Switching banks dilemma

Happy_bunny

Been using a fairly basic account from Halifax and opted to switch to the Santander 123 account - online demo shows I can save several hundreds a year.

Santander have sent me all the gumph - account details, card and pin ect yet the same day they started thhe switch have send me notification they've declined my credit card application.

As a 'paid' account it's now not worth me switching, get the same general deal from Halifax and without the C/C cashback it'll actually cost me each year.

Been told it's all in the system and cannot be changed - will have to wait for the whole switch to take effect, with halifax account closing and the switch back to halifax :eek:

Is this right? to be honest I'd not bother switching if Santander hadn't 'pre approved' my application - including c/c

grumbler

It's hard to believe that it really was "several hundreds", but generally both the current account and the credit card contributed to this amount and I don't see why 123 account on it's own is not worth switching to. Give it time, and you'll be able to get the credit card too.

If it was the CC only that you wanted, you could have applied for it, not for the current account.

That said, unless you applied through TCB/Quidco for a cashback, there was no point in switching. You could have kept both accounts.

System

Phone the switching teams at both Halifax and Santander - they might be able to create an error at the one of the ends that causes the switch to fail.

If the account at Halifax isn't an Easycash or Cardcash then you might be able to get £100 for 'switching' Santander back to Halifax

pinkdalek

Switch to Santander then switch back, it is the easiest and less stressful way.

Plus you might end up with £100!

seaviewing

ring santander up, I know someone who was "pre approved" but declined online, it was a computer glitch - they got accepted by the call centre