Santander - they really are going down the pan!

NJS1982

We have been Alliance and Leicester customers for many years. Our joint account has been in existence for four years now, with all our household bills coming out, including our mortgage of £792. this joint account always had an overdraft facility of £1,000, which we rarely used at all but on the odd occasion that we did, it was by £10-50 approximately, certainly not the £1,000.

A&L are obviously now Santander. In recent months, they have reduced our overdraft facility down to just £50. I have queried this with them a couple of times when I noticed that value on the internet banking log in (as obviously they did not write or call to tell us about this change from £1,000 down to just £50, that would be far too helpful). My point each time was that I wanted more than just £50, for the 'just in case' and the 'what ifs' should one month we need to use the overdraft (at 50p per day, which is in itself frustrating if you go overdrawn for just a couple of days, but fair enough...).

Yesterday our mortgage payment was taken and then reimbursed instantly, because it took the balance down to -£78; the exact situation I had been trying to avoid had happened. This happened because I have recently moved my own singular account over to First Direct and have been trying to make my own contribution to the joint account timed correctly so there are funds (I had it set to leave 1st of the month, but for some reason my money did not go in until today). Our balance on the joint account is right now a healthy black figure.

I queried my Alliance and Leicester/Santander mortgage with them; they will try again in few days to take payment and there will be no charges.

I then called Santander regarding this £50 overdraft to highlight the issue I was worried about to them. Their response? We have been hit with a £25 charge. The operator did helpfully remove this charge (as we have never incurred charges before) but I cynically said that this was a MEGA money-making scam by them to ensure that they get to charge this figure should something like this happen. We put £1,400 through the account every month and are very good customers.

So, their justification for reducing our overdraft from £1,000 down to £50? It is because 'we never used it' so it was deemed too much and reduced accordingly. Illogical? The only solution we have now is to physically appeal the overdraft value by going into a branch and raising an appeal with them. Having HUGE issues with our mortgage at the moment and going through appeals and stage two complaints on that regarding a simple Transfer of Equity application that they still haven't resolved (four months and counting), I told them I could not be bothered, that it was appalling that the operative could not raise the overdraft or indeed a query/complaint/appeal herself and that I would be closing our joint account imminently and taking our custom elsewhere.

Another classic case of very, very poor customer service from Santander. Now where is the telephone number for First Direct...

PS – the issue with the mortgage that I posted about recently is that we applied for a Transfer of Equity from them as one housemate moved out and my partner has moved in. The process started back in February, with final forms being submitted in April. We purchased the house 3.5 years ago for £225k, had five independent valuations done around Easter time, of which the average of those was £209k. Santander mortgages accepted the Transfer of Equity in principal, only if we paid them an extra £6,500 as they had done a ‘Halifax Price Index’ on our property and say it is worth £181k now, which we obviously disputed. After no communication, promised communication that never came, many hours on the telephone and going from pillar to post not to mention letters that ‘had been sent’ but we never received, we have finally got a revaluation booked in via Santander for tomorrow afternoon. We could have had this all along, but refused to pay the £95 for it in principle (yet another money-making scam I think). They finally agreed to pay for this revaluation, but OH MY GOSH, it has taken months and months and months to get to this stage...fingers crossed for tomorrow and that the local surveyors we had in originally aren’t horrifically wrong and that our house is worth a little more thn the appalling value Santander say it is...what a JOKE of a company Santander is now, which is a shame considering Alliance and Leicester were fairly ok.

robpw2

ok so you do not use overdraft and they reduce it and its their fault ??

pmduk

You've suggested the answer yourself. Move your accounts.

NJS1982

The sceptic in me thinks that they reduced the overdraft facility to increase the chances of the measly £50 limit being reached, thus resulting in a standard £25 charge. Disgusting.
I know the answer is to move accounts and I am sat here doing so now. I only posted as I needed to rant and point out the obvious to some people about the scandalous treatment that Santander gives its customers, across the board.

ChiefGrasscutter

In giving you (and others) an overdraft the bank has to make provision in the credit markets for it being taken up.
Because they have to make provision for the max limit even though as you say you never use it --- it costs Santander money.
Reducing everyone's overdraft to £50 means Santander would have to make less provision for all these overdrafts and hence overall it will cost them less to run the retail accounts.
It is not how much you use it that matters, it's how much it might be used at the limit.

This is the same reason why credit card companies have been reducing credit limits - particularly where the individual is not going anywhere near their limit.

Of course we could do what they do in some of the rest of Europe - and that is pay an annual fee for our current accounts.................

tanith

Although I agree with you its annoying for you although not entirely the banks fault.. but from their point of view its good business and I don't think they'll 'be going down the pan' anytime soon...