:

Natwest
Barclays
LLoyds TSB
RBS

Are any of these not part of Santander? Im also looking to move my business account from them also so need it for personal and business reasons.

Im getting very confused about who belongs to who!

Cmdr_Bond

As far as I am aware - Barclays and Lloyds TSB.

Santander, I believe, have purchased or are purchasing 318 RBS branches and a total of 2 million RBS/NatWest accounts.

[edit]

Doing some more digging (here)

Lloyds Banking Group = Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Birmingham Midshires, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Intelligent Finance, Saga
Santander = Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, ???Natwest???, ???RBS??? ASDA, Bradford & Bingley, Cahoot, Honeycomb
Barclays = Barclays, Standard Life
HSBC = HSBC, First Direct

jen245

If you are in Scotland, dont touch Natwest, if you are in England, dont touch RBS, Santander have bought all Scottish Natwest branches, and all but one RBS branches in England.
I moved from Santander to Natwest, and Im in England, so they wont be getting their filthy mits on any of my accounts

Benson

There should be a ruling to prevent such a take over! Santander are appalling and i can't get away from them!

Seems I shall enquire at Natwest (England) will be checking if there is any link for the English branches and Lloyds TSB then!
Used to be with Barclays and moved to Santander from them because they were awful too!

Have accounts with Halifax who are fantastic but closed my local branch and the nearest one is miles away which is a nightmare trying to pay money in.

zppp

Benson wrote: »

There should be a ruling to prevent such a take over! Santander are appalling and i can't get away from them!

Seems I shall enquire at Natwest (England) will be checking if there is any link for the English branches and Lloyds TSB then!
Used to be with Barclays and moved to Santander from them because they were awful too!

Have accounts with Halifax who are fantastic but closed my local branch and the nearest one is miles away which is a nightmare trying to pay money in.

To clarify;

Natwest branches in England and RBS branches in Soctland will remain in the ownership of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. These branches have no links to Lloyds Banking Group or any other bank whatsoever.

ffacoffipawb

Cmdr_Bond wrote: »

Barclays = Barclays, Standard Life

Don't think so somehow.

Barclays may sell Standard Life products but they are unrelated, separately listed companies, unless you have some insider info.

Cmdr_Bond

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

Don't think so somehow.

Barclays may sell Standard Life products but they are unrelated, separately listed companies, unless you have some insider info.

According to the link I posted above that statement (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/savings-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=440726&in_page_id=7), Listed under Banking Compensation, the Name of bank "Standard Life Bank" is Licensed by "Barclays Bank plc".

That is the extent of my info, so my apologies if I have the wrong end of the stick.

ffacoffipawb

Cmdr_Bond wrote: »

According to the link I posted above that statement (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/savings-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=440726&in_page_id=7), Listed under Banking Compensation, the Name of bank "Standard Life Bank" is Licensed by "Barclays Bank plc".

That is the extent of my info, so my apologies if I have the wrong end of the stick.

Ah, looks like Standard Life (the insurer) sold off the bank and Barclays bought it!

http://www.barclays.co.uk/Generalinformation/WelcometoStandardLifeBankcustomers/P1242561782739

Cmdr_Bond

Apologies for any confusion.

RosieTiger

I think Santander being nominated as best buy should also be seriously looked at by this site. I have just written to them about how their double standards on transfer times for money is always mysteriously in their favour.
We will be pulling our savings from them in the next few weeks - very poor service.

scragend

Benson wrote: »

There should be a ruling to prevent such a take over! Santander are appalling and i can't get away from them!

In a way it was a "ruling" that made it happen in the first place - as part of the terms of their bail out, RBS were made to sell all their English branches (and their NatWest branches in Scotland), and the accounts that go with them, to reduce their market share.

I agree about Santander though - I had an Alliance & Leicester and an Abbey credit card, both of which I have now closed. My A&L mortgage is tied in till 2013 though