Impossible to contact local branch of Santander!?

AFK_Matrix

Hi,

So I am trying to get a remortgage done and they have asked for 3 months bank statements that show name, address, sort code and account number. Now annoyingly the statements I can download don't have this info!

So phoned them up and it will take 7-10 working days! Asked if I could get them at my local branch and they said I'd have to go in and ask as they didn’t know. So I now have to waste money parking and going into the branch in the hope they can supply the statements!

I would much rather ring the branch to check if they can do the statements but it seems impossible to find branch numbers! Is there a way to get the number?

KTF

If you log in to Santander online banking, select the current account, select e-documents on the left then you will see the current account statements available to download.

These have your name, address, sort code and account number on them (well mine do anyway) so not sure why you are not seeing it on yours?

molerat

^^ This ^^ My downloadable on line PDF statements have name, address, sort code, account number, BIC & IBAN.

KxMx

Correct, page 1 shows summary plus account details and personal details.

They are marked as online documents though, which are not always accepted for officialdom purposes.

AFK_Matrix

Thanks guys for this info!! Have sent these statements to the broker so will cross fingers they are acceptable. Santander like to hide these documents!

JuicyJesus

To answer the original question for anyone else looking in the thread: most banks don't tend to have publicly available contact numbers for their branches, because they'd rather customers call the call centre (which are set up to deal with routine calls quickly, and more importantly record and log all calls) rather than branches, which are generally quite low on staffing and are usually totally busy dealing with face to face customers. RBS/NatWest used to make a virtue of having branch numbers available and, well... they don't any more. Possibly because it got tiring having Mrs Miggins down the road ringing up for her balance and a chat every morning.

Generally there is very little that a call centre cannot help with that a branch can, and a fair bit more that a call centre can help with that a branch can't. For this and many other reasons, banks don't want you calling their branches.

AndyPK

Yeah its a pain.


If you moan in branch they will give you their direct number though

JuicyJesus

AndyPK wrote: »

Yeah its a pain.


If you moan in branch they will give you their direct number though

Not always. Some bank staff are under strict instruction not to hand out direct branch numbers, partly because they have other things to do in the branches, partly because branch lines aren't recorded, mostly because call centres can do everything branches can do in most instances and usually do so better and in a more secure way.


To be honest I can't think of any occasion in which I've thought calling a branch directly could help me more than telephone banking reps could.

eskbanker

AFK_Matrix wrote: »

Santander like to hide these documents!

It's not exactly the height of deviousness to publish them at a page entitled 'e-documents' that's readily visible within your online banking! Where would you have expected to find them?

nwc389

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Not always. Some bank staff are under strict instruction not to hand out direct branch numbers, partly because they have other things to do in the branches, partly because branch lines aren't recorded, mostly because call centres can do everything branches can do in most instances and usually do so better and in a more secure way.


To be honest I can't think of any occasion in which I've thought calling a branch directly could help me more than telephone banking reps could.

when I worked in a bank branch out phone banking was was absolutely useless unless they were selling customers an account - and even then they found every way they could to mess it up.
They had no idea at all of what we could or couldn't do in the branch but would happily send customers in telling them that we would help them just to get them off the phone if it was a call that wasn't going to generate a sale.
Things they couldn't help with was branch specific enquiries like disabled access or parking .
The bank I worked for reinstated local branch numbers for customers to make appointments or with general queries ( account info had to go through phone banking for extra security) and we found it much better for the customers and also helpful for us.

AFK_Matrix

eskbanker wrote: »

It's not exactly the height of deviousness to publish them at a page entitled 'e-documents' that's readily visible within your online banking! Where would you have expected to find them?

I would think the link on the left that says Statements would have been a good start! Plus this is where London and Countries guide said to go to find them!

And Santanders call centre had no clue either as they made no mention of going to the edocuments section and instead I'd have to get it sent by post.

So I am really glad I asked on here, thanks again to the first few posters who saved me much annoyance and hassle!