Santander 11 to 15 Youth

pmduk

ses6jwg wrote: »

I work for Santander and can confirm that the 11-15 account can come with either a Cash Card or Online Visa Debit Card (this can be specified at opening as the Youth Plus can only be opened in branch).

It pays 5% on the first £500 as long as it recieves 1 credit of any amount per month. Interest is paid monthly.

pmduk, I can appreciate your distaste for Santander, but when people are asking questions it would be nice to stick to the facts.

I'm sorry you have had a bad experience but I can assure you if you were a customer of our branch you would be a very happy customer.

Which fact are you disputing? the one that says customers are best going to a reputable bank ie not Santander? I've not been a customer since Abbey days. My experience comes from helping a pensioner friend disentangle his finances from santander, which to date has taken 8 months. They've lost the FOS complaint twice so far.

The other fact I mentioned, was the interest rate of 3% which I took from Santander's website. I've double checked and it's still saying that. Either you're mistaken or Santander is unable to advertise it's own products accurately and honestly. Nobody needs to lie to make Santander look bad, you can't do a better job than they do themselves. The 11-15 Current account can be opened online, I'm not sure what you refer to by youth plus. The website makes no mention of it.

I appreciate you want to defend your employer, but some employers are indefensible and if I can do anything to keep a customer out of their clutches I will.

Naf

Communication to staff is terrible throughout the company. Granted they produce a 'savings newsletter' and other things for staff to read to discover these changes, but then give staff no time to actually do the reading during work hours, so most staff will not find out until someone corrects their error.
The 11-15 and 16-18 accounts used to pay 5%, it doesn't surprise me they reduced it; (the rate for customers switching their account used to be 6%, they reduced it to 5% last year). It also wouldn't surprise me if they are offering visa online for the 11-15 account now (as other banks do), but I was never aware of it before I left.
They're a truly amateur operation, and I gave up even trying to defend them - its not worth it, sorry ses6jwg.

Toe-Jam

pmduk wrote: »

Either you're mistaken or Santander is unable to advertise it's own products accurately and honestly

I would agree to that. It doesn't mention on their main website that existing customers don't get 5% on Santander Zero current account, instead for being a long term customer you get rewarded with 1%

Naf

Toe-Jam wrote: »

I would agree to that. It doesn't mention on their website that existing customers don't get 5% on Santander Zero current account, instead for being a long term customer you get rewarded with 1%

From date of upgrade you're supposed to get 5% for 12 months...

pmduk

Naf, at least you got out! There's hope for you yet!

Toe-Jam

Naf wrote: »

From date of upgrade you're supposed to get 5% for 12 months...

This is exactly what i mean, if staff don't even know what rate you get how would you expect customers.

Apparently if you are an existing customer upgrading the rate is 1%

But in order to find this out you have to dig though the fees and interest terms and conditions and it is hidden on page 4. No mention of it what so ever on the website.

Its complete false advertising.

Naf

Toe-Jam wrote: »

This is exactly what i mean, if staff don't even know what rate you get how would you expect customers.

Apparently if you are an existing customer upgrading the rate is 1%

But in order to find this out you have to dig though the fees and interest terms and conditions and it is hidden on page 4. No mention of it what so ever on the website.

Its complete false advertising.

The reason for this is fairly simple: the offer was primarily to attract people to move their Mortgage and primary current account to Santander; existing customers who just upgraded don't make the company any money, in fact they lose money. (Banks lose money on all current accounts really, but the Zero loses them even more, naturally)
What Santander want (as with all banks) is to attract people to hold their main current account there; statistically people are most likely to take additional products and hold savings with their main current account provider.
The Zero account, 5% interest and £100 are all simply carrots, obviously.

pcyam

Santander can send out either the VISA Debit card (its the old electron ones) or a Cash card out to your son even when he is under 16. You can go in with him and tell them to send them a cash card so he doesnt have access to a VISA card.

Otherwise a savings account- they offer a cash card only. BUT the interest rate is not as good.

Toe-Jam

Naf wrote: »

The reason for this is fairly simple: the offer was primarily to attract people to move their Mortgage and primary current account to Santander; existing customers who just upgraded don't make the company any money, in fact they lose money. (Banks lose money on all current accounts really, but the Zero loses them even more, naturally)
What Santander want (as with all banks) is to attract people to hold their main current account there; statistically people are most likely to take additional products and hold savings with their main current account provider.
The Zero account, 5% interest and £100 are all simply carrots, obviously.

Well considering the requirements for the privilege of having the zero account are a substantial lump savings, a rip off investment or a mortgage with the bank, I would completely disagree that Santander "lose" money on existing customers upgrading.

On a more positive note, I rang them up and pointed out that I was not getting the same interest as a new customer, as was paid off the same way they do with all their complaints. £50 for me :-)

ses6jwg

Santander Zero only offers 1% to existing upgrading and has done since June 29th. The Youth Plus pays 5%

The Youth Plus is not advertised on the website because it is a product that can only be opened in branch.

Please see page 4 of this document where this is outlined:

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223414377272&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600


I'm afraid I can't comment on the quality of the website as I am based in a branch and only offer branch based products and services.

We don't advertise the e-Saver or Instant Access Saver in branch because they are not availiable via the branch network so I fail to see why products that are not avaliable via the website need to be advertised on it.

Many building societies and banks, especially the smaller societies, offer branch based accounts and do not advertise them online, along with many other companies such as mobile phone operators and supermarkets.