That Santander 2.75% savings account 4 November 2022 at 1:40PM edited 4 November 2022 at 3:19PM in Savings & investments 30 replies 4.4K views

KevinG

Like no doubt many others, I opened one of the Santander 2.75% savings accounts when it launched last month, which was only available for a short time. I was able to deposit a holding amount of £1,000 into it while I waited to receive my login details. A letter duly arrived with various codes on it and a promise of a further letter within 3 working days, containing a security number. 2 weeks later this still hadn't arrived and after a fruitless Twitter exchange I eventually managed to get through to someone on the phone, and after going through some mindless security they said they would send it out again. A week later it still hasn't arrived so I still can't use the account. Meanwhile everyone else has been increasing their rates and most of my other accounts are only a smidgen below so I really wonder why I should bother. No other organisation has made it this hard, with every other account I have been able to log in and use it straight away. Has anyone else had or not had this problem? Goodness knows how I'm going to be able to get the money out and close the account.

art123_2

I opened a joint account on 11 October.  2 weeks later my wife received her log in letters and was able to use the account.  Finally my letters arrived yesterday, 3rd November, after 3 weeks.  I logged into the account yesterday and everything seemed to be working ok, but I attempted to change my 5 digit code number, and got locked out of the account.  Phoned Santander today and they tell me that they are unable to reset it for me, and are now sending me out fresh log in details, which will take another 4-7 working days.  The whole procedure has been a total hassle from the start, and if I don't get it sorted by the end of next week, I will be transferring the funds back to Saga, and closing down the account.   Thankfully the account is in joint names, so it can still be used, but it's far from ideal.

KevinG

art123_2 said:

I opened a joint account on 11 October.  2 weeks later my wife received her log in letters and was able to use the account.  Finally my letters arrived yesterday, 3rd November, after 3 weeks.  I logged into the account yesterday and everything seemed to be working ok, but I attempted to change my 5 digit code number, and got locked out of the account.  Phoned Santander today and they tell me that they are unable to reset it for me, and are now sending me out fresh log in details, which will take another 4-7 working days.  The whole procedure has been a total hassle from the start, and if I don't get it sorted by the end of next week, I will be transferring the funds back to Saga, and closing down the account.   Thankfully the account is in joint names, so it can still be used, but it's far from ideal.

Thanks, seems like they're a bit of a shower. Very tempted to close it if I ever get into it.

baser999

I was already with Santander, took me less than 5 minutes

KevinG

baser999 said:

I was already with Santander, took me less than 5 minutes

Well that will teach me! Some sort of warning about just how tortuous it is if you're not would have been useful. 

kiis10295

The Santander account was quite frustrating to setup. I had opened it late night and accidently put 1 wrong digit in my Mobile number. 2hrs on the phone with numerous calls and eventually they wanted to call my landline for some reason & said they couldn't update the number on my account without doing that. (Landline wasn't working at the time).

Then I went into a branch (3 miles away because they closed all the other ones except the 1 in the city centre). Got my number changed in 60seconds. Then my login details weren't working, had to get new ones sent out. Took around 2-3wks from signing up to actually being able to log into the thing.

Looking forward to some higher rate ISA's/Easy Access accounts opening up in the next week or 2 just so I can hopefully get away from Santander!

pedrodelgado

kiis10295 said:

The Santander account was quite frustrating to setup. I had opened it late night and accidently put 1 wrong digit in my Mobile number. 2hrs on the phone with numerous calls and eventually they wanted to call my landline for some reason & said they couldn't update the number on my account without doing that. (Landline wasn't working at the time).

Then I went into a branch (3 miles away because they closed all the other ones except the 1 in the city centre). Got my number changed in 60seconds. Then my login details weren't working, had to get new ones sent out. Took around 2-3wks from signing up to actually being able to log into the thing.

Looking forward to some higher rate ISA's/Easy Access accounts opening up in the next week or 2 just so I can hopefully get away from Santander!

Not being funny but it was you who made the initial mistake wasn't it?

kiis10295

pedrodelgado said:

kiis10295 said:

The Santander account was quite frustrating to setup. I had opened it late night and accidently put 1 wrong digit in my Mobile number. 2hrs on the phone with numerous calls and eventually they wanted to call my landline for some reason & said they couldn't update the number on my account without doing that. (Landline wasn't working at the time).

Then I went into a branch (3 miles away because they closed all the other ones except the 1 in the city centre). Got my number changed in 60seconds. Then my login details weren't working, had to get new ones sent out. Took around 2-3wks from signing up to actually being able to log into the thing.

Looking forward to some higher rate ISA's/Easy Access accounts opening up in the next week or 2 just so I can hopefully get away from Santander!

Not being funny but it was you who made the initial mistake wasn't it?

Yes it was as I've said. But I expected a bank to be able to correct the 1 digit error in less than 2hrs + a visit to an actual branch. Anytime I've had an issue with my Barclays account, it's been resolved in minutes.

Ifts

KevinG said:

baser999 said:

I was already with Santander, took me less than 5 minutes

Well that will teach me! Some sort of warning about just how tortuous it is if you're not would have been useful. 

Maybe keep it open with £1 when you get into it - that way if they come out with another decent rate account it will take you 5 minutes too.

xylophone

Well that will teach me! Some sort of warning about just how tortuous it is if you're not would have been useful. 

I have  been a customer for years and it was still tortuous....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79552828/#Comment_79552828

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79555520/#Comment_79555520

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79563053/#Comment_79563053

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79566547/#Comment_79566547

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79567468/#Comment_79567468

And yes, a couple of days ago, I found that they had opened a second saver for me..... and if (as I was told), it can be closed in on-line banking, I haven't found the way to do it....

I've  left  the second account just sitting empty...... I just can't face any more sitting about hanging on to speak to them....

Band7

xylophone said:

And yes, a couple of days ago, I found that they had opened a second saver for me..... and if (as I was told), it can be closed in on-line banking, I haven't found the way to do it....

If the 2nd account is in your way, you can close it using their chat bot. Relatively painless and quick to do.