RBS or Santander

drdog_2

I am one of those people being moved from the RBS to Santander due to the EU requirement for the RBS to sell parts of itself.

May be too late - however there is (was) an option to stay with the RBS - down side of that is my accounts would be moved to Scotland and I live in the middle of England.

The downside of remote banking aside - any views on which is the better bank to be with [mortgage with RBS]. RBS customer since before being uni student.

Galeeno

drdog wrote: »

I am one of those people being moved from the RBS to Santander due to the EU requirement for the RBS to sell parts of itself.

May be too late - however there is (was) an option to stay with the RBS - down side of that is my accounts would be moved to Scotland and I live in the middle of England.

The downside of remote banking aside - any views on which is the better bank to be with [mortgage with RBS]. RBS customer since before being uni student.

They will eventually be the same bank, joint together.

Im sure online banking for RBS + Santander will be merged too.

does anybody know when the online platform will be merged?

innovate

drdog wrote: »

The downside of remote banking aside - any views on which is the better bank to be with [mortgage with RBS].

It rather much depends on your requirements. I found that no single bank has everything I want, and they do change what they offer all the time, anyway. One thing RBS are consistent on is their pants interest rates for savings. Santander, oth, pay you interest and cashback. Halifax pay you a fiver each month if you pay in £1K, Lloyds Vantage pays interest, Nationwide gives you access to travel insurance and savings offers, First Direct gives you acess to a great Regular Saver etc etc etc. All depends on what you want, and what you can afford to do.

Galeeno wrote: »

They will eventually be the same bank, joint together.

Im sure online banking for RBS + Santander will be merged too.

does anybody know when the online platform will be merged?

I think you got the wrong end of the stick there. RBS and Santander will not be merged. RBS has to sell of some (not all) of their Branches, and these Branches will be/have been bought by Santander. Exact details will be communicated to all RBS account holders affected, but these customers will end up having Santander accounts.

mazza111

I think you got the wrong end of the stick there. RBS and Santander will not be merged. RBS has to sell of some (not all) of their Branches, and these Branches will be/have been bought by Santander. Exact details will be communicated to all RBS account holders affected, but these customers will end up having Santander accounts.

Unless you choose to switch to a Scottish branch of course, which may cause problems if you have any need to go into the bank for any problems that may arise. I've opted to stay, as my account is in Brighton, but I live in Scotland now.

innovate

If Branch access is important for you, you could ask them whether you can use NatWest Branches. After all, it's the same company.

Probably could switch to Natwest as well, with a 1-1 transfer of your accounts. Not sure whether it would make sense to transfer a mortgage though, because there are usually fees involved.

But as I suggested before, there's nothing compelling really to have all your dealings with a single bank.

Riog

Santander is routinely voted worst bank in the UK , go anywhere else.

innovate

Riog wrote: »

Santander is routinely voted worst bank in the UK , go anywhere else.

It is true that the MSE-massive always vote down Santander Customer Service. That doesn't stop MSE to list Santander on their "Best Bank Accounts" pages.

There are plenty of people who are happy Santander customers. E.g. there are apparently over 600,000 people who have their Major ISA.

I have accounts with many banks myself, and in my experience Santander are no worse or better than any of the others. They all have their good and their bad points. Some that did something well some time ago aren't any more, and some that were bad one something have now resolved those issues. Some that had good offers some time ago don't have them any more, some that had nothing on offer some time ago now do. Etc etc etc

Regarding current accounts - Santander's 123 account is, IMO, pretty unbeatable for anyone who wants some interest and/or cashback from a current account. If I had my current account with RBS now, I wouldn't wait for them to transfer me to Santander - - I would long have opened a Santander 123 myself. Or if Santander doesn't suit, there's Lloyds Vantage. Or even the Halifax Reward. All of them pay you for current accounts if you play by the rules. RBS doesn't pay you a penny. Plus, as the recent RBS/Natwest IT letdown demonstrated, not having to rely on a single bank can come in quite handily.

Not saying what works for me works for everyone else - - just getting so bored with people on the Santander-bashing trip.

agrinnall

innovate wrote: »

It is true that the MSE-massive always vote down Santander Customer Service.

Not saying what works for me works for everyone else - - just getting so bored with people on the Santander-bashing trip.

It's not just MSE members that are unhappy with Santander though, take a look at the figures for complaints after PPI has been stripped out and you'll see Santander are out in front.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19442031

innovate

It's a real shame to see that even the Beeb doesn't report properly these days, and instead just does Daily-Mail type sensationlist news coverage.

The complaints numbers, for all the banks, are totally meaningless without at least

1. their numbers of customers (i.e.how many complaints per customer)
2. some sort of indication about the results of the complaints

abercrombie

If you have always been happy with the way RBS have ran your account have you considered switching to NatWest? It's owned by RBS and all the features such as online and mobile banking are identical, just with different branding?

modelgirl

I've switched to Natwest after 40 years with the Royal Bank as I didn't want to be with Santander. It was very easy to switch. Natwest will transfer all your direct debits/standing orders. Very pleased so far with Natwest. Natwest is part of the RBS group so a lot of the accounts are the same including online banking.