Shall i go with Santander?

RetiredInThailand

kostigovs wrote: »

Pick any bank or society and I'm sure someone on here will have had a bad experience

Of course. But it becomes a more interesting exercise if many people say that a particular bank is bad and only a few have anything good to say about it.

JohnRo

After an initial set up glitch, which was quickly and courteously rectified, I have never had any problems operating my Santander eSaver account. Several hundred passes through it each month.

Naf

Ok: I've worked there.

Their rates tend to be good, because the company's primary focus is attracting 'new money'.
They also offer some excellent introductory deals to get more 'primary banking customers' (the idea being that people tend to head to 'their' bank first for loans savings etc.)
They will try and sell sell sell to you at every possible opportunity: this is the entire focus of staff training - they get little or no systems training until they're actually sat serving customers.
Their staff turnover is fairly high, so you will find that there are few with much actual 'expertise', fewer still have any real understanding of the financial sector. I certainly didn't learn anything that I had hoped to about it.
They are still very much a building society, offering some banking products, despite what they might try to persuade you.
Even though staff in branch do tend to have the absolute best intentions to help at heart, company policies, procedures, systems and training (lack of) often get in the way of really giving the best service or dealing with complaints quickly and efficiently.

Therefore, with the above in mind, by all means save with them but consider the following:
Do your own research, paying close attention to the terms of the account regarding usage: does the account offer online/phone/counter service and which of these do you need? How long is the rate for, is it a bonus for 'x' period etc. can you have an ATM card on the account, and do you need one? Particular oddities with some of their savings are the way cheques can be drawn: often to the account holder only, and sometimes external BACS/CHAPS transfers are not allowed at all. Also pay attention to daily withdrawal limits, and the notice required to access any more. Generally you can only have £500 per day in cash, 3 days notice if you want any more. If you only have a small branch locally it might be that the branch itself is unable to process cash in excess of £5k.
Again, do your own research and make sure you fully understand what you're getting, and that it can be used and accessed in the way you require.
Bear in mind that branches do often have huge queues.
Expect them to sell to you as soon as look at you, even if you're complaining.
Realise that if you do have a problem, it might not be as straightforward to fix as you might think/hope. Despite the solution from your viewpoint being very simple - e.g. correction of interest.

All in all, I've seen what can happen and still have an account there. And I wouldn't personally avoid them just for the sake of it - if the rate was good, I'd still take it (if only I had any money to save lol).

Naf

srcandas wrote: »

Please also note that after Argentina's success in grabbing Repsol from the Spanish I am writing to the treasury asking them to do the same with Santander and Aena (before Spain goes bust). In a few weeks you could end up being in a UK bank

Santander operate a ring-fenced system in each territory (I.e.country) money invested in each territory cannot be moved by the company under any circumstances: they operate effectively as separate entities. Only company profits can be moved around.
Although Satntander UK is wholly owned by Santander (global), it is also wholly separate and independent of any other Santander bank (I.e. brazil, America, Spain etc.).
The system was praised during the banking crisis because had other companies adopted it then crisis in one country could not have affected another in the way it did.

srcandas

Naf wrote: »

Santander operate a ring-fenced system in each territory ............................
The system was praised during the banking crisis because had other companies adopted it then crisis in one country could not have affected another in the way it did.

Naf thanks for that, despite my comment being a bit tongue in cheek your comments are very welcome to me. With corruption being so acceptable through all levels of Spanish society and their economy imploding I am always very concerned with anything spanish so it is great to hear about the ring-fencing.

ps My wife is Spanish so it is a close to home subject

SallySunshine

Got an automated phone call this morning from Santander.
This is a first for me, but after keying in the answers to the questions was quite satisfied it was a genuine call.

I'd written 3 cheques lately , 2 fairly large one for new ISA's, and another one. since I rarely use my cheque book I suppose it was unusual activity on my account.
They quoted the cheque numbers, and amounts and if I was satisfied about the cheques being issued.

More security measures but if it keeps my account safe I'm not complaining.

Michael_Corleone

Opened account in November. Received Bank card in January. As yet I'm still unable to log on online or use telephone banking as the three attempts to send my login credentials have been 'lost' in the post.