Santander 5% interest, BE CAREFUL

intranicity

Hi, Newbie, but just thought i'd pass on my experiance of this.

Opened a new account before christmas, thought £100 and 5% was a great offer.....

Shortly after opening account I stupidly upgraded it to one of their 'Reward' accounts, when all the info came through, I saw that it wasn't worth me paying for this account and went in branch to revert the account back to the original account, this was all handled very straightforwardly......

The annoying part is though that it now transpires after querying the amount of interest I have received (Average balance has been around £1500 and I got 34p interest) that as I have 'down graded' the account, I'm no longer eligeble for 5%

Just waiting to get the £100 and i'll be off to the Halifax

izools

Typical Santander obfuscation I'm afraid.

You can thank your lucky stars that you're getting out when you are as this would have been only the start of a whole plethora of issues to plague your time banking with Santander.

Suffice it to say there isn't a worse bank in the UK. As a fellow member says on their signature - "I once thought all banks were as bad as each other. I now realise Santander are worse than all the others put together". Ture.

Good luck with Halifax :beer:

intranicity

This has really annoyed me, looked through all the small print in the T&C's, unable to find this clause where 'downgrading' to the original account loses you the interest.

Just spent 30 mins on the phone, strangely, the call centres can't see it either!!! and have raised a complaint for me, so who knows, I might get the interest rate back, not that it will make much difference as will be moving to the Halifax as soon as I get the £100 paid in regardless of what the outcome is.

Shame really as the move and everything else seemed so easy and I was thinking, maybe Santander aren't as bad as most people think.......

intranicity

No luck getting the interest rate reinstated, but I did get an ex gratia payment of £25 by way of apology and confirmation of when the £100 will be credited to my account, so will be moving as soon as I have it and closing the account.

Have to say in Santander's favour, the gent in the complaints department though was friendly, knowledgeable and genuinely appeared to try and resolve this issue, so maybe things are improving!

callum9999

intranicity wrote: »

This has really annoyed me, looked through all the small print in the T&C's, unable to find this clause where 'downgrading' to the original account loses you the interest.

Just spent 30 mins on the phone, strangely, the call centres can't see it either!!! and have raised a complaint for me, so who knows, I might get the interest rate back, not that it will make much difference as will be moving to the Halifax as soon as I get the £100 paid in regardless of what the outcome is.

Shame really as the move and everything else seemed so easy and I was thinking, maybe Santander aren't as bad as most people think.......

That's because there is no need for it to be in there. You were given the 5% rate as an introductory offer and then subsequently closed the account (in effect). You then re-opened the account and as you are no longer new, you don't get the introductory offer.

intranicity

callum9999 wrote: »

That's because there is no need for it to be in there. You were given the 5% rate as an introductory offer and then subsequently closed the account (in effect). You then re-opened the account and as you are no longer new, you don't get the introductory offer.

You are probably correct, as I can't get the rate back, but if that was the case, why am I still entitled to the £100? the deal was, switch to us, get 5% for 12 months and £100, you'd assume it would be all or nothing, or I would..... Academic anyway, post was more to warn others not to do anything with their account if they want the 5%

Cmdr_Bond

Ahh, you forget this is Santander we are dealing with.





All normal logic must be checked at the door.

Mikeyorks

intranicity wrote: »

Have to say in Santander's favour, the gent in the complaints department though was friendly, knowledgeable and genuinely appeared to try and resolve this issue, so maybe things are improving!

It's the (lots and lots of) 'practice makes perfect' coming into play? Only Santander have perfected complaints to this degree!

[Deleted User]

santander - standard procedures :S complaints..:P

callum9999

intranicity wrote: »

You are probably correct, as I can't get the rate back, but if that was the case, why am I still entitled to the £100? the deal was, switch to us, get 5% for 12 months and £100, you'd assume it would be all or nothing, or I would..... Academic anyway, post was more to warn others not to do anything with their account if they want the 5%

You did get both. The £100 is for switching, which you're getting, and the 5% rate was valid for a year, which you got until you effectively closed the account when you upgraded.

Fair enough, it's an easy mistake to make (and one Santander should have been sympathetic to in my opinion, it's not as if you ran off to another bank - and now they've lost a customer because of it).

IrishGypsy

The problem lies in the fact that the system itself doesn't offer the ability to 'downgrade' to a 5% account (only 1%). It doesn't factor in the introductory rate.

So no-one would have been able to change it back to 5% (unless it's something the back office can do - but the branches or call centers certainly can't)!