Santander Poor Service

missile

Lightning360 said:

It seems to me that you are to blame for some of this as you seemed unwilling to answer questions or listen to what Santander were saying.

And going to another bank won't help. You will get stories like this with every single bank. You will also get good stories about Santander were the fraud team were really helpful. You will also get people saying they have never had any issues with Santander's fraud detection system (e.g. me). 

Feel free to switch, but you could face the exact same issues at any of the other banks.

You can remember the last two transactions into and out of your account?
You can recite your sort code and account numbers for every account you have?
I wish we were all as smart as you :-)

missile

kaMelo said:

It's not mastermind, these type of questions are not designed to catch you out.
Even though they may be asking for the last payment in/out of your account, answering with the last  payment in/out that you can remember (stating as such to the call handler) alongside other questions will likely get you through.
Frustrating as it is, and it is frustrating, there really isn't much you can do about it other than hold on the phone.
Changing banks won't change anything as they're all bound by the same regulations. If you really want to direct your irk, aim it at the FCA.

Wish it was that easy.
Call handler insisted it had to be last transactions in & out.
I do not use this account for day to day transactions. I have numerous SO and DD. Without access to my account online I was unable to answer correctly. 
She asked me to name one SO amount and payee, which I did correctly and the date which I was not able to answer.
Had there been fraudulent activity then I can't help, I would be unaware of recent activity.

My account is now unblocked but  :
Online Banking
We’re sorry Online Banking isn’t available at the moment. We’re working to fix the problem as soon as possible.
You can call us ............. yeah right :-(

Anyway thanks for your response. I was not looking for a solution, merely venting my frustration :-)

Daliah

Futuristic said:

Santander does have very sensitive 'fraud' detection, you can see the countless threads/posts here with the same account blocks/long waiting times. Incl. myself. They seem incompetent and waiting an hr on a fraud/security line is unreasonable (and normal since last year with them). So yes I'd recommend switching banks too, Chase are pretty good even after being flooded with new signups. 

However if its one of your main accounts you should be able to easily answer what they're asking so you don't keep going around in circles. 

I find Santander pretty good as they are one of the few banks which offer voice ID, which saves you from having to answer questions about last transactions or other information that proves that you are the account holder when you are calling them.

Sadly, voice ID doesn't reduce the waiting times but then the Santander waiting times are not worse than those of many other banks.

I do also use Chase, for the cashback. But they would not be my first choice of bank as they still have a lot of improvements to make - e.g. not holding up payments for more than 2 days, implement Open Banking, CoP and CHAPS, lift the silly max £25k/day withdrawal limit, not accepting cheques or cash. The OP would probably never had their Santander account closed if Chase did participate in CoP, as this would have enabled Santander to see the name on the Chase account.

Lightning360 said:

It seems to me that you are to blame for some of this as you seemed unwilling to answer questions or listen to what Santander were saying.

And going to another bank won't help. You will get stories like this with every single bank. You will also get good stories about Santander were the fraud team were really helpful. You will also get people saying they have never had any issues with Santander's fraud detection system (e.g. me). 

Feel free to switch, but you could face the exact same issues at any of the other banks.

Agree, it doesn't sound as if the OP did help themselves with the way they spoke to Santander. It's obviously a real nuisance when accounts get blocked and/or payments get held up but this can happen at all banks now, and is due to the extraordinary increase of 39%, to £1.3 billion, of theft through fraud and scams in the UK in 2021. I prefer it if banks prevent the thefts from happening, as opposed to having to try and get the money back if I am the victim. 

As you say, OP can switch if it makes them feel better but shouldn't expect that they will escape the stringent fraud checks all banks are now carrying out.

missile

Daliah said:

Futuristic said:

Santander does have very sensitive 'fraud' detection, you can see the countless threads/posts here with the same account blocks/long waiting times. Incl. myself. They seem incompetent and waiting an hr on a fraud/security line is unreasonable (and normal since last year with them). So yes I'd recommend switching banks too, Chase are pretty good even after being flooded with new signups. 

However if its one of your main accounts you should be able to easily answer what they're asking so you don't keep going around in circles. 

I find Santander pretty good as they are one of the few banks which offer voice ID, which saves you from having to answer questions about last transactions or other information that proves that you are the account holder when you are calling them.

Sadly, voice ID doesn't reduce the waiting times but then the Santander waiting times are not worse than those of many other banks.

I do also use Chase, for the cashback. But they would not be my first choice of bank as they still have a lot of improvements to make - e.g. not holding up payments for more than 2 days, implement Open Banking, CoP and CHAPS, lift the silly max £25k/day withdrawal limit, not accepting cheques or cash. The OP would probably never had their Santander account closed if Chase did participate in CoP, as this would have enabled Santander to see the name on the Chase account.

Lightning360 said:

It seems to me that you are to blame for some of this as you seemed unwilling to answer questions or listen to what Santander were saying.

And going to another bank won't help. You will get stories like this with every single bank. You will also get good stories about Santander were the fraud team were really helpful. You will also get people saying they have never had any issues with Santander's fraud detection system (e.g. me). 

Feel free to switch, but you could face the exact same issues at any of the other banks.

Agree, it doesn't sound as if the OP did help themselves with the way they spoke to Santander. It's obviously a real nuisance when accounts get blocked and/or payments get held up but this can happen at all banks now, and is due to the extraordinary increase of 39%, to £1.3 billion, of theft through fraud and scams in the UK in 2021. I prefer it if banks prevent the thefts from happening, as opposed to having to try and get the money back if I am the victim. 

As you say, OP can switch if it makes them feel better but shouldn't expect that they will escape the stringent fraud checks all banks are now carrying out.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
FYI:

• The agent was well aware of my name for Chase account, she quoted it to me
• After 3+ hours, explaining the issue to three different agents and going through security four times, I would suggest most would be frustrated and perhaps less courteous than I.

k_man

I don't think in this case COP would help.
It protects users from accidentally sending to the wrong account, rather than preventing fraud.

A large proportion of bank transfer fraud, is to accounts in the sender's name (fraudulently created).

Also, could you not have checked the Chase account details from the app, while on the phone call?

hoc

Santander really needs to chill with the overly suspicious tendencies and focus on fixing online banking from timing out every few clicks.

roddydogs

M & S are just the same with " what was the last payment"etc.

missile

More security teasers for those smarter than me:

• What date did you open your account?
• Do you have a loan? What is the monthly repayment? 

Daliah

missile said:

More security teasers for those smarter than me:

• What date did you open your account?
• Do you have a loan? What is the monthly repayment? 

all of this is information on one of your CRA files, most likely Experian. So all you need to do is go into your Experian account and you have the ready answers.

Alternatively, just register your voice with Santander and you won't get asked any of these awkward questions.

missile

Daliah said:

missile said:

More security teasers for those smarter than me:

• What date did you open your account?
• Do you have a loan? What is the monthly repayment? 

all of this is information on one of your CRA files, most likely Experian. So all you need to do is go into your Experian account and you have the ready answers.

Alternatively, just register your voice with Santander and you won't get asked any of these awkward questions.

Yeah right, I do not believe Experian would provide the date when I opened my Santander account etc. However, if you are correct, I must remember to register with Experian and log on before I phone my bank :-)