MSE News: Santander to charge for 'free' business accounts

tinman9898

I shall be sending a complaint to Ana Botin the CEO of Santander UK after being fobbed off by the telephone banking rep with marketing speak explaining the 'benefits of paying a fee for my 'free forever' bank account.. Interesting to note she has just received £4 million pounds from the bank despite a 40% drop in profits.

guardian co uk / business /2012/ mar/ 16/ santander-uk-ana-botin-pay-bonuses

There is also a Facebook group which I urge everyone affected by this to join, that way we can coordinate complaints...

facebook com / groups / 270274179739364/

Retype the links in the browser as the forum wouldn't let me post as clickable links.

jlvdiver

We had our letter yesterday and so has our son. We knew nothing about this, so it was a shock. Thank you for this forum, my son has already put in complaints, I hope to do this today.
We pay charges on our account with interest and an overdraft fee, but it is fair. We changed to Satander because our last bank doubled these charges on a free banking account. Due to the nature of our business we wait for money to come in and we have quite a few cheques but no where near limits allowed on the account.
We have not put our prices up for four years, we put one customer price up 50p and was cancelled! Everyone is struggling, we understand that and have tried to cut our outgoings as much as possible. We have no spare money to even get a needed holiday (no work no money) To charge £7.50 per month is a huge thing for us, as with all small businesses.
We were certainly never asked what we want in a business account,,,anybody else? If we had been asked we would not have asked for what we are about changed to.

Victor_Mildrew

jlvdiver wrote: »

We were certainly never asked what we want in a business account,,,anybody else? If we had been asked we would not have asked for what we are about changed to.

I would certainly never use the Post Office!! At my local branch the queues are always really long & their service is worse than Santander's!!!

janusdesign

buckster wrote: »

Santander don't offer freepost envelopes anymore. I ordered some and you have to pay the postage now

can anyone confirm what the postal address is now for sending cheque deposits to Santander?

i've got another cheque from a client and i'm in two minds whether to post it to Santander (8 days to arrive last time), or wait until the HSBC account is open.

Houlkers

Just got my letter regarding the change of my 'Free Banking Forever' account to the 'Award winning £7.50 fixed monthly account'!
Needless to say I am disugusted we can be pushed around by the massive corporations. I opened my account with Abbey under the promise of free banking for life. It seemd like a contract to me! I encourage my son to switch to Santander who were still promoting the same emessage a few years later.
What has happened to moral ethics in business?
On the back of this he has justed received £200 in compensation from Santander (sounds good but only right) after they wrongly credited his cheques to another business account. It took them five weeks to repay the money. This was very difficult for any small business where cash flow is key. Not the action of an Award Winner in my humble opinion.
My concern is they are all as bad as each other. Switch the account to another banks, how long before they change their rules in their favour.
Can anyone not help with a legal battle here? I am now fed up with PPI claim telephone calls why don't the ambulance chasers take on the banks with this one about what benefits you do not get with a paid for account.

jlvdiver

Houlkers wrote: »

I encourage my son to switch to Santander who were still promoting the same emessage a few years later.
attle here?

Same here, and he looked carefully in to it and opened an account. We have recommended this account to so many people over the years, and they have opened business accounts with them.

tinman9898

I have just sent the following complaint to CEO @ santander co uk :

Subject - FOA: Mrs Ana Botin - Unfair bank charges on free forever business account.


Dear Mrs. Botin,
I currently run a small business as a sole trader and have just received a letter from Santander UK stating that a monthly fee is to be introduced on my business account which I was told would be "*free of charges forever*". I wish to register a formal complaint about the introduction of a monthly fee on this account. I have called the Santander phone banking line but was just fobbed off with marketing speak about the 'benefits' of paying for something which was '*guaranteed to be free forever*' when I opened the account.

I am now escalating my complaint to you and if you cannot provide me with assurances that this policy will be reversed I shall seek professional advice on further action I may take on this matter. This may include raising complaints against Santander with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Authority and ultimately closing the accounts I hold with Santander should this issue not be resolved in the correct manner. I am also aware that this issue is currently being investigated by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) to find out if Santander may be in breach of contract. I am also aware that Marc Gander, of the Consumer Action Group, is advising that anyone in this position should think about going to the County Court to obtain a judgement that Santander has breached its obligation to treat customers fairly, under the Banking Conduct of Business (BCOB) regulations. "These regulations set a statutory duty on banks to act fairly," Mr Gander says.

The general feeling within the small business community, who have the "*free forever*" business account with Santander (myself included) is one of disappointment and broken trust in the bank. It is now up to you to restore that trust by acting in a fair and responsible manner and reversing the decision to introduce charges for existing customers who have the Santander '*free forever*' business account

I look forward to your prompt response on this matter.



I shall wait and see what response if any I receive and update here and on this Facebook group page.

www facebook com/ groups/ Notochargesforsantandersfreeforeverbusinessaccount/

Spangly999

Hi all

I've just registered my formal complaint to Santander. Apparently they are being inundated with these calls.

I've started a facebook group (Santander - Forever Should Equal Forever), in order to get more publicity and put even more pressure on Santander to keep their promise. Please join it, and share it and let's win this thing.

Cheers

Mandy

Bobz

A friend of mine (who also has a business account with Santander) put in a complaint, and when a customer service person phoned to discuss the letter they mentioned that the charges are to be introduced in November.

This is the first I've heard of a timescale for this - and as they have to give 60 days notice of this the letters will probably start arriving soon.

I'm still waiting for a reply from Santander to my letter of 18th July.

tinman9898

I have just received a call from the Santander executive complaints team in response to my email sent earlier today to CEO Ana Botin. After telling me that the charges would be going ahead after 60 days notice, possibly in November and then seeing if there were another free options from Santander (which there were none) I advised the representative of my options in relation to this issue.

1. That I was making a formal complaint to Santander which would be followed up by formal complaints to both the Financial Ombudsman and the Financial Services Authority should Santander not resolve the matter.

2. I advised that Marc Gander of Consumer action group has advised that Santander business customers raise an action in the County Court (England)/ Sheriff Court (Scotland) to obtain a judgement that Santander has breached it's obligation to treat customers fairly under banking conduct of business regulations.

3. I made it clear that should the charges go ahead I would be closing every account I have with Santander.

I also mentioned that Santander business customers were not happy with the decision to introduce charges to a 'free forever' account, that internet campaigns had already begun to get Santander to reverse this decision and that the media had already picked up on the story which was bad publicity/PR for Santander. The rep said he would note this and advise the people who make the policy decisions.

The rep stated that he understood our position and that he would send me the relevant documentation to raise a formal complaint and then provided me with complaint reference number. Santander have 8 weeks to resolve the complaint before then moving to the next stage of a complaint to the Ombudsman/ FSA.

I shall post updates at each stage of my complaint. Please submit your own complaint to CEO@santander.co.uk . The more people we have complaining the better chance of getting this disaster of a policy decision for Santander reversed.