The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

OceanSound

cwep2 said:

OceanSound said:

allegro120 said:

OceanSound said:

 Please explain the review process, on how many occasions in the last year did you face reviews and by which bank/building society/credit union/financial institution. Please include the sums involved too.

 How long did these calls last?

Can we ask them to call back later at a more convenient time? DOes the money still earn interest while it's waiting to be transferred out/in?

They last about 20-40 minutes.  I've never asked them to call back, just dealt with it to get it done and dusted. 
Every time they called me the issue was resolved at the end of the call so I never lost any interest. 

How many times in ....say the last 6 months?

I have banked with Santander for ~10yrs as my main account and have savings accounts with around 25 other banks. I have used notice accounts, fixes and instant access, some via 'market places' like raisin. I will move money around to get the best rate, frequently transferring 5 figure sums many times in the same month. I also manage it by spreading around under the FSCS limit and taking advantage of higher rates in a spread of notice and fixes maturing regularly. This pattern has been going on for *years* (e.g. 5 figure sums moving in/out of my current account).

I tend to get my account frozen by Santander about 5-8 times a year, once in 2022 it was 3 times in a month - they obviously had changed their fraud triggers. This has happened even on payment instructions I had set up for over 12 months and made 5+ payments to already, not just 'new' payment instructions.

It's a pain and requires around 30 mins on the phone plus maybe 10-20mins waiting time, mostly them reading out a script of things they have to ask. Until you speak to them, your payment (and online access) is blocked, so if you move money from an easy access account earning 3.3% > current account and then try to move to another earning 3.5%, if it is blocked then unless you get it done the same day you will lose a day's interest or a weekend if you are doing it on a Friday.

Sometimes I'm busy and can't take 30+minutes out of my day to sort it out, but 95+% of the time payments go through fine.

Personally I don't move money for less than 0.1% uplift, and at times when banks are all raising rates frequently, if you move it out one day, the old bank may up the rate a couple of days later, and you move it back, now it's doesn't take much time, but each transfer with 2FA takes a few minutes, and even 0.2% on £20k is like 11p a day. So right now with a Bank of England hike expected next week I'd expect almost all the usual suspects that are in the top 10 easy access charts that haven't raised rates in the last 2-3 weeks to do so in the next two weeks so I am probably going to be a bit less trigger happy in moving to chase a rate, but if the existing account has just raised and is still not good then I would still move (for >0.1%) as the prospects of them doing so again in the next couple of weeks is very low. 

So, considering the time spent on the phone with Santander 5-8 times a year. What makes them attractive when compared with the next best (thats' if Santander has offered you the highest interest).

What I mean is, by sticking with Santander, what is the profit you're making compared to the next best, and is that profit worth it ?

Malchester

I like Santander and their website and online system works well for me. However, having read the issues people have with having transfers blocked or account blocked I do not use Santander to transfer between savings accounts. I have had Nationwide current account for over 30 years and use it as my nominated account for all savings and have had no issues at all. Any money to go from Santander to a savings account is transferred to Nationwide and then on. It is a bit laborious but works for me

Steve_xx

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80026819#Comment_80026819

Transfers of large sums from Santander to Nationwide could subject you to having your Santander account blocked.

Certainly, it is fair to say that Santander do not like large sums going out to new payees. And, they'll often react adversely to small tester amounts being sent, followed by larger amounts to the same payee on the same day.

Malchester

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80026835#Comment_80026835

I will not be sending large amounts between Santander and Nationwide (or vice cersa). All large amounts will be from savings accounts into Nationwide and out again.

allegro120

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80026016#Comment_80026016

I didn't receive these calls for a while now, but some 4-6 months ago I had them quite often. I recal once receiving 3 in one week. The worst experience was with Lloyds - instead of them calling me they sent me a text message to call them, it took about 20 minutes to get through and about 30 minutes of conversation to release my payment of £5000.

OceanSound

Here's something I posted/quoted recently on another thread called 'Santander Woes':

'“Inform your bank before any planned activities — including incoming large deposits — that are out of the norm,” advises Resolver’s Alex Neill. “State explicitly where the money is coming from and why.”

(from: https://www.ft.com/content/8fba7cac-83b3-4df3-a1a7-5b6869516085 )

Has anyone tried this method before making a large sum transfer from Santander to another Bank. For example, prior to making the transfer, you call Santander first thing in the morning. Generally, phone lines are quieter first thing in the morning. Tell them your intentions. In this case, that you intend to do a large sum transfer within the next few hours. Seems it may still trigger KYC, but anything else should be less likely as you've just gone through security and spoken to them personally.

Also, you're in control of when you ring them, and don't get phone calls at ungodly hours from them.

allegro120

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80026545#Comment_80026545

This issue is not specific to a particular bank. Santander has never blocked my payments. First Direct, Halifax, Lloyds, TSB and Al Rayan did. Not even specific to large payments, once FD blocked my £10 payment to Chase Savings account.

searching4bestrates

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80026416#Comment_80026416

I don't bank with Santander but opened a savings account with them for the first time when they launched their (at the time) market leading eSaver account. During the short time I had my savings with them, my experience with them was horrendous.

Despite trying to return the savings to the same current account that had deposited the money in the first place (to move the money to other easy access savings accounts), every single transactions was blocked. I then had to spend well over an hour on the phone to them, for each withdrawal, in order to get my account unblocked. I wasted approximately 6 hours in lengthly phone calls trying to access my money. I think it blocked itself 4 times! When I'd finally extracted all my savings from them I closed the account and now wouldn't touch Santander with a barge pole in the future, even if they launched another market leading product.

I have had no issues with Marcus, Zopa, Atom, Chase or Nationwide when shifting savings about, so was shocked at Santander's (in my opinion) vastly overzealous checks. The experiences people have had with CHIP and blocked accounts that have been shared here has put me off opening an account with them, despite them also having the market leading product.

Reverting back to Santander, I have seen a number of people remarking how good they are, so perhaps I was very, very unlucky - but I won't be risking it in the future.

Steve_xx

Santander did inform me to call them if I wanted to make a large transaction, and they'd do it for me. But their response times are far too long to be doing that

OceanSound

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80026959#Comment_80026959

Dosen't the response times vary throughout the day? For example, lunch time can be particularly busy. Also, towards the end of the day. Maybe, this dosen't apply to Santander (and they are always busy)?

Also, how come banks and financial institutions don't have systems where we call and if the wait time is too long we can select the 'call back' option and disconnect the call, however, we still continue to wait in queue. When it's our turn, the bank's (or financial institution's) telephony system calls us back.

I remember calling PayPal once, and they had this system. Maybe they still do. Before I'm reminded..Yes. I'm aware PayPal is not a bank.