Santander refusing to honour switching incentive

marky.fitz

Hi all
Has anyone else been refused Santander switch incentive of £175 recently?
I applied on 7th September and seen that offer ended on 22nd but was sent welcome email on 15th but they are refusing to honour this incentive which I find frankly disgusting.
thanks
mark

penners324

Why are they refusing? Has the switch taken place ?

marky.fitz

The switch was delayed because they say Monday 19/9 was a bank holiday with the queens funeral which delayed the switch and offer was pulled on the 22/9 but received email on 15/9 saying account open

LottieLu

Why are they refusing to pay the switching bonus ? 

I switched having never banked with them before and recd an e mail on 15/9 saying my switch was completed and thanks for switching . Nothing in the e mail about the bonus at all . Which I don’t expect as you need 60 days of banking before they do a sweep of your account to make sure you met their criteria in the t&c s for the switch 

Voyager2002

marky.fitz said:

The switch was delayed because they say Monday 19/9 was a bank holiday with the queens funeral which delayed the switch and offer was pulled on the 22/9 but received email on 15/9 saying account open

Your account may have been open but the switch had not been completed.

I suggest you contact their complaints team saying that the switching process was held up for reasons unknown to you and completely outside your control, and ask for a goodwill payment equal to the amount of the incentive.

LottieLu

Someone else asked if the switch needed to be completed by 22nd or just the account opened and the t&Cs were quoted as follows 

Zanderman

marky.fitz said:

The switch was delayed because they say Monday 19/9 was a bank holiday with the queens funeral which delayed the switch and offer was pulled on the 22/9 but received email on 15/9 saying account open

When was the switch due to begin and end?  Your post says when the account was opened, but that's irrelevant to the switch. If you asked for a switch (which can only begin after the account is open) you'll have chosen a date for it to complete (and, by implication, to begin, 7 working days earlier). What was the date you chose? 

marky.fitz

Been asked to contact head office by advisor as previous online advisor said it was out of time period hence why it has been refused. Hopefully they will have the courtesy to honour the offer.
thanks all for advice and thoughts 

TheBanker

It is possible that your switch was delayed due to the bank holiday, and therefore missed the cut-off. 

I would suggest speaking to someone because this bank holiday was unplanned. I think they will probably award you the incentive, even if they class it as a goodwill gesture. But they might want you to call back after 60 days so they can check you met the other eligibility criteria.

Details of how to contact the complaints team here: https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/customer-support/how-to-complain - although you might not want to make an official complaint, they're probably in the best position to help you.

Zanderman

marky.fitz said:

Been asked to contact head office by advisor as previous online advisor said it was out of time period hence why it has been refused. Hopefully they will have the courtesy to honour the offer.
thanks all for advice and thoughts 

They will only honour the offer if you were eligible. Which, as I said above, boils down to when the switch was due to start and end. You've not said when that was. 

If all you'd done was open the account before the 22nd you won't be eligible for the switch incentive. That required the actual switch to have started before the 22nd.

I can't see how the BHol on the 19th is relevant - if the switch was due to begin that day it will only have delayed until 20th, so still before the 22nd, and so no problem. If it was due to end that day it will have completed before the 22nd so no problem.  [Edited to add:  Unless, of course, the switch start date was 22nd and some cumulative effect of the BH pushed that back to 23rd]

Had you actually asked for the switch at all before the 22nd?

youngretired

The T&C's clearly stated "as long as the switch has been requested before the incentive is withdrawn, you will be eligible for the incentive". So even if the switch happens after the 22nd you will still be eligible, as you request the switch date at the time of opening the account and was allowed to choose a date in the future.