Santander £175 offer turning into a hellish experience! 30 September 2022 at 4:34PM in Budgeting & bank accounts 8 replies 596 views

slhqoue

I've just switched from a donor account to Santander. I transferred over £1000 to meet the requirements of the offer, and set up two direct debits. When I tried to return the £1000 to my own account, internet and online banking were blocked. I spent 1.5 hours on the phone last night trying to get through to Santander, to no avail. Today, I spent 50 minutes on hold and got through, only for the customer service operator to hang up on me.

I'm at my wits end and wish I hadn't bothered with this. My question is, if I go into a Santander branch, will I be able to transfer the £1000 back to my First Direct account? Will I be able to check if my two direct debits have been set up? And will they be able to unblock my account for me?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Zaul22

They seem to only let you transfer £100 per transaction. I had the same problem with Virgin Money too.

Voyager2002

The Santander complaints team are reasonably good at resolving problems. Rather than going into a branch, I suggest you telephone them and ask to speak directly to Complaints.

Astria

Branches typically have no control over internet banking and will have to make a phone call the same as you will have to. You have most likely triggered a fraud check and so have little choice but to ring back to get it unblocked.

If you have your card and PIN, they should be able to do a transfer for you though.

Daliah

Astria said:

 

If you have your card and PIN, they should be able to do a transfer for you though.

Probably blocked, too

sheramber

How soon did you try to transfer the money out of Santander?

oldagetraveller1

Zaul22 said:

They seem to only let you transfer £100 per transaction. I had the same problem with Virgin Money too.

Really? Where did you find that information?

I've paid out numerous four figure sums from my current account.

"Make payments, transfer money and pay your bills with ease

You can make single payments in Mobile and Online Banking of up to £25,000 from your current account for free. The maximum amount you can make in payments in 24 hours is £100,000."

xylophone

Today, I spent 50 minutes on hold and got through, only for the customer service operator to hang up on me.

Did you get into an argument?

I'd guess that with a newly opened account and the transfer out of virtually all the money in  it to an account elsewhere, you have triggered a fraud enquiry.

If this is the case, the CSO would not be able to advise you of this fact.

[Deleted User]

Voyager2002 said:

The Santander complaints team are reasonably good at resolving problems. Rather than going into a branch, I suggest you telephone them and ask to speak directly to Complaints.

Not sure I would be rate Santander complaints team but this is probably the best approach short of rocking up at a Santander branch with debit card and photo ID.