Santander - onerous security checks

mohecan

 If my mum wants some money, a new card or pin and a woman with her details phones the bank. Are the bank staff going to know its not my mum speaking? Voice recognition aside.  Therefore, if my mum has a prob I could ring and speak for her..Couldn't I ?  

ForumUser7

mohecan said:

 If my mum wants some money, a new card or pin and a woman with her details phones the bank. Are the bank staff going to know its not my mum speaking? Voice recognition aside.  Therefore, if my mum has a prob I could ring and speak for her..Couldn't I ?  

If you don’t have power of attorney, and you claim to be your mother, I believe that classes as fraudulent misrepresentation, which is highly highly unadvisable

dunstonh

NoMore said:

All the banks are subject to AML (anti money laundering) checks, but Santander in particular was just recently fined by the FCA for failures in this area, so they have probably overreacted to that and being extra cautious.
 

And this is important.  When a firm has been found to do something wrong by the regulator, they not only have to bring themselves upto standards but go beyond that level for a period of time.     Typically be having slightly more stringent rules and less risk based decision making.   This can lead to requests for documents that others are not having to make but they do until they prove themselves again.

Band7

Bridlington1 said:

It has just occurred to me a possible reason why I don't seem to get my Santander account blocked despite bouncing money through to over a dozen payees (all my own accounts), and what have you. I have set it up so that I get emailed if I make any payment greater than £50. Possibly that could make me appear lower risk to them. 

I appreciate it won't make me immune from fraudsters in their eyes but would be interested to know what people's thoughts are on this one. Do you think this would have much of an impact?

Don't think that theory works. I get notified by text of any payment I make, yet was still blocked twice in 2022. Admittedly, 2 transactions are a tiny %age of the total number of payments I make but it's still a PITA when you get blocked.

Good fraud protection includes that the checks are random and that people can't detect patterns. Though it should also be intelligent and protect account holders from being identified / treated like fraudsters 

Band7

mohecan said:

 If my mum wants some money, a new card or pin and a woman with her details phones the bank. Are the bank staff going to know its not my mum speaking? Voice recognition aside.  Therefore, if my mum has a prob I could ring and speak for her..Couldn't I ?  

You need some sort of 3rd party access arrangement https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/supported-banking/third-party-access to act on another person's behalf, whether you are related to that person or not.

Impersonating another person could land you, as well as potentially the other person, in quite a bit of trouble.

happybagger

I've just set up ordinary power of attorney at Santander and I have to say they were brilliant. I couldn't use the online 'form' as it requires you to upload scans of documents (I don't have a scanner and the camera on my phone does not work). I took the original documents in to a branch without appointment, as I don't trust the post at the moment. The advisor scanned them in the back office emailing them to her computer at the front, and then filled in the form online with my answers and attached the documents.

The relevant accounts appeared on my online banking page within 3 days.

I'm quick to criticise, but in recent days I've had over-and-above service at Santander (and Coventry) 

BooJewels

I had a similar experience with Santander @happybagger - in my case with an LPA for my Dad and later after he passed, in getting everything closed and passed into the account I'd opened for the estate.  On each occasion they were obliging and sensitive and it was all sorted well within a working week with minimal fuss.  They even refunded a £1.85 credit balance on his credit card.  Can't unfortunately say the same about Barclays, they've been as bad as Santander were good.