Santanders' nerve

Hadrian

Santander sent me 2 days ago 4 identical letters. 2 for 'dead' accounts but 2 telling me that my ISA interest was now to be 0.25% and same for my savings account. To say I'm livid is an understatement, how dare they!! 25p for loaning them £100 for a YEAR!
I have withdrawn all of my ISA and my savings from them and bought a new car which I'd rather watch depretiate daily than give these **** robbers my cash. From now on I'll spend any spare money I have.
When I calm down I shall write a letter in this vein to Santander, can anyone give me the CEO's details?

Cardew

Santander are no different in that respect to most of the major banks. They rely on customers not bothering to change their accounts; at least we now get letters informing us that we are being ripped off.


You can get higher interest accounts with Santander for savings and ISA as well as with other banks/building societies - but the interest rates are still dismal.

El_Torro

There are other ways to invest (or save), without going to Santander. Probably a better option than spending everything you earn and refusing to save at all.

ViolaLass

Have I missed the law that says you have to lend your money to Santander?

george4064

See you in the debt forum in a few months time.. :lipsrseal

coyrls

Obviously you can get a better rate than 0.25% but even 0.25% interest with 0% inflation is much better than 5% interest with 10% inflation.

bowlhead99

Hadrian wrote: »

Santander sent me 2 days ago 4 identical letters. 2 for 'dead' accounts but 2 telling me that my ISA interest was now to be 0.25% and same for my savings account. To say I'm livid is an understatement, how dare they!! 25p for loaning them £100 for a YEAR!

Lend it to me, I'll give you 50p for it. Of course, you might find your money is more at risk.

How dare they? They can change variable rates whenever they like - that's why they call it a variable rate. If you like the rate you will continue to give them your money. If you don't, you will give it to someone else. They don't owe you a living. 0.25% is greater than consumer price inflation for the last year so you have been making a 'profit' for doing absolutely nothing, while taking zero risk.

They are the ones taking a risk by providing you with a massive banking infrastructure and lots of personnel to run a financial services business while investing your money and guaranteeing to give you back more than you gave them regardless of the success of their investments and business strategy.

And you say "25p for loaning them £100 for a YEAR!". If you were actually willing to commit to giving them the money for a fixed period of time, like a year, they would give more interest. For example a 1 year bond pays 1% for a 1-2-3 customer. But you choose to have their instant access products because you might take back the money tomorrow. If you lent me £100 'perhaps for a year and perhaps for one night', I wouldn't pay you very much of an interest rate because I can't do anything with the money because I might have to give it back to you tomorrow.

Also, you are an internet user. So you can open their eSaver which pays significantly more than the 'everyday saver' which is the one reverting to 0.25% in a couple of months time.

I suspect you are not here for an education though, just for a rant, and you are not really trying to understand how they 'dare' to offer the rates to millions of customers. The answer is, the rates are fine, because if they were not, millions of customers would disappear.

I have withdrawn all of my ISA and my savings from them and bought a new car which I'd rather watch depretiate daily than give these **** robbers my cash. From now on I'll spend any spare money I have.

haha yes I'm sure that's what you will do.

When I calm down I shall write a letter in this vein to Santander, can anyone give me the CEO's details?

Per their website: Santander UK plc. Registered Office: 2 Triton Square, Regent's Place, London, NW1 3AN, United Kingdom

The CEO is a nice man called Nathan. I hope for the benefit of the owners and other customers of the business he doesn't waste any of his valuable time on your rant.

colsten

Santander have been paying me 3% AER, as well as about £10 cashback per month, since around 2012.

If you have been unable to find this offer, or offers better than 0.25% at other banks, that wouldn't be the fault of Santander. This forum has been packed with information about interest rates for more than a decade. I would recommend you read about a bit.

dunstonh

I'd rather watch depretiate daily than give these **** robbers my cash.

They are giving you what you agreed for them to give you. How does that make them robbers?

When I calm down I shall write a letter in this vein to Santander, can anyone give me the CEO's details?

You want to spend 63p on a stamp to complain about 25p interest that matches the terms that both you and they agreed?

Are you mad?

mgarl10024

You also have to remember that Santander's and your interests wont always be the same.

They are a bank and their purpose is to make money - and they do this by borrowing it from you (or others) at as cheap a rate as possible and then investing/lending it to make as much as they can.

There is a market out there for how much interest they need to pay to retain your money. Too much and they're making a loss. Too little and you'll move elsewhere. They need to pay you just enough to stay.

I remember very early on when I only had accounts with one bank feeling quite let down (and outraged!) that after being such a good customer my bank had released an account with a higher rate than the one I was getting but had neglected to inform me. The reality then dawned on me.

Futuristic

Congratulations on your new car, it's probably depreciated faster than light and has the same use as your previous car.

On the other hand as someone else mentioned, please don't bother wasting other peoples time at Santander with your little childish rant.

Instead of what most people would do by sticking to the new rate (sadly a lot of people do) or transferring elsewhere, you've gone and spent all the money which you may need one day.