Santander Switch, Is It Worth It?

connormill

So, I see Santander are offering £100 if I use their switching service, very good.

Where it get's interesting to me is that i have a fairly big overdraft, £3k (that I am trying to pay off) and the Santander switch site says that they will match my current OD (up to 5k) and make it intrest and fee free for 12 months, which I feel is more than enough time to clear it.

So all in all, looks like a perfect move for me, but I have read elsewhere on here that Santander are a pain to deal with. I also want to know if anyone else has used their switching service and what sort of service you got with it. If all seems good I think I might switch from Lloyds to Santander, providing they can move my OD too....

Probi

A lot of people on here haven't had much luck with santander.

I switched to them 2 months ago and haven't had any real problems, all i switched was 2 direct debits which were not that important so didn't have much to go wrong.

A lot of people suggest not to transfer anything too important, but if you are going to benifit then it's always worth a shot transfering across. Just remember that whichever account you decide to switch they will transfer everything associated with that account across.

I'll let you know in a few weeks if they are any good when i get my switching bonus!

connormill

But will they transfer my debt too, my current balance is -£2900

Will they pay Lloyds off and move that OD debt to them, or would I have to pay off Lloyds first?

That's what it all hinges on for me

Edit,

Or could they set up a new account with a 3k OD, allow me to transfer money to my lloyds account to clear its OD and then shut down the lloyds account?

Seems to make sense in my head, but then again, I'm not a bank

Probi

They have a guarantee in place that as long as you can prove the size of your existing overdraft then they will match it.

You need to send them a statement showing this once you have opened the account.

You can then do a transfer into your lloyds account to clear your existing overdraft.

HTH

connormill

Probi wrote: »

They have a guarantee in place that as long as you can prove the size of your existing overdraft then they will match it.

You need to send them a statement showing this once you have opened the account.

You can then do a transfer into your lloyds account to clear your existing overdraft.

HTH

Sure does help.

My plan is, do the Santander switch, transfer 3k to lloyds and then remove the OD, but keep the account open, and with some money in it just incase any DD's don't get moved. and then over the next few months pay off the Santander OD and be debt free (Hopefully)

Lessbutbetter

Hi Connor,

I had exactly the same idea as you. Heres how my story goes...

I applied online one evening for the Santander preferred current account. I thought that i would pay off my OD with Halifax, [1k] and transfer the 1k from the new Santander account into Halifax however leave the Halifax account open. I was a bit silly and applied for it after only doing research into if they actually match OD's from your previous bank. I then to my horror that same evening sat on my pc for a good hour, and read nightmare stories of how they messed up loads of peoples transfers, and how bills and DD's were missed, which as you'll know then tarnishes your credit file by leaving missed payments and whatever else. I immediately panicked, called them and asked to cancel. I then realised i had made one of the wisest decisions in a long time. Their customer service has to be some of the worst i've ever experienced. I called a total of 4 times over 4 consecutive days and was told each time by people who can only be described as being totally inept at their jobs, and seemingly having no understanding of the inner workings of their employer. I was told each time that an email would be sent to the department, and that i'd be called up to confirm that i wanted a cancellation, and to go over the procedure, however there was no phonecall. I asked what i thought was a simple enough question which was "will there be a credit search on my credit report because of this application" which no-one knew anything about. I even think one of the staff didn't even know what i was talking about when i asked this Q! Bizarre. I got all the info in the post to fill out regarding ID checks and threw it in the bin. They must have simply cancelled it, and couldn't be arsed replying to me. This was frustrating even though i knew they wouldn't progress until i'd completed all my ID checks etc, but still, the least you should expect is a call from the bank to confirm they were going no further with it.
I am so happy i have stayed with Halifax, as i really appreciate now how good their customer service is. I have decided to do it the hard way and pay lump sums off my OD every month to get it down to £0.00. Im happy with my bank and also with my clean credit report. As some people have told me on here, it only takes a few slips and your credit report can be damaged quite badly.
My advice is to read and research into other experiences of this. Some people have had good, straightforward transfers, however there have been alot of bad ones.

i hope you make the right choice. Let us know how you get on.

You can read about some on this article below
http://www.bitterwallet.com/the-uks-worst-bank-santander-are-they-getting-it-right-yet/42189

mommiedearest

We transferred our account from Natwest a year ago. Despite banking with Natwest for 30 years, never missing a mortgage payment or exceeding our overdraft limit, they refused to transfer our mortgage to another property. we weren't asking for any more money, only a straight transfer. Anyway Santander were brilliant and sorted us out with a new mortgage and we transferred our current account in October last year. Transfer procedure was smooth and all direct debit's paid on time. They even sent us a list of companies who had not responded to their requests for information, which was really helpful.we didn't actually ask for an overdraft but they gave us one anyway. All going swimmingly until last week when we paid in a cheque to buy a new car, the cheque never appeared in our account and we informed the local branch. The staff were amazing, definitely went the extra mile and sorted out the problem within 24 hours and they even made sure that cleared funds were available to enable us to buy the car on the original date. Even sent us a case of wine for the inconvenience. Where things go a bit awry is when you contact the call centres, they obviously deal with a lot of customers and there's no continuity and no one takes any resposibility, you can't beat face to face transactions. As we already had an old account with Abbey National we didn't qualify for a cash reward but I have been quite happy with our switch. Good luck!

connormill

Well I have applied, but if they cant match the overdraft then I wont be interested.

I will still keep the Lloyds account, at least for a wee while just to make sure all DD's get moved over.