Santander process for tax free interest Shocking !!!!!

evian123

So had a bit of money spare and thought why not put a in a fixed rate bond. Not paying tax at the moment so eligible for tax free interest. Went in branch to open it, spoke both to the manager and the guy who would open it, about how I register for tax free interest. Was told it is just a tick in a box, no forms ,easy. They took my Ni number and from what I could see during the process all the ticks were done. 7 Days later I get my bond certificate which shows I will only get net interest. Went straight back to the brunch and asked them to explain why. The guy looks on the system and says ‘Oh’ I will be back in a min’. Ten mins later he is back and says due to some un known error the system had deleted the registration within GITR on the same day of registration…what ever that is….. He tells me he has called retail assist within in Santander who have confirmed it is now set up for gross. I ask for some proof , and I am told they will raise a service request to get a new bond certicate send out. I can’t believe how bad there process for this is. If I had not noticed I could have waited a year and then found out when it was too late. More work for me to then get it back from HMRC. I don’t think they even know what the process is within the brunch them self’s.
Now for a bit of help with my questions form the people in the know, if I may….
On reading the T&Cs on the bond it says only one certificate will ever be issued…so will I get another one? Even though it is a Santander issue.
I read somewhere on this forum that if you have a fixed rate bond it cannot be setup or changed to gross if it has been over a week, is this still the case with a Santander bond? If so I was shown a screen, showing the deleted one and the new one…..is this a per registration screen then, and someone at head office says yes or no and than makes it final.
In one way wished I had gone somewhere else.

Hasty1991

You can get another one.
You can notify them at any point.

hermante

I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to open a fixed rate bond with Santander right now. Currently the esaver gives 3.1% instant access which is a rate comparable to their bond offerings. Furthermore, the process for gross interest with an esaver is really as simple as a tick in the box, which you do on your internet banking. An NI number is not required.

In fact I have a letter from HMRC stating that an NI number is NEVER required (only recommended) on an R85 form. HMRC's guidance says that you do not need to provide your NI number, if you have not worked in the UK in the past 3 years http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tdsi/tdsi-guidance-for-dt-3.htm#311

The other problem with Santander (or at least Abbey) bonds is they can only be managed from the branch they were opened in. A friend recently had a bond paying 5% mature, but was not in the UK at the time. Before leaving, she went to her local branch who had to call up the original branch directly. The original branch said they could not take any instructions until 2 weeks before the maturity date, and she would need to call them directly via their premium (09, not the call centre 0845).

When informed that the call would cost £5 a minute from overseas they finally got someone who said the best he could do was to reinvest it into a 1% bond which could be closed (in the branch 100 miles away) at any time.

It worked out cheaper to actually drive to the original branch, and this friend happened to have some business there anyway, so decided to pop in just before flying off. She managed to get the manager to write a note in his diary to manually transfer the bond money to her esaver, which to his credit he remembered to do with no problems. The manager literally wrote her account number and name in his book, which probably goes against some data protection law or something, and she probably should have signed some form..