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

Justdesserts

Right! My MP is ace and certainly no friend of Santander. He has offered to write to the CEO and is meeting with me on Monday. Over to you guys. What else do you want me to ask him to do??

Susievintage

Hi Justdesserts

Good for you! The main thing is to make sure that he doesn't (as my MP did) confuse the issue of "should UK banks offer free retail banking at all?" with our concern ("why should Santander get away with changing 'free banking forever' to mean 'until we don't want to any more'"). Personally, I can understand why free banking might have to go in principle, but that still doesn't given Santander the right (I don't think) to get rid of something they promised.

Good luck!

brookhouse

Has anyone contacted Radio 4 Moneybox? Looks like a new series is about to start.

I'd be interested to hear what they'd make of it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjnv

Susievintage

brookhouse wrote: »

Has anyone contacted Radio 4 Moneybox? Looks like a new series is about to start.

I'd be interested to hear what they'd make of it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjnv

I did contact Moneybox when this story first broke but heard nothing back. It might be worth others contacting them too - if they can see that there are lots of people affected and concerned, they might be more interested.

madonnamustache

janusdesign wrote: »

...

oh, I should also point out that HSBC and RBS will charge a fee for International Payments... that caught me by surprise during the HSBC call, think she mentioned £6.50... I can think of at least one of my major suppliers that is based in North America - but I can get around it by paying them by credit card instead, though it's not ideal.

I noticed this too. This is not only to SEND but also to RECEIVE a bank transfer from abroad. This is on top of any intermediary bank charges. How's that for "World's local bank", trying to cash in even more? This was free with Santander. A workaround is to get any bank transfers from abroad into your personal account with Santander, Nationwide or Barclays - as they do not charge for this - and then transfer the money into your business account once cleared. For HSBC, if the payment is made via SEPA the charge is 1 euro.

A tip for those wanting to open an HSBC account: If you are a sole trader, in addition to bank statements from last three months, they will want to see that you are the named account holder. If your account is in your business name, you will need a letter from Santander to confirm you are the person connected to the business account.

:o

brookhouse

Susievintage wrote: »

I did contact Moneybox when this story first broke but heard nothing back. It might be worth others contacting them too - if they can see that there are lots of people affected and concerned, they might be more interested.

The story was covered on the BBC News website so they are probably aware of it.

Ultimately they are making a radio programme so it needs to be seen as a good story - outrage/greedy unethical banks (us) and embarrassment/squirming, evasive spokesperson (Santander) is probably the way to go

Justdesserts

Susievintage wrote: »

Hi Justdesserts

Good for you! The main thing is to make sure that he doesn't (as my MP did) confuse the issue of "should UK banks offer free retail banking at all?" with our concern ("why should Santander get away with changing 'free banking forever' to mean 'until we don't want to any more'").
Good luck!

No, we are OK here - he gets it!!

I believe letters to MPs should be written as though they will be read by an idiot; they may well be :eek:

I included the following paragraph and urge others to do the same:
This is not a letter about the desirability or transparency of so called 'free' bank accounts. It is about yet another bank behaving as though the the constraints of contract law and, more specifically, the FSA Banking Conduct of Business Guidance do not apply to them Enough is enough!

brookhouse

Justdesserts wrote: »

I included the following paragraph and urge others to do the same:
This is not a letter about the desirability or transparency of so called 'free' bank accounts. It is about yet another bank behaving as though the the constraints of contract law and, more specifically, the FSA Banking Conduct of Business Guidance do not apply to them Enough is enough!

When I write to my MP about this, my points will include:

Banks are supposed to be supporting small businesses

Banks have a credibility problem and need to be seen to act with integrity

Susievintage

I wrote to my MP that this move is "yet another kick in the teeth for British small business", and he seemed to like that phrase - please feel free to re-use!

MattyMatty

I have just received the sod off letter from Santander and will now be following it up with the Ombudsman using the very valuable quotes from Abbey's original marketing materials, T's & C's, etc which you have all kindly provided in the posts above.:mad:

PS I love the idea of sending a load of cheques for £1 each...