Santander and Joint Accounts

Mat_Lock

My girlfriend still has a joint account with an old ex and she wants to close the account in case he decides to run up a debt on the account.

I've read some posts on MSE but go back to 2009. Does anyone know or have any fresh information on whether she is able to close the account without the other signing. She does not want any contact with her ex at all about this.

CHeers

YorkshireBoy

Mat_Lock wrote: »

Does anyone know or have any fresh information on whether she is able to close the account without the other signing.

The information she seeks is contained within her account T&Cs...

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223425993499&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600 (top of page 15)

...but if she doesn't want to speak to her ex she'll have to hope that Santander will do so on her behalf.

reclusive46

She may not be able to close it but she may be able to remove her self from the account, which will effectively do the same thing for her.

ponbeam

It depends on the signatory rules on the account. If it was either of them to access the account then she can close it providing there is nothing outstanding.
If she wants to remove herself but leave the account open then she would need to contact her ex.

benjus

reclusive46 wrote: »

She may not be able to close it but she may be able to remove her self from the account, which will effectively do the same thing for her.

My experience of this is fairly recent but not with Santander. In my case I found that it was actually easier to close the account than to remove one of the names.

I asked lots of different people in branches and telephone customer service departments and got lots of different answers, most of which said that I couldn't do anything without the other account holder's signature. I eventually got what I wanted (closing the account without their signature) by finding a branch with someone who had the authority to close the account and was sympathetic enough to listen to my story and why I wanted to close the account.

It helped a lot that the account balance was zero, so there was no money owed and no money to share out between the account holders - is this the case for you? If not, could you make it so before you contact the bank?

I would suggest that your girlfriend forget about telephone customer service, and go and find a branch and talk to the manager or someone senior (not just a cashier). Despite what people say about banks all being centrally run these days and branch managers just being lead salespersons, they do seem to have a reasonable amount of power and discretion, and if they can see the customer face-to-face, with some ID to prove who they are, I think they are more likely to be helpful.

dalesrider

If they won't let her close it. Then advise them that you want to freeze the account as a you are no longer with the other party and as such in dispute.

Mat_Lock

Benjus, this is pretty much what happened to her on Saturday.

She was able to close the account as there was only 24p in the account. She explained that it was impossible to contact her ex and so the guy in the bank did close it. It's a much welcome relief to her now.

Thanks everyone for the advice.