Santander Preferred Account

Nahhah

No no no, don’t do it! I too was lured by the £100 and 5% interest offer. I assumed that my £2000 overdraft from HSBC (also a remnant of my student account from four years ago) would automatically be transferred over as well. I’m not in it at the moment, but I tend to dip in a bit at the end of the month, so I thought the 0% interest would come in handy, and I didn’t care if it had a limit of £500 or £1000 as long as I had an overdraft!


The process has been long and complicated and now I do have all the information I need for my new bank account, I’ve seen that buried in some of the correspondence from a few weeks ago is a letter saying that following an Experian Credit Check I am not eligible for ANY overdraft!! I was confused by this as I have a good credit rating.



I phoned them this morning wondering if this might change when they actually transfer my HSBC balance over and the unhelpful woman on the other end told me that the decision will keep for six months until they review my circumstances again!! Argh!



Her only solution was to call HSBC to get my direct debits switched back. She couldn’t have been more disinterested and didn’t make any effort to try to keep what was nearly a new customer!


So I told her to stop the transfer and I’ve had to go crawling back to HSBC (who were tellingly much more helpful) to get my direct debits switched back again! They have to send me a form, which I need to fill in and take into a branch or send off.



So this has all been a hell of a lot of hassle to stay the same. I really wish I’d never bothered! Don’t be tempted, I chose to ignore what everyone said but Santander clearly are as terrible as everyone says!

ses6jwg

Nahhah wrote: »

No no no, don’t do it! I too was lured by the £100 and 5% interest offer. I assumed that my £2000 overdraft from HSBC (also a remnant of my student account from four years ago) would automatically be transferred over as well. I’m not in it at the moment, but I tend to dip in a bit at the end of the month, so I thought the 0% interest would come in handy, and I didn’t care if it had a limit of £500 or £1000 as long as I had an overdraft!


The process has been long and complicated and now I do have all the information I need for my new bank account, I’ve seen that buried in some of the correspondence from a few weeks ago is a letter saying that following an Experian Credit Check I am not eligible for ANY overdraft!! I was confused by this as I have a good credit rating.



I phoned them this morning wondering if this might change when they actually transfer my HSBC balance over and the unhelpful woman on the other end told me that the decision will keep for six months until they review my circumstances again!! Argh!



Her only solution was to call HSBC to get my direct debits switched back. She couldn’t have been more disinterested and didn’t make any effort to try to keep what was nearly a new customer!


So I told her to stop the transfer and I’ve had to go crawling back to HSBC (who were tellingly much more helpful) to get my direct debits switched back again! They have to send me a form, which I need to fill in and take into a branch or send off.



So this has all been a hell of a lot of hassle to stay the same. I really wish I’d never bothered! Don’t be tempted, I chose to ignore what everyone said but Santander clearly are as terrible as everyone says!

Aha but you ignored a golden rule of switching, and didn't do it in branch.

If you had, the adviser would have sent an appeal to the underwritiers who would have matched your OD within 48 hours.

shymanuk

can you do faster payments to and from this current account ....?

Baldur

shymanuk wrote: »

can you do faster payments to and from this current account ....?

No problems with FP in but outward ones range from very limited & unreliable to non-existent.

shymanuk

mmmmm not so sure if worth the hassel then ...... as dont wanna have to keep going in branch to get it . are there any other ways to remove the 1000 once paid in quickly?

anselld

shymanuk wrote: »

mmmmm not so sure if worth the hassel then ...... as dont wanna have to keep going in branch to get it . are there any other ways to remove the 1000 once paid in quickly?

Strangely enough FP standing orders work better than manual FPs at Santander ....

.... but I still wouldn't trust them with any of my money, personally.

Baldur

shymanuk wrote: »

mmmmm not so sure if worth the hassel then ...... as dont wanna have to keep going in branch to get it . are there any other ways to remove the 1000 once paid in quickly?

Even going into branch, you can only withdraw up to £500 per day over the counter (plus £300 via ATM).

pmduk

Boyer67 wrote: »

Would this be a prudent and (relatively) hassle-free move?

Who says this would be a hassle-free move? Unless you're having major problems with your bank, I personally would leave well alone.