How safe Santander?

periwinkle_2

Since Santander is huge and growing huger, could it go bang?

DavidHayton

periwinkle wrote: »

Since Santander is huge and growing huger, could it go bang?

If it goes bang, your money (upto 100,000 euro) is protected by the government scheme ... so I wouldn't worry about that.

The bigger concern is that, whilst they avoid going "bang", their customer services will drive you barmy.

David

Richmc

I'm in the process of closing my Santandare ISA, as the intrest has just plumeted to a miserly 0.5%. Luckely I'm doing so online so dont have to deal with customer services though I suspect the transfer of my cash out wont exactly be instant!

bermary

Richmc,would you let me know if the interest you get on your ISA from santander is what you thought it would be, just transfered mine out and disappointed at interest,going to ring them and find out the actual date the account started because it to me ages to get santander to accept my money after I had opened the account.

FLAPJACK

I have already posted on another thread my experience with Santander and a maturing 2 year ISA. However as a result of writing a complaint on their website I had a phone call within 40 minutes. The chap was very professional and wanted to know exactly what had happened and agreed that I had a valid complaint which he would make official. I did explain that I would still be taking my ISA away from them, he said that I would have no problem in doing so and if I did have a problem get back to him.

Two days later I had a delivery of a hamper from him personally on behalf of Santander.

Last week I sent a letter to a PO box No in Bradford complete with a copy of the maturity statement and a transfer authority form from the new provider.
I held my breath and was expecting the worst to happen and to be wrangling for weeks, however amazingly 4 days later I had a confirmation letter to tell me that the transfer had taken place (the balance was correct), I contacted the new provider who confirmed that they had got the cheque and the new ISA will be open next week and I am getting interest from the day they got the cheque.

So all in all Santander came up trumps...it's just a shame that the person who was representing Sandander in branch wasn't as seeminly professional as the complaints and ISA transfer dept were.

Cobertizo

Richmc wrote: »

I'm in the process of closing my Santandare ISA, as the intrest has just plumeted to a miserly 0.5%. Luckely I'm doing so online so dont have to deal with customer services though I suspect the transfer of my cash out wont exactly be instant!

Make sure you are transferring your ISA to another provider through the proper ISA transfer route, rather than just extracting the cash (assuming you want to reinvest the money, and not just spend it). That process is normally initiated by filling out a form at the bank where you will be transferring the money to, so you wouldn't normally need to speak to Santander (or use their online banking) for it. If you are doing a transfer, then it can take up to 30 days to take place, as far as I'm aware (though you rarely lose that much interest).

foxwales

Yes Santander can go bang.

The Eurozone is unlikely to prop any more banks through financing their home countries as this is driving down economic growth, banks are likely to be left to go to the wall.

Santander is a Spanish owned bak and Spain is in a dire economic state currently and considering lots of it's trading partners are also struggling economically growth is likely to be low.

Rising oil prices are also likely to have a huge impact, economists reckon that when oil surpasses $120 a barrel then inflation will rise at a quicker rate as the price of goods soar. Consumers will spend less on mon-essential items driving down growth further as they spend more money on food and fuel. The last time oil hit highs of $146 a barrel, the world was tipped into a global recession.

Indicators are already leaning towards another recession as low growth, reduced consumer spending and high taxes are throwing companies to the wall.

Countries cannot afford to keep banks afloat should we head for another recession so be mindful of your investments and savings this year, minimise risk as much as you can through diversifying and spreading any liquid assets you have.

shamrock77

DavidHayton wrote: »

If it goes bang, your money (upto 100,000 euro) is protected by the government scheme ... so I wouldn't worry about that.

The bigger concern is that, whilst they avoid going "bang", their customer services will drive you barmy.

David

So does that mean savings & isa's are covered? Glad i didnt go into 5 1/2 year investment now.

Seems to be all doom & gloom at the moment are any banks safe?

sabretoothtigger

foxwales wrote: »

Santander is a Spanish owned bak and Spain is in a dire economic state currently and considering lots of it's trading partners are also struggling economically growth is likely to be low.

Santander is Spanish like BP is british petroleum.



Biggest assets of BP are russian. Biggest assets for Santander would be UK and south america
I think they own like 20bn of spanish government debt

http://www.google.co.uk/finance?noIL=1&q=Santander


Differences from RBS to Santander is they keep each bank separate where RBS absorbed everything into a large wrecking ball in order to knock down its next target

Santander does have fairly large amounts of debt I think but also high growth from places like Brazil. Spain continuing to decline is not so great a problem so long as they retain growth in some areas of the group


Generally Santander retains control of its banks but also funds them and sells off some shares in them seperately in order to limit risk partly and to be self funding.

UK itself may see an IPO of UK Santander