Getting a Santander Preferred Current Account

LemonTree_3

As a former AL customer I have a so-called "Premier Current Account" with a large overdraft facility.
Unfortunately when Santander took over the fee for the overdraft got doubled.
Thus, I went to a Santander branch trying to convert my AL account into a Santander Preferred Current Account as the overdraft fee is lower. The clerk tried and finally said that their system declined the conversion from a AL "Premier Current Account" to a "Santander Preferred Current Account".

After some thought I guess maybe I can "upgrade" my account to a Reward Current Account which has been hugely advertised (and on the other hand is pretty useless to me) and afterwards "downgrade" to the Preferred Current Account right away. Do you think that would work?

riotact

Seen this post as I'm in same situation (have a premier current account also) and I've just transferred my account recently...

Have you tried applying online? When I did this I just submitted my account details etc and 24 hours later received email saying account transfer sucessful!

LemonTree_3

riotact wrote: »

Seen this post as I'm in same situation (have a premier current account also) and I've just transferred my account recently...

Have you tried applying online? When I did this I just submitted my account details etc and 24 hours later received email saying account transfer sucessful!

Thanks for your answer. Did you transfer your account directly from Premier to Preferred? When I do online banking I have only the option of transferring to Reward account but not Preferred. So I guess I can transfer only directly to Reward but not Preferred. My question is whether it is possible to then go from Reward to Preferred.

riotact

I went from a premier to a preffered.

When you click on upgrade on the online portal it directs you to a list of accounts (which only really highlights the pay monthly ones...) but if you scroll down a bit it gives a link to the preffered/everyday accounts which you should be able to apply for.

LemonTree_3

When I click on "upgrade" my brower is diverted to the following website
http://www.santander-products.co.uk/banking/upgrade.html

I must be blind because I can't spot any link to the preferred account from there.

riotact

As I'm new cant post links but if you put rewardIB.html at instead of upgrade.html on your link you should go through to the page I upgraded from.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

LemonTree_3

Thank you for the link
http://www.santander-products.co.uk/banking/rewardIB.html

When I click on yours I've been diverted back to
http://www.santander-products.co.uk/banking/upgrade.html

I reckon at the time you've transfered your account it was possible to do and now Santander changed it...

ses6jwg

You will lose the travel insurance if you upgrade to the Preferred, bear this in mind.

It seems strange that the upgrade from Premier to Preferred got declined.... she probably didn't know what she was doing and messed around with the overdraft boxes on the system which can cause a decline.

When you upgrade you see you are not credit scored.

Out of probably 2-300 upgrades I've done I've only ever had 1 decline.

I would be tempted to try another branch or to do it over the phone.

You 100% can swap from Premier to Preferred and keep your existing O/D, card, chequebooks, account number.

Source: Santander Personal Banking Adviser

LemonTree_3

ses6jwg wrote: »

You will lose the travel insurance if you upgrade to the Preferred, bear this in mind.

Thank you for reminding me. I've figured that if I buy an annual Europe multi-trip travel insurance for myself it would cost around £21. On the other hand, changing from Premier to Preferred would save £60 costs on the overdraft.

ses6jwg wrote: »

When you upgrade you see you are not credit scored.

That's why I didn't want to open a new current account but simply change it from Premier to Preferred.

ses6jwg wrote: »

I would be tempted to try another branch or to do it over the phone.

I will give this a try. Do you think over the phone is better?

ses6jwg wrote: »

You 100% can swap from Premier to Preferred and keep your existing O/D, card, chequebooks, account number.

Source: Santander Personal Banking Adviser

I'm just wondering whether Santander doesn't offer the change of account online.

ses6jwg

It depends.

Did they try to swap the account over at the till?

If they did you probably had a numpty CSA trying to do it who wouldn't have a clue what they were doing.

You need a PBA or call the current account line and see if they can help you on the phone.

LemonTree_3

ses6jwg wrote: »

It depends.

Did they try to swap the account over at the till?

If they did you probably had a numpty CSA trying to do it who wouldn't have a clue what they were doing.

You need a PBA or call the current account line and see if they can help you on the phone.

What's a CSA and what's a PBA?