Bank (current account) recommendations

Pagala

Hi, I've got a couple of accounts, and have been locked out of my Santander one. I called them up and they told me this happened because I sent a payment (not a huge amount - just £4) to a new payee. I've just spent hours on the phone, on hold, and got put through to their security department. I answered their questions, and then they told me I have to go to confirm my ownership of the account in-branch.

I'm a bit annoyed about this. The transfer is of my own money, to a new payee. As I stated, it's not a massive amount. The first security answer I gave was mistaken, but then I realised this and corrected the information during my phone call. The whole time, they refused to answer questions (for security reasons!) while lying to me (saying I had passed the security questions, when I knew I hadn't). Also for security reasons.

Anyway, the long and short of it is, after I unlock my current account in-branch, I will be closing my Santander accounts. This will also be for security reasons (hahaha), i.e. the ridiculous and inconvenient wait to get through to Santander to unlock my account.

I figured this would be a good forum to ask if there's a bank where I can get a current account that won't lock my account, put me on hold for 2 hours and then get me to march to my local high street just because I decided to pay a new payee just £4K. I'm taking my custom elsewhere, but I don't know where, yet. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions?

eskbanker

Obviously inconvenient when there are security-related issues but if you look hard enough through threads on here, you'll probably find similar tales involving all banks - if there was one that became known for lax or weak security, that wouldn't necessarily be a positive thing....

colsten

As annoying as it might be, all banks can, and sometimes do, lock your account and demand ID verification before they re-open it.

You'd be mightily annoyed with Santander if a fraudster posed as yourself, and had been allowed to syphon £4,000 out of your account, wouldn't you?

By all means, close your Santander account once it's been re-activated, but don't expect to get away without ID verification at other banks. Also be prepared for repeat ID verification. Sadly, we have to put up with increased security measures, thanks to ever more audacious fraudsters.

Also, sending accounts sometimes get locked because of a connection with the recipient account. Such as when you send money to somebody who is on a bank's watch list or is in any way suspicious in the bank's eyes.

Pagala said:

Hi, I've got a couple of accounts, and have been locked out of my Santander one. I called them up and they told me this happened because I sent a payment (not a huge amount - just £4) to a new payee. I've just spent hours on the phone, on hold, and got put through to their security department. I answered their questions, and then they told me I have to go to confirm my ownership of the account in-branch.

I'm a bit annoyed about this. The transfer is of my own money, to a new payee. As I stated, it's not a massive amount. The first security answer I gave was mistaken, but then I realised this and corrected the information during my phone call. The whole time, they refused to answer questions (for security reasons!) while lying to me (saying I had passed the security questions, when I knew I hadn't). Also for security reasons.

Anyway, the long and short of it is, after I unlock my current account in-branch, I will be closing my Santander accounts. This will also be for security reasons (hahaha), i.e. the ridiculous and inconvenient wait to get through to Santander to unlock my account.

I figured this would be a good forum to ask if there's a bank where I can get a current account that won't lock my account, put me on hold for 2 hours and then get me to march to my local high street just because I decided to pay a new payee just £4K. I'm taking my custom elsewhere, but I don't know where, yet. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions?

Pagala

colsten said:

You'd be mightily annoyed with Santander if a fraudster posed as yourself, and had been allowed to syphon £4,000 out of your account, wouldn't you?

Yes, that's absolutely true.

However, if that fraudster knew my DOB, my last transactions (date and exact sum), AND had just made that payment after logging into my account on the desktop computer I always use for banking, AND had my mobile phone (with the bank's own app installed and my passcode, etc.) AND debit card, then I would say that that fraudster would have definitely earned his salt. That's the sort of unlikely scenario Santander just "protected" me against.

colsten

Pagala said:

colsten said:

You'd be mightily annoyed with Santander if a fraudster posed as yourself, and had been allowed to syphon £4,000 out of your account, wouldn't you?

Yes, that's absolutely true.

However, if that fraudster knew my DOB, my last transactions (date and exact sum), AND had just made that payment after logging into my account on the desktop computer I always use for banking, AND had my mobile phone (with the bank's own app installed and my passcode, etc.) AND debit card, then I would say that that fraudster would have definitely earned his salt. That's the sort of unlikely scenario Santander just "protected" me against.

Yes, sure, it would be a massive coincidence, or a very smart fraudster  - - - both are possibilities. Obviously, the Santander folks you were speaking to still had some concerns, so they thought it better to do a physical check in Branch? Your discussion with them didn't get a little heated, and they are now getting their own back by making you trot to the Branch? It will have been recorded, so you could ask for the recording, or for a complete SAR.

If they have been thoroughly unreasonable, I would suggest you can raise a firm, stern, polite complaint https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/customer-support/how-to-complain. At a minimum, you could ask for an apology and for reimbursement of your time and travel costs, plus compensation for the distress caused.

Pagala

Thanks, I'll definitely complain and will request the transcripts, although as there's no penalty for failure to comply with data protection laws, and the regulators will probably just give me an automatic email saying they can't do anything "because of Covid-19" in response to my essay, I doubt Santander will comply. It is worth a try, and I will give it a shot even though I very much doubt a bank would comply with an SAR in this day and age.

I just wonder whether I'd be better off with an internet-only sort of bank account. At least they can't march you to your high street to get you back because they don't like your tone, don't like your Asian name or don't like your sources of income, and you won't be left guessing as to why either a loser is "punishing" you for reasons unknown or whether it's simply an excessive and inappropriate security setup. It would be a case of taking a snapshot of photo ID with the smartphone, and waiting for them to get back to you, probably.

colsten

Pagala said:

..... there's no penalty for failure to comply with data protection laws,............ I doubt Santander will comply. ..........I very much doubt a bank would comply with an SAR in this day and age.

I am honestly not sure what the issue with data protection laws is / would be in your case. Can you elaborate?

Pagala said

I just wonder whether I'd be better off with an internet-only sort of bank account. 

Have all the reports of locked (and never to be opened again) Monzo, Revolut and Starling accounts escaped your attention? Just because a bank doesn't have bricks& mortar presence doesn't mean you can escape the AML provisions all banks have deployed. If anything, a bank without a bricks and mortar presence will be much more difficult to deal with than one that has. Read my Revolut post from last night.

Pagala said:

.... don't like your Asian name or don't like your sources of income...

Do you really reckon name/nationality/residency checks, and source of income checks, are limited to banks with Branches? 

Pagala

colsten said:

I am honestly not sure what the issue with data protection laws is / would be in your case. Can you elaborate?

Pagala said

I just wonder whether I'd be better off with an internet-only sort of bank account. 

Have all the reports of locked (and never to be opened again) Monzo, Revolut and Starling accounts escaped your attention? Just because a bank doesn't have bricks& mortar presence doesn't mean you can escape the AML provisions all banks have deployed. If anything, a bank without a bricks and mortar presence will be much more difficult to deal with than one that has. Read my Revolut post from last night.

Data protection laws: ignoring a request for transcripts/recordings of telephone conversations. Or simply refusing to supply information. Or citing exemptions, valid or not, for why they don't have to supply the information. The regulator won't help - I could write reams to the Information Commissioner. I'm getting more help from you here in this forum than I would ever get from those rent-seeking petty time-servers. My time is precious and that's why I resent going to the bank branch to confirm my ID. There are all sorts of ways to waste time, and writing long letters of complaint to a big, mega-rich corporation or bank without the backing of a regulator is one of them.

Yes, to be honest I know nothing at all about internet-only banks, and reports of them locking accounts completely skipped my attention. I'm a latecomer even to mobile banking. I sort of ignored the world of banking for as long as I could. In this case I'm trying to set up a completely new situation which will help prevent a recurrence of what happened with me today, with Santander.

I don't have problems with having to verify my ID. Passwords, document scans, passcodes, security questions - no problem. I do have major problems with being under the complete arbitrary power of someone who can make you march to a high street branch to do any of these things. Presumably, online-only banks cannot make you go anywhere and present whatever proof you have that you own the account. Incidentally, Santander has been badgering me for years to go paper-free, and if I'd acceded to this pressure, then I wouldn't have any means to prove my ownership of the account in-branch either.

It seems with bricks-and-mortar retail infrastructure, banks can arrogate certain functions, such as arbitrary ID checks, to the branch staff, and the existence of these branches therefore advantages the bank more than the retail customer (such as myself) who never uses the branch. Therefore a bank without said branches would have to have recourse to smartphone-only, fully security featured, ID verification systems. There is no such pressure on a bank like Santander to have 100% security verification within the app or by email or phone.

colsten

Just go into a Santander Branch and show your ID. Don't complain to the folks in Branch, they know nothing about your case, and they can't overwrite the Fraud Team who made you appear in Branch.

This should get your account block removed (assuming, of course, you are able to provide the relevant ID documents)

What you do for your banking arrangements after your Santander account has been re-activated is down to you. May be starting afresh with a different bank is the right thing to do for you. Don't expect to be exempt from money laundering checks, though, because none of us ever is, with any bank.

DCFC79

As to the question re a new account, Ive had RBS for years, Lloyds amd TSB the next longest then Halifax, no problems (Ive not had an issue to test how the banks deal with )  except changing address at TSB isn't as easy as the others.

colsten

DCFC79 said:

As to the question re a new account, Ive had RBS for years, Lloyds amd TSB the next longest then Halifax, no problems except changing address at TSB isn't as easy as the others.

I've had had all of these too, plus Santander, Halifax. First Direct, M&S, Nationwide, Virgin Money, Barclays, HSBC, Monzo, Starling, Tesco and Ulster.