Santander blocked my account without any reason

organic_choc

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.  Thanks for the zero COVID policy in China and then for personal reasons I haven't return to UK since Summer 2019, I am still in mainland China.

Santander, despite having opened my account online since the very beginning (was Alliance and Leicester back then), decided to check on me using snail mail.  They sent me all these notifications via emails but when they wanted to confirm details with me they sent mail to my UK address. 

So fast forward to today, I needed to pay my gardener, tried to log on and found that no account can be found.  Called the number and I was kept waiting for 90 minutes before a person who knows what happened could talk to me.   Spent around 50GBP equivalent in RMB just hanging there waiting. Was told to call 0800 number many times while being kept on the queue, I had to repeatedly tell the same person I am aboard, so can't call 0800.

Finally got a lady on the phone, told me, oh we sent you mail many times since April.  No reply from you so we closed the account in August...

I said - it's an online account.  She said, we know you have online banking but bla bla bla bla.

Luckily I still have a Bank of Scotland bank account, I was able to get a human being to speak to me much faster and they were much more sympathetic.

wmb194

organic_choc said:

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.  Thanks for the zero COVID policy in China and then for personal reasons I haven't return to UK since Summer 2019, I am still in mainland China.

Santander, despite having opened my account online since the very beginning (was Alliance and Leicester back then), decided to check on me using snail mail.  They sent me all these notifications via emails but when they wanted to confirm details with me they sent mail to my UK address. 

So fast forward to today, I needed to pay my gardener, tried to log on and found that no account can be found.  Called the number and I was kept waiting for 90 minutes before a person who knows what happened could talk to me.   Spent around 50GBP equivalent in RMB just hanging there waiting. Was told to call 0800 number many times while being kept on the queue, I had to repeatedly tell the same person I am aboard, so can't call 0800.

Finally got a lady on the phone, told me, oh we sent you mail many times since April.  No reply from you so we closed the account in August...

I said - it's an online account.  She said, we know you have online banking but bla bla bla bla.

Luckily I still have a Bank of Scotland bank account, I was able to get a human being to speak to me much faster and they were much more sympathetic.

So you didn't tell Santander that you are now domiciled abroad?

eskbanker

organic_choc said:

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.

With all due respect, that doesn't sound similar to others on this thread at all - you just failed to update Santander with your current postal address and so they continued to send post to the address they had on file for you, unaware that you hadn't been there for over four years, so the word 'partly' shouldn't have been in your second sentence (nor should 'myself is' when you mean 'I am', but that's by the by!).

The fact that you operate an account online doesn't in any way absolve you from the responsibility to keep them informed of your actual postal address....

organic_choc

wmb194 said:

organic_choc said:

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.  Thanks for the zero COVID policy in China and then for personal reasons I haven't return to UK since Summer 2019, I am still in mainland China.

Santander, despite having opened my account online since the very beginning (was Alliance and Leicester back then), decided to check on me using snail mail.  They sent me all these notifications via emails but when they wanted to confirm details with me they sent mail to my UK address. 

So fast forward to today, I needed to pay my gardener, tried to log on and found that no account can be found.  Called the number and I was kept waiting for 90 minutes before a person who knows what happened could talk to me.   Spent around 50GBP equivalent in RMB just hanging there waiting. Was told to call 0800 number many times while being kept on the queue, I had to repeatedly tell the same person I am aboard, so can't call 0800.

Finally got a lady on the phone, told me, oh we sent you mail many times since April.  No reply from you so we closed the account in August...

I said - it's an online account.  She said, we know you have online banking but bla bla bla bla.

Luckily I still have a Bank of Scotland bank account, I was able to get a human being to speak to me much faster and they were much more sympathetic.

So you didn't tell Santander that you are now domiciled abroad?

I have the intention to return to UK but it was postponed again and again.

I have tried to redirect my post to my overseas address, but the Royal Mail website wouldn't work, I couldn't register an account and therefore impossible to arrange mail redirection.

It doesn't change the fact that they should also ask me by email.  It's an online account from the very beginning.

organic_choc

eskbanker said:

organic_choc said:

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.

With all due respect, that doesn't sound similar to others on this thread at all - you just failed to update Santander with your current postal address and so they continued to send post to the address they had on file for you, unaware that you hadn't been there for over four years, so the word 'partly' shouldn't have been in your second sentence (nor should 'myself is' when you mean 'I am', but that's by the by!).

The fact that you operate an account online doesn't in any way absolve you from the responsibility to keep them informed of your actual postal address....

If they had contacted me via email I could have asked my neighbour to go check my mail.  So in a matter of from April to August, they closed the account.  That's less than half a year. 

Several email a month about avoiding frauds and one about my statement.  Not a word about needing to check my postal address.  If this is something they care so much about, they should at least mention it right?

wmb194

organic_choc said:

wmb194 said:

organic_choc said:

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.  Thanks for the zero COVID policy in China and then for personal reasons I haven't return to UK since Summer 2019, I am still in mainland China.

Santander, despite having opened my account online since the very beginning (was Alliance and Leicester back then), decided to check on me using snail mail.  They sent me all these notifications via emails but when they wanted to confirm details with me they sent mail to my UK address. 

So fast forward to today, I needed to pay my gardener, tried to log on and found that no account can be found.  Called the number and I was kept waiting for 90 minutes before a person who knows what happened could talk to me.   Spent around 50GBP equivalent in RMB just hanging there waiting. Was told to call 0800 number many times while being kept on the queue, I had to repeatedly tell the same person I am aboard, so can't call 0800.

Finally got a lady on the phone, told me, oh we sent you mail many times since April.  No reply from you so we closed the account in August...

I said - it's an online account.  She said, we know you have online banking but bla bla bla bla.

Luckily I still have a Bank of Scotland bank account, I was able to get a human being to speak to me much faster and they were much more sympathetic.

So you didn't tell Santander that you are now domiciled abroad?

I have the intention to return to UK but it was postponed again and again.

I have tried to redirect my post to my overseas address, but the Royal Mail website wouldn't work, I couldn't register an account and therefore impossible to arrange mail redirection.

It doesn't change the fact that they should also ask me by email.  It's an online account from the very beginning.

No, the fact that it's an online account is irrelevant. Banks send items to your address sometimes in an attempt to discover exactly this sort of situation i.e. its customer isn't where he says he is. They have their licences to consider e.g., they may not be allowed or want to take the risk of providing accounts to people domiciled in certain jurisdictions.

eskbanker

organic_choc said:

eskbanker said:

organic_choc said:

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.

With all due respect, that doesn't sound similar to others on this thread at all - you just failed to update Santander with your current postal address and so they continued to send post to the address they had on file for you, unaware that you hadn't been there for over four years, so the word 'partly' shouldn't have been in your second sentence (nor should 'myself is' when you mean 'I am', but that's by the by!).

The fact that you operate an account online doesn't in any way absolve you from the responsibility to keep them informed of your actual postal address....

If they had contacted me via email I could have asked my neighbour to go check my mail.  So in a matter of from April to August, they closed the account.  That's less than half a year. 

Several email a month about avoiding frauds and one about my statement.  Not a word about needing to check my postal address.  If this is something they care so much about, they should at least mention it right?

You've answered your own question - if they'd emailed you to alert you that they wanted to validate that you live where you claim to, then you'd have found some sort of workaround to continue the pretence....

nottsphil

organic_choc said:

eskbanker said:

organic_choc said:

I suffered something similar today.  Myself is partly to blame.

With all due respect, that doesn't sound similar to others on this thread at all - you just failed to update Santander with your current postal address and so they continued to send post to the address they had on file for you, unaware that you hadn't been there for over four years, so the word 'partly' shouldn't have been in your second sentence (nor should 'myself is' when you mean 'I am', but that's by the by!).

The fact that you operate an account online doesn't in any way absolve you from the responsibility to keep them informed of your actual postal address....

If they had contacted me via email I could have asked my neighbour to go check my mail.  So in a matter of from April to August, they closed the account.  That's less than half a year. 

Several email a month about avoiding frauds and one about my statement.  Not a word about needing to check my postal address.  If this is something they care so much about, they should at least mention it right?

You've been living in China continuously for over 4 years and not told your bank? Have you informed the Inland Revenue?