Santander Credit Card Fraud

gc1979_3

I hold a Santander 123 card and was the victim of a series of unauthorised transactions last weekend to the sum of 1997.75. They started with a £3 transaction to something called Netteller and then 3 transactions for £508 to Netteller and 3 to Western Union. I saw the transactions on my pending transactions the next day and reported it.

On finally getting to speak to the Fraud team on Tuesday I was advised that they had spoken to someone to validate one of the transactions. They were unable to say what number they have called. My contact number on their site was an old one that the number had expired and my house phone had no messages on it.

It seems like they are dragging their heels. I was told on Tuesday it would take 10 working days to send me a form, which I have to send back and then they will investigate and credit me within 48 hours pending investigation.

To my surprise today I got a letter dated 15th Feb asking me to contact their security department, who were obviously concerned at that point about fraudulent activity. They then told me it was being 'looked into' but would not give any timescales.

From reading previous threads on the subject Santander seem like a law unto themselves. Any advice greatly appreciated.

eskbanker

Although it may not feel like it, it's the bank that's the victim here if it's fraud - assuming their investigation doesn't conclude any wrongdoing on your part then they have to foot the bill.

Contact them again and remind them of the FCA guidelines and in particular

If you are sure you did not authorise a particular payment you can claim a refund.

The bank must refund the payment immediately unless it has evidence that there is a reason to refuse a refund, as explained below. This is so it can look into what happened, but it must do this as quickly as possible.

Your bank may ask you to answer some questions and fill out a form confirming what has happened, but it cannot delay your refund while it waits for you to return the form.