santander 123 How good service?

mookev

As a lifelong HSBC current account holder, I am considering switching my 18K in a 1.4% ISA into a santander 123 account and moving a few direct debits across so they can negate the £5 monthly fee. Just wondered what others experience of their customer service etc is. Also. am I rigght in asuming my savings would be safe should another financial crash occur?

molerat

On a par with most major banks.

Stompa

IME customer service is fine. And yes you will have FSCS protection:

http://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/products/banks-building-societies/santander/

grumbler

mookev wrote: »

am I rigght in asuming my savings would be safe should another financial crash occur?

There is no any difference between an ISA and a current account in terms of 'safety'.

Ballard

I don't recall ever having to contact their customer services as I've never had any issues. The internet banking and iPhone app suit my needs. I've used the local branch from time to time and I've always been dealt with in a friendly and speedy way.

They don't push the 'offers' section and that's made me £50 in a couple of years.

ManAtHome

Branch service about the same, phone service not as good (I was HSBC Premier, now Santander Select), secure message service better, web access pretty much the same (no securekey with Santander, they use SMS to authorise new payees). Much higher limits when moving money around with Santander (without having to phone up).

No_6

Never had to call them or visit branch for any queries.
Good online banking, nice and easy to use.

5 accounts running with them at the moment, on par with
nat west, halifax, Barclays, tsb but make ME more money.

TartanSaver

I've had my "main" account with Santander for ages, before I got into all this loads of accounts lark (up to 10 current accounts now.) Although I've had 2 minor issues with customer service, the complaints department has always been excellent to me, and on both occasions I was given decent compensation without even asking for it! I've found the website to be fairly easy to navigate (better than HSBC, certainly.)

I would point out that if you have an HSBC Advance account, you should open the regular saver and drip feed into it for 6% (if you're not doing that already.) IIRC, Santander was on cashback offers for a while (Quidco etc) but sadly that's passed. With the fee more than doubling, I suspect they're not exactly chasing new customers at the moment.

colsten

Santander are a super little bank, and the 123 account is wonderful for savings if you have exhausted all the better accounts.

I have had 123 accounts ever since they first became available, but they would definitely not be my first choice for my cash savings.

Kendall80

I have had the 1,2,3 account for 2 years approx. and have had 2 small issues. 1) They blocked a large faster payments transfer and 2) A cash machine technical issue didn't dispense the amount we'd requested (still taking it from our account).


In both cases we received an apology and a sum of money (£10 and £30 - I think) Therefore, i'd have to say i'm very happy with their customer service and i'm very glad I switched. Thats before adding into consideration the significant benefits of the 1,2,3 account itself. DD cashback and 3% interest have given my finances a very nice boost indeed.

ratechaser

Possibly not a direct answer, but if you have enough invested to qualify for their Select service, then I would put the service levels there above any of the other mainstream banks (most of which I now have accounts with). Very quick call answering by a human being, and your relationship manager is pretty good at handling all sorts of issues without palming them off down the line.

Plus, to reiterate Kendall80's point, Santander has been an exceptionally lucrative relationship for me over the last 5 years!