Santander grrrr

Notjustamum_2

Santander don't seem to understand that a customers money IS a customers money.

We have been trying to redeem our mortgage since Monday when our endowment payout cleared into my husbands bank account. It took a while for Halifax (mortgage) to confirm redemption amount and where to send funds etc. but eventually got details so sat down to make electronic transfer - cant do that! After loads of phone calls to Santander my husband has now been told that there is no way to transfer the amount necessary (£78000) and it will HAVE to be paid by cheque. That means we will miss the redemption cut off of 2pm on Monday and will be charged nearly £10 per day additional interest until the cheque clears.

I've been onto the complaints dept at Santander and they have told me there is NO limit on a transfer so long as the money is in the account at the same time my husband has them on another line saying there is no way to transfer that amount of money!

Financial Ombudsman are as much use as a chocolate teapot as they say "we can't comment on rules imposed by banks".

Santander have over £100k of our money sitting in the bank but are saying we can have a maximum of £2000 of it at any one time!

Banked with them (starting when Girobank) for nearly 30 years, never been overdrawn (except once when they made an error and apologised) but now we can't get our own money!

mattyprice4004

Well you can get your own money, just not in the way you want. I could walk into my bank and request payment via magic beans, but then can refuse and pay by another method if they want - the net result is the same, you get your money.

Probably an idea to leave a bit more time next time - Thursday to Monday is cutting it fine. That's also not your bank's fault.

Notjustamum_2

But a) The Halifax redemption figure is only valid for one week (we have been on the 'phone to Santander every day since Monday) and b) they aren't really giving us an alternative way of getting our money! Halifax have said that a cheque is not really suitable and could take 10 working days to be applied to our mortgage account (plus posting time as cant be done in branch). We can't transfer it, we can't withdraw it... We can withdraw £2000 per day if we ring each previous day to arrange it. Then we would have to go to the Halifax each day to pay it in. That's going to take a lot of days to pay in £78000 plus £10 per day in interest!

Actually just checked.... My husband doesn't even have a chequebook for that account anymore as they stopped issuing them unless specially requested.

jacques_chirac

Santander are a law unto themselves, but I can see their viewpoint here - an electronic transfer would not be allowed because of the amount involved, too open to fraud, potential for money laundering etc. I'm going back a few years but it was the same with Barclays - I had to withdraw my deposit money in the form of a cheque, a transfer was not allowed.

Naf

Any chance of going into branch? I did transfers larger than that while working on their counter.
It could be a telephone banking thing, as its certainly not an overall company limit.

Notjustamum_2

Branch say it has to be done by phone with head office. Branch and complaints department both said that there is no reason why that amount cannot be transferred. Four years ago we bought a car for £30,000 using our debit card (with telephone security check) We were planning on doing the same next week (more proceeds from endowment and savings) but, apparently we won't be able to do that now either.... If we lose the car we are looking at we lose the car there will be others but we need to get the mortgage paid off while the redemption figure is valid and before another monthly interest payment is taken (as it IS only interest not anything off the capital).

Notjustamum_2

And surely it isn't a money laundering issue, the money came from a recognised financial institution and is (or isn't in this case) being transferred to a recognised financial institution. When we bought the house there was no issue with the purchase price being electronically transferred so why can't we transfer the same amount now?

davehughes182

They should be able to do an authorised transfer if the money is there. When the complaints dept told you it was possible and no limit on transfers, did you not make it there and then?

Notjustamum_2

davehughes182 wrote: »

They should be able to do an authorised transfer if the money is there. When the complaints dept told you it was possible and no limit on transfers, did you not make it there and then?

The complaints department cannot do the transfers and my husband was talking to me on another line and I'm not the account holder.... Usually all our money is in my account (as i was a non tax payer until recently) but the endowment had to be paid to the account that payments were made from so that has made it difficult for me to do it all and husband shouldn't be spending so much time on phone to bank when he is meant to be working..... all we want to do is pay off our mortgage... Who'd have thought it would be so difficult....

Naf

Ah; in that case is it from an Instant Acccess Saver account?

Notjustamum_2

Naf wrote: »

Ah; in that case is it from an Instant Acccess Saver account?

No, it's a current account...