Santander Select

al25

innovate wrote: »

I did a comparison about a month ago with the best ones I could find on comparison sites and via Quidco/TCB and found Santander overpriced, and not offering anything I couldn't get elsewhere.

Aha, haven't inquired the price yet. Thanks for the heads up though.

iAMaLONDONER

someone wrote: »

Asking if they offer a contactless card might be a subtle way to do it.

Also they might be looking for Payroll BACS transactions or the accounts get flagged up for review by a branch manager before issuing a select card.

I'm pretty sure most people on this forum are just using Santander 123 as a secondary account/instant savings account

Alwaysblue

I have to say I was a little sceptical with this whole relationship manner thing but credit where it is due. I recently moved my current account to santander because let's be fair, regardless of the so called service issues, it is the stand out account available. I was then invited into select and like a few have mentioned it certainly isn't the hard sell and yesterday not only have they called me to tell me about a pretty good ISA they offered me the best mortgage tracker available...so my broker tells me anyway. He could see his commission slipping away on the deal he was going to fix up for me at another bank! So in summary I think this Spanish bank is going to start offering something we haven't seen in a bank for a while...customer service with some decent products to back it up.

Archi_Bald

Alwaysblue wrote: »

......they called me to tell me about a pretty good ISA ................they offered me the best mortgage tracker available...so my broker tells me anyway. He could see his commission slipping away on the deal he was going to fix up for me at another bank!..........

Care to share more about the pretty good ISA and the mortgage tracker rate?

Weird that someone would share with you that they are on commission and "see it slip away" - sounds like a salesman who should get fired immediately, or a damned good liar. What other bank did he offer you a mortgage with?

iAMaLONDONER

Alwaysblue wrote: »

I have to say I was a little sceptical with this whole relationship manner thing but credit where it is due. I recently moved my current account to santander because let's be fair, regardless of the so called service issues, it is the stand out account available. I was then invited into select and like a few have mentioned it certainly isn't the hard sell and yesterday not only have they called me to tell me about a pretty good ISA they offered me the best mortgage tracker available...so my broker tells me anyway. He could see his commission slipping away on the deal he was going to fix up for me at another bank! So in summary I think this Spanish bank is going to start offering something we haven't seen in a bank for a while...customer service with some decent products to back it up.

Was the ISA rate higher than 2.4% ?

junglejame911

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

Was the ISA rate higher than 2.4% ?

Why 2.4%? Where is offering that? (Genuine question).

iAMaLONDONER

junglejame911 wrote: »

Why 2.4%? Where is offering that? (Genuine question).

It's the equivalent interest rate of the Santander 123 for balances of 3-20k when you account for the basic tax rate

iAMaLONDONER

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Care to share more about the pretty good ISA and the mortgage tracker rate?

Weird that someone would share with you that they are on commission and "see it slip away" - sounds like a salesman who should get fired immediately, or a damned good liar. What other bank did he offer you a mortgage with?

Salesmen don't get sacked for admitting that they're paid commission, right?

Chjaka

I recently applied for and was declined the 18 month 0% purchase credit card that Santander are currently offering. I was a little bemused by this so being a Select customer, and not expecting much, I thought I'd put their new customer service promises to the test so I call them before appealing through the post as the refusal letter suggested.

I have to say I am extremely impressed. Firstly, no labyrinth style options menu to navigate through, you get straight through to a real person (in the UK / Ireland) first time. I explained that I was a little surprised by the denial, being a select customer and that my wife had just been accepted with a virtually identical credit history, to which she responded that she would check what she could do and call back shortly. Within 30 minutes she called back to take a few details and informed me that she would appeal to the underwriters on my behalf, the process would take approx 48 hours and she'd call back to let me know the outcome. Within 24 hours she called me back to let me know that the decision had been overturned and confirmed a card would be issued with a respectable credit limit.

Even if the decision had not been the one I was looking for, to get through to a human being first time who deals with your issue from start to finish and makes good on their promises to call you back is frankly amazing in today's world let alone banking.

Yes I'm liking Santander Select and no I don't work for them.

sjw11

Just been welcomed into santander select in spite of holding >£75k since 2012, most of it in an isa paying 4.1% :j
Cannot see any advantage of select for me
Suspect they are worried about losing me if whatever they offer to replace it does not compare with the best buy tables. Which they will, since they are not in top 10 on cash isa.

Hoping they may offer something better nearer maturity, since they must have an awful lot of money and customers in this account all maturing at the same time