Are santander a crappy bank?

AdventureRocks

Looking at changing to the 123 3% account but i am hearing a lot of problems with customer service etc.

What are peoples opinions and experiences with them?

How safe are they really it seems to change hands a lot to?

Thanks for any help

Newly_retired

Been with Santanderfor years since they took over Alliance and Leicester.
No major problems. Minor problems sorted within a couple of hours at most.
I find their online banking very smooth, and detailed when I need it.
They have been quick to check up on any large transfers of money, which have been genuine on my part, but I am glad that their systems are vigilant. It is reassuring.
Then there is the 3% interest on balances up to £20k, cash back on utilities, council tax, phone bills etc.
The only drawback is the £5 pm fee but that is worth it for me.

worried_jim

I have my mortgage with them (13 years) and I gave to say that whenever I've needed to contact them they have been brilliant. I last used their online service yesterday and was very impressed and since then I've had one email and one text to keep me updated. Very happy.

AdventureRocks

Newly_retired wrote: »

Been with Santanderfor years since they took over Alliance and Leicester.
No major problems. Minor problems sorted within a couple of hours at most.
I find their online banking very smooth, and detailed when I need it.
They have been quick to check up on any large transfers of money, which have been genuine on my part, but I am glad that their systems are vigilant. It is reassuring.
Then there is the 3% interest on balances up to £20k, cash back on utilities, council tax, phone bills etc.
The only drawback is the £5 pm fee but that is worth it for me.

Thank you for your feedback.

With their online banking is it possible to set up alerts for every single transaction by text or email?

Also do you get two factor authentication such as a username + password. Then a second key from either a text message or calculator?

lush_walrus

We had two instances with them and left. If you do very simple banking I am sure they can cope, we had a business account with them and they were clearly ill equipped to carry out basic functions.

On two separate occasions we had the same issue. we paid invoices to companies we had paid prviously online so their details were already saved and paid them many times successfully before via the online details stored. In both instances they credited the money to an incorrect account. We were of course able to prove it was their error, but it took time to argue against them and in the meantime we were left with two invoices unpaid and charges against our accounts as one they had managed to also add two 00s onto the end of the amount and left us over drawn.

It took a vast amount of time to prove both. In the end we did and we discovered that online banking stored details are somewhere along the line at Santander manually input into their system. Therefore human error crept in.

The error itself wasn't the problem, mistakes happen. It was the length of time and he fact that even in the face of their own error they still left the charge on our account for being overdrawn when we shouldn't have been.

We left for hsbc and no hitches with them. If you do go with Santander make sure you can prove everything you do with them just incase. Screenshot every transaction.

Yorkshire_Pud

No reason NOT to go with them if they offer an account you like as they are a good bank.

Newly_retired

As far as online security is concerned, there is customer ID, then a chosen picture, then password and memorable information.
Also an invitation to download additional security.
I am signed up for text alerts for certain transactions, and balance alerts.
I don't have banking apps, so cannot say if they offer more.
For some transactions they additionally require a one time passcode , which they supply by text.
Hope this helps.

molerat

Been with them since A&L days - 1994- and had my mortgage with Abbey. No real problems, experiences with other banks have been worse. They come 3rd in Martin's poll and HSBC as lauded above came 11th - take from that what you want. My son is currently being strung along using the 8 weeks complaint allowance since before Christmas with Halifax/BOS over his help to buy ISA !!!! up which the two halves of the same bank can't sort out between them.

grumbler

AdventureRocks wrote: »

How safe are they really it seems to change hands a lot to?

:huh::huh::huh::huh::huh::huh::huh::huh:

EssexExile

They're fine as long as you don't involve any of their humans. They generally don't seem to know much about how their bank works.

AdventureRocks

EssexExile wrote: »

They're fine as long as you don't involve any of their humans. They generally don't seem to know much about how their bank works.

So if you run into trouble sounds as though you are screwed :rotfl: