Bye Bye Santander!

rb7oaks

Venusflytrap wrote: »

Hi babs98, can you pls elaborate on the root cause of your discontent with Halifax? My hubby and I recently opened a rewards joint acct to benefit from the £5 credit but have found one flaw in the system - it appears that Halifax standing orders over £1000 can take up to 3 working days to clear instead of around 2 hours by faster payments as most banks do. This meant that our rent for last month was 3 days late; luckily our landlady of 4 years was accommodating... We are still unsure whether Halifax supports FPs or not.

Are there any more 'surprises' we should be aware of.

I also joined Halifax from Santander - and have not had any problems with the FP, they work far more consistently than Santander did - which was hit and miss at best! However, each bank has limits on what it will allow for FPs, check here http://www.chapsco.co.uk/faster_payments/-/page/fpslimits/

For standing orders the Lloyds Group FP limit is £1000, whereas Santander was £5,000....if it worked that is!

I haven't found any issues yet on my accounts, although I also moved my mother's accounts, for which I have POA and have hit a few problems there... but so far they have been sorting them out better than Santander ever did.

Hope that helps a bit.

BurntOut

ses6jwg wrote: »

The underfunding fee of £5 was in the terms and conditions of the Premier Direct account long before Santander came along so fail to see how it is their fault.

The underfunding fees were waived for the first 6 months of migration whilst the accounts were moved to a new system.

Obviously, but whats the problem with dropping a letter in the post to say, hey Mr Customer you will be incurring these charges etc etc. Never had a charge in my life before this one and as I had the account for yrs previously you'd think they'd notice from my history that it was abit strange. They notice quickly enough if your doing loads of transactions on your acc then block it til you confirm it is you doing them. Understand now why peops get annoyed with banks.

ERICS_MUM

BurntOut wrote: »

Obviously, but whats the problem with dropping a letter in the post to say, hey Mr Customer you will be incurring these charges etc etc. Never had a charge in my life before this one and as I had the account for yrs previously you'd think they'd notice from my history that it was abit strange. They notice quickly enough if your doing loads of transactions on your acc then block it til you confirm it is you doing them. Understand now why peops get annoyed with banks.

As the account remained open they should have continued to send you statements. Without a statement you could had no idea that it wa still open nor see was going onto the account.

A general comment to all of you who have closed their accounts with the Santander group of "banks". Get a couple of pieces of proof that the account really has been closed:

1. written confirmation that the account has actually been closed,

2. a statement showing the account balance has been reduced to nil and states "Account Closed" at the bottom.

3. If it's a deposit account the closing statement or letter should show the amount of interest paid and tax deducted for the current tax year to closing date.

4. send a small on-line payment to it - it should bounce back if the account really is closed.

5. Try to pay a cheque into it. It should be rejected.

6. Call their telephone banking service for a balance.

Keep all this evidence in case you need it in 6, 12, 24 months to sort out problem such as OP's.

BurntOut

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

As the account remained open they should have continued to send you statements. Without a statement you could had no idea that it wa still open nor see was going onto the account.

I hear ya, the Santander guy said to me did you not get any statements, to which I retorted, I havent had any statements since Santander took over my acc from A&L. Prob why he removed the £55 charge.

And to be honest I have little faith the acc will be closed like I asked.

mutter

I've banked with Abbey/Santander for around 12 years.
Three or four years ago, they called me outof the blue and offered me a £500 overdraft, which I accepted, but barely touched till my mother died in October of this year.
As well as all the unexpected expenses that a death in the family incurs, my income dropped as I was in receipt of Carer's Allowance so in the run up to Christmas, I ended up using my overdraft (though not to its limit).

Sometime between Christmas and New Year, I phoned 'Customer Services' on an unrelated matter, only to be told that from January 1st, my overdraft facility was being withdrawn, and that if I wanted to speak to anyone about this, I should make an appointment at my local branch (not easy in the middle of the festive season) but when I tried to do so, and explained why, I was told that they couldn't deal with it and if I wanted an overdraft, I'd have to call the Sales Department, which I did, and guess what? They transferred me to the local branch so I could make an appointment.

To cut a long story short, despite my begging grovelling and showing them solicitors letters showing I'd inherited a half share of a substantial house, they wouldn't budge and the overdraft was ended.

I thought of closing the account there and then, but perhaps revenge is a dish best served cold, and once I get the cheque from the sale of the house - which is imminent - I intend to pay it into my current account.................... and then close it, with a full explanation of why.

I'm looking forward to that.

ses6jwg

BurntOut wrote: »

I hear ya, the Santander guy said to me did you not get any statements, to which I retorted, I havent had any statements since Santander took over my acc from A&L. Prob why he removed the £55 charge.

And to be honest I have little faith the acc will be closed like I asked.

You didn't get any statements because the Premier Direct was an online account.

You would never have had any statements for it.

You got 6% on your credit balance and in return there are no paper statements and a £5 underfunding fee.

Venusflytrap

rb7oaks wrote: »

For standing orders the Lloyds Group FP limit is £1000

Cheers for the info.

chrissie_jay

I have had an account for about 30 years with Giro then A & L - no trouble until Santander came along. My husband has had an account with Barclays and we decided to make both joint in case we need access. All the transactions on my Santander account are mine so I was a bit upset when my husband got a call on his mobile about 'suspected fraud'. He didn't know anything about the transactions so didn't answer. Then they rang me on my mobile and it was an automated message saying this was the account of Mr..... if this is you press 1 if not press 5. I pressed 5 thinking it would then ask for Mrs... but it didn't, it cut me off. I tried again, this time lying and saying I was him. It asked if I had made a cheque for £5000 I entered Yes, because I had. I rang complaints and told them that this was my account and if they look when they ask security Q's they could see all transactions were mine and my name comes first. Next day I received a call on my mobile saying exactly the same not mentioning me as an account holder. I rang complaints again. A week later I took some money out of savings and wrote a cheque for an ISA. Same thing happened, except I had now been blocked from getting access to my account. Rang complaints again.

Today I received a letter telling me how important I am and how pleased they are that I have complained. They can see they have made an error and that I shouldn't be receiving phone calls about my husband's internet banking account. I am now doing some research to look for another bank.

slush

Santander are a totally incompetent. Leave them at the earliest opportunity.

Cmdr_Bond

chrissie_jay wrote: »

I have had an account for about 30 years with Giro then A & L - no trouble until Santander came along. My husband has had an account with Barclays and we decided to make both joint in case we need access. All the transactions on my Santander account are mine so I was a bit upset when my husband got a call on his mobile about 'suspected fraud'. He didn't know anything about the transactions so didn't answer. Then they rang me on my mobile and it was an automated message saying this was the account of Mr..... if this is you press 1 if not press 5. I pressed 5 thinking it would then ask for Mrs... but it didn't, it cut me off. I tried again, this time lying and saying I was him. It asked if I had made a cheque for £5000 I entered Yes, because I had. I rang complaints and told them that this was my account and if they look when they ask security Q's they could see all transactions were mine and my name comes first. Next day I received a call on my mobile saying exactly the same not mentioning me as an account holder. I rang complaints again. A week later I took some money out of savings and wrote a cheque for an ISA. Same thing happened, except I had now been blocked from getting access to my account. Rang complaints again.

Today I received a letter telling me how important I am and how pleased they are that I have complained. They can see they have made an error and that I shouldn't be receiving phone calls about my husband's internet banking account. I am now doing some research to look for another bank.

Sorry, but thats nothing compared to what I have been through with them (link in sig).

Personally I have moved to Lloyds, although I am sure there are many people who would advise against this .

The most recommended for customer service are First Direct and Co-op.