Positive Santander customer service experience!

spikyone

OK, so I know many on these forums hate 'the Spanish bank', and their customer service. And it's only fair to say, if you look at some of my other posts, that I've defended said bank when people have unfairly jumped on that bandwagon. But tonight I really do have something good to say about them.

Coming to the end of my Tesco credit card's 0% period, I changed the direct debit so that it would take the entire balance. And yep, I'd been stoozing it.
For some reason Tesco have a policy that they take "entire balance" DDs four days earlier than "minimum payment" DDs, although for the life of me I can't remember the website telling me that when I changed the DD (I found out when I called them later).

Checking my balance earlier on, Tesco had tried to take the DD without the money being there, and Santander had unsurprisingly reversed the transaction. That's going to cost me... So a quick call to Santander to check how much the charges are and whether they can do anything about them. And with a couple of minutes explaining what had happened, the charges are waived. Just this once, apparently, but thank you anyway Santander. :beer:

pmduk

A happy Santander customer. Quick have him stuffed!!

spikyone

pmduk wrote: »

A happy Santander customer. Quick have him stuffed!!

It's OK, someone's already been along to add some balance!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3326022
:rotfl:

fluffnutter

spikyone wrote: »

OK, so I know many on these forums hate 'the Spanish bank', and their customer service. And it's only fair to say, if you look at some of my other posts, that I've defended said bank when people have unfairly jumped on that bandwagon. But tonight I really do have something good to say about them.

Coming to the end of my Tesco credit card's 0% period, I changed the direct debit so that it would take the entire balance. And yep, I'd been stoozing it.
For some reason Tesco have a policy that they take "entire balance" DDs four days earlier than "minimum payment" DDs, although for the life of me I can't remember the website telling me that when I changed the DD (I found out when I called them later).

Checking my balance earlier on, Tesco had tried to take the DD without the money being there, and Santander had unsurprisingly reversed the transaction. That's going to cost me... So a quick call to Santander to check how much the charges are and whether they can do anything about them. And with a couple of minutes explaining what had happened, the charges are waived. Just this once, apparently, but thank you anyway Santander. :beer:

Pics or it didn't happen.

spikyone

fluffnutter wrote: »

Pics or it didn't happen.

Yes, let me just post a screenshot of my bank account on here...

It's not all good though, as Tesco have decided to charge me £12 for the reversed transaction. Whilst I will admit that, re-reading my statement, it says the money will be debited on the 27th, I can't for the life of me understand why they would change the DD date just because I want to pay off in full.

Perhaps this is because people use the 0% rate then change their DD at the end of the period to clear it - £12 by moving the DD from after payday to before it is an easy win for them, for those who don't notice. Time to complain to Tesco then... :mad:

fluffnutter

spikyone wrote: »

I can't for the life of me understand why they would change the DD date just because I want to pay off in full.

It'll be due to processing. Basically they'll have batch processes that run to take money from people's accounts. These take time, they have errors that need resolving, they need scheduling etc. Any bank (or other type of institution) will spread its processes throughout the month if they can to ensure a steady workflow without peaks and troughs. Hence they'll run Process A (DDs in full) on Day X and Process B (Minimum payment DDs) on Day Y.

spikyone

fluffnutter wrote: »

It'll be due to processing.

...which is a fair answer.

Really, what's irked me about this is that they communicated the change in a less-than-obvious manner, and still sent the statement on the same day as every other month! I'm man enough to accept some blame but they should be far clearer if they're making the payment date earlier, which can result in penalties (obviously making it later is less of a problem).