Blocked by Santander

EssexExile

Thanks airsound for keeping us informed, I'll make a note of that phone number as I'll be moving considerable amounts through my Santander account soon. To be honest though, I quite often move large amounts about and have never had any problems. I'm hoping it won't seem unusual to them this time.

airsound

Further developments this morning Monday, in an 0859 call from Santander Complaints  -  the same person I had made the original complaint to on Friday.

She summarised my complaints satisfactorily.   i pointed up a couple of anomalies:

• As part of the security process, they ask for detail of a recent pay in or out.   But wait, I'm locked out of my account, so how can I see?   (It so happens I keep my own records, so I could answer!   OK I know, I should get out more....)
• They told me I couldn't speak to the 'back office' (not 'customer-facing').   Back office are the people who are actually making the arrangements that cause all the trouble.   But lo and behold, after I'd gone on making a fuss,it was the woman from back office who called me, and fixed it all.

Oh, and guess what  -  they've paid me a small sum in compensation, less than £100.  I elected not to haggle over the amount  -  I believe it's the principle.   For them to pay, presumably someone has to authorise it, which I believe makes it more likely that they will pay attention to what went wrong, and (maybe) improve things another time.   It says here.

Anyway, result!   Though I'd much rather not have had to go through it all in the first place....

airsound

PS   The money arrived at DFCapital.

a7ash

I have had my Santander account blocked for no reason since about 3 days. Called the Sanrtander support team 3 times - all they can say is that there is a block placed on the account and they do  not know anything more. I had a majority of my savings with them. Still trying to ascertain the reason behind the block, but hitting up against a wall everytime.

As per UK regulations, I believe they can block any account for no reason and not give any explanations. How many innocents suffer due to this. 

Momanns

You might be better off starting a new topic but this is something that comes up a lot so do some searching on the forum. Likely an AML block, possibly a fraud block.

What was the activity on your account in the days prior to your account being blocked? 

eskbanker

a7ash said:

As per UK regulations, I believe they can block any account for no reason and not give any explanations.

They can't do it for no reason, but they're not required, indeed aren't allowed, to divulge what the reason is, if it relates to their obligations under AML legislation, etc.

hypermilers

Hi- I thought this might be helpful for folks on this forum. In going through Santander’s lock-out process once again, it turns out that the managers can unlock accounts interactively if you’re persistent. So next time this happens to you, once you get through to the call center just insist on a manager doing it right away for you and stay on the phone until it’s done. They’ll take you through the security questions and unlock right there and then. Worked for me!

dealyboy

@hypermilers said:

Hi- I thought this might be helpful for folks on this forum. In going through Santander’s lock-out process once again, it turns out that the managers can unlock accounts interactively if you’re persistent. So next time this happens to you, once you get through to the call center just insist on a manager doing it right away for you and stay on the phone until it’s done. They’ll take you through the security questions and unlock right there and then. Worked for me!

... thank you for this and may I say you're a very rare beast a new forum member (Welcome  ) whose very first post is helping and receiving thanks.

Having had problems with Santander in the past can I just confirm you are referring to the account being locked and inaccessible rather than a transfer being held up by fraud/security interception.

danco

I'll start a post in this thread even though it has been dormant for some time. Do the helpful answers apply to Santander credit cards as well as to their bank account?

I got a credit card a few days ago, made a few payments, and then they wouldn't let me make any more payments. I phoned them last Thursday (just after a payment had been refused, both contactless and chip and PIN), was told it was a security issue and the matter would be resolved in a day or two. Made a few tries at the weekend which were refused. Phoned this morning, got told my card was active and not blocked. Attempted to make a payment, got told that I would have to confirm it on the app (which seems reasonable enough, and I had expected). Did the confirmation, and the payment was declined! Current situation is that I phoned them again, they can be sure it was me calling (used my registered number and passed the voice recognition), they took me through the declined transactions and I confirmed they were made by me. They say they will inform the back office and the card will be usable in two days at most. Hopefully it will, but as they've said that before I am not confident.

Getting through to their security department or someone of higher status than their main customer service would be ahelp.