Santander underfunding fee

Rovver125

Just a little warning to others about this cheeky little charge which I knew nothing about!

Moved over to a Halifax Reward Account recently, everything including salary payments switched from Santander. Also had an HSBC account which had been dormant since switching to Santander several years ago.

Closed the HSBC account with no issues but decided to keep the Santander account open for a while just in case.

Hadn't logged in for a couple of weeks and when I did was shocked to find a charge of £5.00 for an 'underfunding fee'.

As my account balance was at £0.00, this pushed me into my overdraft. Six days at a pound a day so £11.00 in total.

Spoke to Santander customer services who advised me this was in the T&C's of my original Alliance&Leicester account and had continued when Santander took over.

After 20mins on the phone & the advisor putting me on hold to speak to manager 3 times, they advised they could not waive the underfunding fee or the overdraft charges.

Needless to say, I have now closed the account. Closure department advised the overdraft fees may not be charged but I left my account with a £6.00 balance just in case.

Probably my own fault for not being clued up enough on the T&C's but just wanted to warn others!!

Merry christmas to everyone (except Santander!!)

Gromitt

I've read on here before that if you are moving away from a Santander account that you should always degrade the account to an "Everyday Current Account". This means you don't get an underfunding fee.

They may refuse to refund the underfunding fee, but you shouldn't get any overdraft charges:

On those occasions where you use an Arranged or Unarranged Overdraft of £12 or less, we will ensure you do not incur any Daily Arranged Overdraft Fees, or Daily Unarranged Overdraft Fees and Paid Item Fees when using an Unarranged Overdraft.

Rovver125

Gromitt wrote: »

I've read on here before that if you are moving away from a Santander account that you should always degrade the account to an "Everyday Current Account". This means you don't get an underfunding fee.

They may refuse to refund the underfunding fee, but you shouldn't get any overdraft charges:

I thought it was an Everyday Current Account. Would have to dig out the original paperwork to find out as it was an online only account.

The advisor at closures did say I may not get charged the overdraft fee. I should get refunded the £6.00 by cheque if so. He wasn't concrete about it hence why I left my balance in credit.

YorkshireBoy

Rovver125 wrote: »

Would have to dig out the original paperwork to find out as it was an online only account.

Sounds like it was the A&L Premier Direct Current Account.

(Depending on when you opened it) maybe you remember getting 5% AER interest for a year?

Rovver125

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Sounds like it was the A&L Premier Direct Current Account.

(Depending on when you opened it) maybe you remember getting 5% AER interest for a year?

That is the account I had with A&L. Santander told me on the phone that the T&C's of this account had rolled over when they took over. I was sure they had sent me a whole new set of T&C's and that the account had changed name.

However this underfunding fee was a suprise to me as my account has in previous years been underfunded including last year when Santander were managing it and I have never been charged the fee before.

I'm assuming that I am at fault for not reading the T&C's properly. I haven't checked my Santander account as often as I should have since I switched. I only logged in to check my credit card account so the charges could have been much worst!

YorkshireBoy

Rovver125 wrote: »

However this underfunding fee was a suprise to me as my account has in previous years been underfunded including last year when Santander were managing it and I have never been charged the fee before.

They (both A&L and latterly Santander) used to be very 'relaxed' about underfunding. Not so these days obviously!

Unless you're really on top of your game with the T&Cs, it's best to close down current accounts once you've decided you no longer want to use them.

Rovver125

The advisor did say it may have been an error that I was not charged it last year and that I probably should have been charged.

All accounts closed now except Halifax. Had only really kept them open as I thought they helped with mortgage applications?

I don't know how well known this underfunding fee is, but in these days of switching and always looking for the best deal, I think it's important that people know about it and what can happen if an account is left dormant.

zerog

The Preferred Current Account (not the older Preferred In-Credit Rate account) also has an underfunding fee, which is why I closed all of mine as soon as the 5% interest rate expired

gt94sss2

Rovver125 wrote: »

I don't know how well known this underfunding fee is, but in these days of switching and always looking for the best deal, I think it's important that people know about it and what can happen if an account is left dormant.

Santander are abolishing the underfunding fee from most of their current accounts in January 2013 - see here

Regards
Sunil