Santander Student Account - I have 2 of them.

dave_g03

Hi (It's my first post! and it is quite a long one - sorry),

I am seeking a little advice on quite a difficult case that Santander seem to be unable to resolve.

I started University in 2006 and was due to graduate in 2009 but re-sat one of my years taking me up to 2010. I was given a Abbey Student account in 2006 with an overdraft that eventually increased to 1,500. In 2009 I realised that I forgot to inform the bank that I was 'staying on' for an extra year, so I popped into a branch and they 'extended' it - no problem!

Until...

A few months later during the summer of 2009 I get a letter from Santander informing me that I would be transferred to a Graduate account from September - hang on a minute!!! I go into the bank and they start investigating the issue - by this time Santander had aqquired Abbey and they were experiencing issues with IT system so they had to get the techies onto 'extending' the student status for another year (seems simple to me).

Time goes by and I hear nothing and I have begun my 'graduate bank year' now when in fact I am studying.

The lovely lady in branch think's she's cracked it. Lets open you another Student Account (January 2010) and transfer everything to it, your salary, debits and balance. Seems like a good work round to me. Because of the length of the 'issue' the case was referred to the Complaints department and I was also being called daily by them. Whilst the new account was being set up the lady switched my account to a 'tracker account' and set the rate at 0% to prevent me paying interest on the overdraft I had with student account number one.

New account opened and confirmed in a letter from the lad from complaints, all I had to do was go into the branch and sign a 'switcher' form for my DD and balance.

Cool - sorted - by this time it was April 2010 and I was ready to actually graduate. A few months go by and I thought everything was hunky dory - I was finishing off my exams and about to start a PGCE.

I find out that the direct debits were not transferred to the new account and neither was my 'balance'. I'm not the type of person that checks up a lot on my account activity and I now know this to be foolish.

Cutting to the chase I have ended up with a 1,500 overdraft coupled with my current overdraft of 900.00 on Student account B. I am lucky to have secured a teaching position for September and should have no difficulty coming to an arrangement with Santander to pay the money off BUT I can't help but feel like some of this is their fault.

Have you got any advice for me in how I can get them to assess liability for some of the debt on Student Account A?

How would I go about contacting the FSO/Should I?

Azrael_1701

Admittedly, they shouldnt have had the problems and shouldnt have opened the seccond account.

But did you, or did you not, spend the money?

dave_g03

Bottom line, I guess, I did spend the money.

A more subjective view is the overdraft was maxed out by direct debits i thought they had switched on Student Account A. It was only 4 months later when 02 rung me I realised they hadn't been switched.

I'm not trying to get out of paying them back - it's not the problem.

I just feel that they should take some responsibility for the way things panned out and now they are changing my credit rating etc.

qpop

They're not changing your credit rating - they'll mark your credit file with over-limit overdrafts or delinquency and other potential creditors will interpret this data as and how they feel fit.

Your direct debits would have come out of one or other of the accounts either way - so had you not had two accounts and £2,400 in total overdrafts, your £900 overdraft would have been exceeded by £1,500 by that stage.

I worked previously for a big bank in a head-office department and we got many complaints due to the nature of the work - I don't think any complaints dept. in their right mind would excuse you paying the money but you may be able to get some sort of GOGW from them, given the confusion and the fact you were sold an unneeded student account to bolster the bank tellers bonus. Consider that most banks (don't know about Santander) have in their student account T and Cs that you MUST only have one student account at a given time, I'd reckon the bank staff was willingly ignoring the banks policies.

My recommendation given my experience of working in a major bank: Write a letter/email to the complaints department but mark it "Complaint, private and confidential, FAO: *CEOs name*

It won't be read by the CEO but it will go to the executive complaints department. Complaint resolution timescales are about 1/4 of standard, and they will refer it to a member of management to be dealt with, who will have far more lenience available to resolve the situation.

But either way you were completely negligent, and I hope it has taught you how important it is to keep on top of your bank accounts!

dave_g03

Negligent maybe.. But when you have tried to get something sorted for the last 18 months and still with little resolution then is it any wonder I got fed up of having to pop into a branch or spend hours on the phone!?

qpop

I can't help but feel you're deflecting the issue. I'm not saying your holding two student accounts open for 18 months was negligent, that was at least part down to the bank, but the fact you claim you didn't realise you were getting £1,500 more "free money" from the bank than you thought? How can £1,500 of expenditure over income just go out unnoticed? Anyway ignoring my general disdain at your financial naivety if you follow my complaints recommendation you'll end up with a far better resolution than down any other path (i.e. spending hours on the phone or going into the branch)