Joining the Santander123 Complaints Club!!

innovate

bengal-stripe wrote: »

Even if the transfer arrives the next day, but hasn't been held-up by security issues, it will have gone through without a hitch.

The account holder cannot actually tell what the hold-up is......so anything that arrives by end of next business day has gone through without a hitch, lol

Vortigern

I saw the smiley in the first post and deduced that the reference to the Santander 123 Complaints Club was tongue-in-cheek, but Fozzie should bear* in mind that a transfer initiated on a Friday might not get there till Monday (or worse for bank holidays). It's not a problem if you're aware of it.

*no pun intended

chickenboy

As a Santander 123 ac holder who does lots of transfers, I can tell you some of the pitfalls you may encounter with the "instant transfers".

The fraud department's criteria are (in my opinion) too sensitive. Big bug-bear: I don't accept that they are protecting YOU from fraud (that is already enshrined in Law), they are protecting the Bank from fraud.

Second big bug-bear - There are also many different time limits they will quote and its often quite clear that the customer service agents are making it up to try to keep you happy. I wish they would just admit that they don't know rather than make something up!

Here is what i have learnt so far...

Common issues:
1. Transfer to a new recipient can take up to 16 hours. This is for "checks by the system" - which no-one will tell you what they are. They are likely checking the destination bank against a list of fraudsters or double checking the destination account holder name against what you have typed??

2. Instant transfers should complete within 2 hours. Usually they are pretty much instant (i will say *well done* here!), but they are adding a 2 hr frame to cover for any delays at either end.

3. Tranfering a small amount, to check it works and that you haven't typed in the wrong ac number (I'm always paranoid i've cocked it up), and THEN transferring the larger amount you intended WILL trip the system. Apparently this is a common thing fraudsters try. Sounds sensible practice to me, i'd rather loose £1 than £1000 thanks to a typo.

4. Transfer limits. They will not say what the amount of money transferred that trips the system is. It probably changes day by day, and *may* be dependant on your account activity.

5. Phone up and complain - if they don't know you're having a bad experience, they won't take steps to improve.

6. I think something new happened this month. I transfered money online, and had a call straight away from an automated system asking me to confirm - and then the payment went through very quickly. Normally I've found it hangs in limbo for 16 hours, so maybe things are getting better?

innovate

chickenboy, all your examples look feasible to me. However, none of them mean that Santander are doing anything wrong. The law is that Faster Payments must arrive (barring real criminal transactions) in the receiving account by the end of the next working day.

The fact that the vast majority of transactions (also with a Santander 123) actually happen within an hour or two is neither here nor there. Blaming the sending bank is, btw, a common mistake - - because it could be the receiving bank that doesn't immediately credit the payment, or it could be because the infrastructure software that links all the banks together is having an issue.

I have personally had one 123 for over 2 years now (and a few more for less than 2 years), I am doing a hell of a lot of Faster Payments from them. I also have many other current accounts with other banks/BSs, and the same more or less applies to all of them in my experience. I have had payments arriving the other end anything between seconds to several hours, or even days were weekends were involved. There has never so far been one that took more than the legally allowed max time.

chickenboy

Sorry, I'm in no way implying the santander are doing anything wrong! Maybe slightly annoying at times, hence the post to try to alleviate that stress for others with this info. I'm actually pretty happy with Santander, and have recommended the 123 ac to a few people.

Herbalus

That's a very useful list of points. I also find that their fraud team is more sensitive than other banks, though it annoys my mum more than me as she is the one who they call all the time! Why they don't call my mobile is beyond me - they do have the number!

I also find their call centre staff appear to make things up more regularly than other banks. Although the bank I speak to most is First Direct, so that could be an unfair comparison.

For example, I have four payees on my 123, which are all accounts belonging to me at other banks. Over the space of a few days I made a quite a number of transactions to these established accounts, and a number back again, which warranted a short block and a phone call because I had done - and I quote - "a large number of transactions". The other banks, FD and Natwest, didn't call me, and have never called me or disputed any online transactions that I've done. Santander have done it 3 times this year, apparently for using the account a bit too much!

innovate

If you don't want them to call you on your mum's number, why did you give them your mum's number?

As to getting calls when you make a lot of transactions sporadically: I would expect any bank to call me to check it was really me if there is an irregular pattern on my account. Whilst I much rather be left in peace by them, I prefer if they checked once or twice too often than not at all. Having said this, in 2 years of having 123 accounts, Santander only ever called me once to verify a transaction. May be because I do make a fair few and they are satisfied with the patterns they can see, I don't know.

Herbalus

innovate wrote: »

If you don't want them to call you on your mum's number, why did you give them your mum's number?

I'm a student, so technically it is also my "permanent" number, along with the address, but I'm hardly ever home. I have told them to ring my mobile, but they call my mum three times first. She even once said "I'll get you his mobile number" (which they already had), but they replied "You can't do that because you're not the account holder"....so much for trying to help!

I am happy with Santander's banking service. The point was that they seem more sensitive than other banks. Indeed, the other week when I was transferring 2 months rent to a new landlord, I deliberately transferred the money from Santander to my FD account and then to the new payee. I knew there wouldn't be any problems with FD when you transfer a large amount of money to a new payee.

innovate

Herbalus wrote: »

I'm a student, so technically it is also my "permanent" number, along with the address, but I'm hardly ever home. I have told them to ring my mobile, but they call my mum three times first. She even once said "I'll get you his mobile number" (which they already had), but they replied "You can't do that because you're not the account holder"....so much for trying to help!

You do not have to give them a "permanent" / landline number if you don't want to. Just your mobile number will be sufficient.

However, if you change or lose your mobile, you could be in trouble because the change of number involves sending a confirmation code to the old number, I believe. So check that before you remove mum's number.

Herbalus

innovate wrote: »

You do not have to give them a "permanent" / landline number if you don't want to. Just your mobile number will be sufficient.

However, if you change or lose your mobile, you could be in trouble because the change of number involves sending a confirmation code to the old number, I believe. So check that before you remove mum's number.

I guess you could change your number in branch if desperate, but I see your point, which is why I've kept that number there. I might remove it though: I'm getting to the point where I'm only back at home for about 4 weekends a year.