Santander have made me £6000 overdrawn

nikkiddavis

Calling all the money experts out there. I really need your help!!

Last November Santander made a major error where they've closed an account in the joint names of my Mother (decease) and my father, told me that it was a dormant account in my Nan's name (decease) and paid the money into my account.

Believing in good faith what they told me was true, I've spent the money. 5 months later my Dad tried to access his account only to be told they'd closed it. Santander reinstated his account and returned the funds.

Yesterday (maurndy Thursday) they took £6000 out of my bank account making me £6000 overdrawn. They gave me less than 1 weeks notice on what they were planning to do.

As soon as I received their letter on Monday, I spent a hour on the phone to them trying to raise a complaint ticket. I emailed them on Tuesday with all the details highlighting their gross incompetence which they ignored. The email instructed them not to take any funds out of my account.

Everyday this week I called then each phone call over an hour, and they told me someone would call me back before 6, no one ever did. For 4 days no one would take responsibility for their error. Only at 6pm last night did I get the name of the person looking into it.

My account is now £6000 overdrawn, racking up charges everyday.

Santander are one of the useless, most incompetence banks that has ever existed.

I urge anyone planning on opening an account with Santander. DO NOT DO IT. IF THEY CAN UNLAWFULLY TAKE MONEY OUT ON MY ACCOUNT, THEY CAN DO IT TO YOU.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

gb12345

nikkiddavis wrote: »

Last November Santander made a major error where they've closed an account in the joint names of my Mother (decease) and my father, told me that it was a dormant account in my Nan's name (decease) and paid the money into my account.

What authorisation did they have for transferring the money from your late Nan's account to your account?

Normally when dealing with a deceased account, banks will make the payment to the executors to distribute as per the terms of the will. Were you acting as the executor or were you just the beneficiary of the will?

meer53

Have you spoken to your Dad to tell him that you don't have the money now ? Maybe he could transfer some of it back to your account, if he doesn't need access to all of it, and come to some arrangement with him to pay it back.

You also need to make a formal complaint to Santander about what happened. If they made an error and you have incurred charges, they should refund these. It's not unlawful for them to take the money back from your account.

ChiefGrasscutter

"gb12345" The OP seems to be suggesting that rather than transfer it from the Nan's account to the OP's they actually transferred if from the OP's parents accounts..........

As I understood 'dormant' accounts, these are ones where there has been no transactions for a period of time (as defined by the bank's own criterion).
These are then locked from any further transactions on them until the original owner can go through/pass the ID verification process all over again to re-claim access to the account.

Was there even a will?
I'm not up to date on how banks handle accounts belonging to small estates where there is no will/probate done and no letters of administration taken out. I think for small estates you no longer have to "do the whole thing" but stand to be corrected.

gb12345

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

"gb12345" The OP seems to be suggesting that rather than transfer it from the Nan's account to the OP's they actually transferred if from the OP's parents accounts..........

I know that, I am just trying to work out on what authority they were transferring it from the Nan's account (even though they apparently incorrectly transferred it from a totally different account).

noh

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

.
........................................................
Was there even a will?
I'm not up to date on how banks handle accounts belonging to small estates where there is no will/probate done and no letters of administration taken out. I think for small estates you no longer have to "do the whole thing" but stand to be corrected.

Correct many banks will release money but they require the person receiving it to sign an indemity the effect of which is to make the person receiving the money responsible for ensuring it goes to who it should.

nikkiddavis

Thanks everyone for your responses so far.

I gave them original documents of my Nan's death Certificate and her will, my Mum's death certificate and my birth certificate.

To close the account I did not have to go into the branch, I didn't sign anything to close the account. They closed the account over the phone and paid the money into my account.

I have an official complaint with them, but it taken 4 days for them to take any responsibility for it. I can see how taking £6000 out of someone account can be lawful?

gb12345

Did you give them the account number of the account to be closed or just your Nan's name?

It is very strange that they closed an account without any signature from anyone and even more so when the account they closed was a joint one with someone still living.

It looks to me like they have made an error, but I can't for the life of me see how it happened, and they have then acted to correct the mistake when they were made aware of it.

The have up to 8 weeks to investigate any complaint, before you can complain to the FOS about their lack of action (although you can complain earlier if they come back with a final answer that you don't agree with).

matttye

Do you have no paperwork at all relating to the account closure/transfer into your account?

nikkiddavis

Nope. I had no account number for the dormant acct in my Nan's name. How I found out about it was by running a lost account search, through mylostaccounts.org.uk Santander wrote to me confirming they'd found a dormant account in my Nan's name.

Goldiegirl

So it seems that you were dealing with your late nan's account and your late mum's account at the same time.

Possibly they've muddled the two accounts up.

When a joint account holder dies, it is normal for the account to revert to the sole name of the surviving account holder.

So the joint account held by your mum and dad, would normally go into your dad's name. It would not be normal for the money to be transfer to a son or daughter, unless they had specific instructions to this effect, signed by the executors or administrators of the deceased estate. It looks as if they are trying to put right the mistake that they made in closing your dad's account.

However, I'm wondering if your nan's account is still open. Perhaps you can ask them to look into this, as your nan's account would need to be closed, and the monies transferred to the beneficary. Not knowing the terms of the will, this could be you, or yor father, or anyone else that your nan specified.

Hope this helps - they do appear to have made a mess of things. I think you would be entitled some sort of goodwill payment after they investigate all this.