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

Bobz

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

If you join the FSB (about £100 a year but a bit more for year one) you can get free business banking with Co-op.

It does look good, but at £150 for year one it's in a different league from the Santander business account. Might be good for some sole traders with a higher turnover than me though.

http://www.fsb.org.uk/value

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Susievintage wrote: »

Hello Paulgonnabedebtfree
To complain about advertising, you can fill in a form with the FSA:
Complete their online complaint form about misleading financial promotions - http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/doing/re...ort/form.shtml
Or contact the Advertising Standards Authority.

It appears to be outside the remit of the ASA and they suggest FSA instead - which I've already done.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Definition of "forever" in Chambers online dictionary:

---

forever adverb (also for ever) 1 always; eternally; for all time. 2 continually • forever whining. 3 informal for a very long time. noun 1 an endless or indefinite length of time. 2 a very long time.

---

Now I do realise that some "informal" definitions of "forever" may lead them to try to winkle out of the deal even though they clearly never intended informal usage.

There is info here about case fees to be paid by companies:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/QG1.pdf

It looks like £500 a pop from the fourth case per financial year. Unfortunately there does appear to be a mechanism for filtering out trivial complaints. Pity really as one a month would have done nicely as a starting minimum.

theWolf

Hi

Looks like I'm not the only one who's received a letter from Santander this month informing me of their new monthly business bank fees. Looks designed to get rid of small businesses/sole traders.

As per the original poster 'Susievintage' I was promised "free business banking forever" by abbey national ( I still have the original documentation, and a nice big purple wallet for paying in books etc).

As a small business/sole trader I use my account rarely, so this would have a big impact on me.

It looks like HSBC have the best deal as long as you stay within their 'transaction limits'.

The question is how do I switch? I have money in the Santander account, do I open the HSBC account then transfer the money from the Santander? Just worried how it would look in my accounts...

The National Insurance is simple enough to sort out, by just using their form. (Damn, can't post links, new user)

Glad I found the thread, not much being written about the new fees elsewhere?

Many thanks.

coldhandoff

cottager wrote: »

Would changing tariffs involve any "interruption to service" in terms of using online banking or my mandates to operate the a/c on OH's behalf (or anything else), or is it merely a separate behind-the-scenes admin change, which affects nothing else at all? It would be very serious at certain times, and we'd have to time it carefully, if it caused any interruption to being able to use online banking for instance -- payments for weekly wages, settling monthly supplier accounts and PAYE, quarterly VAT etc etc

It won't affect mandates or anything, your business manager should be able to switch it over for you.

NFH

Switch to Cater Allen, who offer free business accounts and coincidentally are owned by Santander.

cashisking1

deleted by user

The_Leviathan

I just read about this change in Santander's conditions on this Forum before I've even had notification from them in writing and I'm not happy with it at all. Forever is Forever and when they bought Abbey they also took on their liabilities as well and this includes free business banking to exisiting customers.

Although I am tempted to adopt the complaint procedure as some have indicated here, my initial reaction is to look for a better account with ideally no or low charges. They are not the only bank on the block and as I'm no longer dealing with Abbey (even though my cheque book still has their logo) I am tempted to change and tell them why I am.

There is also the Radio 4 programme Money Box who are quite keen on this type of financial story especially in this time of banking corruption. I will be sending them an email to point this out and if others do the same then Santander may well get more adverse publicity than they bargained for.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

cashisking1 wrote: »

Switching is of course a great idea, however if one just rolls over and takes a hit in the conkers, the one we all switch to will also soon want to change things and recoup any deal they may offer now especially as so many are upset.
Emotion is powerful but integrity on a promise for free banking forever is perhaps more powerful and much more important.
Banks are not in a strong position with customers at the moment and they have changed their minds in the past if enough people just say 'No'.
A promise is a promise.
Would any bank accept our express term that 'we promise to pay back money', but then find we have a clause hidden away that we send them after the contract is made that says 'No, we can change all that and there is nothing you suckers can do'? No they will sue the 'wotsits' off us.

Great idea.
I think it's called "going bankrupt" .
Not having a pop. There's room for humour here too.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

The_Leviathan wrote: »

I just read about this change in Santander's conditions on this Forum before I've even had notification from them in writing and I'm not happy with it at all. Forever is Forever and when they bought Abbey they also took on their liabilities as well and this includes free business banking to exisiting customers.

Although I am tempted to adopt the complaint procedure as some have indicated here, my initial reaction is to look for a better account with ideally no or low charges. They are not the only bank on the block and as I'm no longer dealing with Abbey (even though my cheque book still has their logo) I am tempted to change and tell them why I am.

There is also the Radio 4 programme Money Box who are quite keen on this type of financial story especially in this time of banking corruption. I will be sending them an email to point this out and if others do the same then Santander may well get more adverse publicity than they bargained for.

Good thinking about Moneybox. I sent an email to Watchdog but I know it wouldn't be great TV so am not hopeful.