How bad/unreliable have Santander become?

BossHogg

OK, they had IT problems a week or so back, and I got a decline on debit card at front of Long queue at MacDonald's... annoying but my other card worked... so tad embarrassing but got my food.

This weekend I was trying to check-in to the hotel hosting my Daughters wedding... both cards declined... no explanation, plenty in account, no alerts and no way to pay to get checked in to hotel. Fuming.

Impossible to get through to anyone, just automated chatbots trying to take you to wrong place, and customer service phones 'sorry for the delay....' then cut off at 8pm sharp... no way to find out whats going on or why cards declining... just left in limbo unable to access my money and get family into their rooms.

Called customer services who say it was not an IT issue, so after 30 min wait got put through to anti-fraud department call queue, after further 15min got told they did not know why and started blaming the Hotels card machine that worked fine for other's bank cards.

Hope they are happy with their IT costs being reduced, in their race to the bottom with other banks.

Clueless and soon to be not be my bank any longer.

born_again

Cards working fine here.

Perhaps there is a security check on the card.

Never get why people get embarrassed at a card decline.. Staff will see it all the time and not careless.

BossHogg

I checked with them, and apparently some sort of Mastercard issue at 2pm (they just changed all our cards from Visa to MC)... but apparently their system shows it as a merchant cancelled... which was not the case... so someone's IT system somewhere is naff.

It was not just the embarrassment, but the 'How the hell do I pay for this wedding reception or even get us checked into our rooms'... the one event where you need your bank to be there and working. Complete fail. Can never trust them again so changing banks.

EssexExile

I can understand your feelings but if you're going to change banks every time something like this happens you'll soon run out of banks. As is often said on here, you need at least two banks and several cards for times like this.

scott_lithgows

To be fair they have always been crap,right back to the abbey national days

Nebulous2

scott_lithgows said:

To be fair they have always been crap,right back to the abbey national days

Santander regularly came bottom of customer satisfaction ratings, probably about 10 years ago? They struggled to amalgamate all the nonsense they had from different institutions being taken over. I remember them demanding my Grandmother in her mid- 90s attend a distant branch in person to remove money from a savings account. 

They recognised the bad publicity was having a negative effect and committed to improving. They have got considerably better since then. 

MEM62

BossHogg said:

Clueless and soon to be not be my bank any longer.

I am surprised that they still are.  I have no personal experience but these forums are not short on reports of Santander's quirky systems and poor customer service.  

Daliah

I have had various Santander current accounts since 2011. Whilst I hate the way the payees are managed in the app and online, they provide all the functionality you expect from a current account. I have made several thousands in interest and cashback from these accounts over the years, and they are still paying me cashback which easily covers the £2 monthly charge, and more. Santander is my hub account for Regular Savers and any other current accounts which require minimum monthly deposits, and thus I process thousands a month through my 123 Lite. Never once had anything go wrong. I do most of my banking on the app, which I use at least once most working days.

On the rare occasions that I needed to talk to their CS (e.g. transferring amounts higher than the online max), or that I needed to visit a Branch (mostly to get pound coins for parking and the Laundrette), the support was flawless and always friendly and efficient. 

For a while, they had a good Regular Saver, so I used that one as well but nowadays their savings offerings are as unattractive as those of other high street banks so I have taken my money elsewhere. I also wouldn't dream of having an investment account with a bank (with the exception of Halifax, perhaps) so I am not interested in Santander's investment offerings. However, whilst I do have current accounts with almost all other banks, including the "hip" ones like Chase and Starling, Santander is my main current account, and will remain so for a very long time. 

Teapot55

I’ve banked with Santander for years. 

I particularly like the Santander banking app for two reasons 
     •   you can view just your outgoing payments or just your incoming payments or go back to ‘normal’ view in an instant 
     •   when paying someone you can amend the ‘reason for payment’ without having to set up a new payee like for my other bank account (so, £xx this month for birthday, £xx last month for my share of restaurant bill etc)

[Deleted User]

Nebulous2 said:

scott_lithgows said:

To be fair they have always been crap,right back to the abbey national days

Santander regularly came bottom of customer satisfaction ratings, probably about 10 years ago? They struggled to amalgamate all the nonsense they had from different institutions being taken over. I remember them demanding my Grandmother in her mid- 90s attend a distant branch in person to remove money from a savings account. 

They recognised the bad publicity was having a negative effect and committed to improving. They have got considerably better since then. 

You can put lipstick on pig but it's still a pig. 

I tried Santander for first time recently for the switch offer. I've used the card about ten times - have had a declined contactless transaction, declined chip and pin transaction and declined ATM transaction. 

I'm not fussed as I've usually got other cards or Google Pay if needed but did seem a mlflaky to me and will be switching out once the £130 is credited. 

EssexExile

We all have different experiences with different banks. Santander has been good for me for years, it pays me money, it's never blocked any transactions (& I've had some big ones), it's never been any trouble and it's come to the rescue when other banks let me down.

I wouldn't touch NatWest with a vey long bargepole, others will have completely the opposite experience.