Santander 'Easy Access' Saver Iss 3 - 'painful closing' process.

dosh37

Today I decide to close my Santander Easty Access Saver Iss 3 account.

I think it should be named 'Easy Access, Painful Closing' account.

When I went online, I dicovered that clicking 'Close Account' does nothing. No real surprise there.

My heart sank when I realised I would have to use the phone, navigate the rubbish AI menu systems before I could talk to a real person.

On my first attempt I decided not to respond to any of the AI prompts.

Eventually I got to speak to a human and went through all the usual security questions.

I was told that because I had not entered my 5 digit security number and had £1.00 remaining in the account they were unable to help. I gave up.

I went back to internet banking and withdrew the remaining £1 then phoned again.

This time I entered the 5 digit security code but the digits did not appear to get through to the far end. Perhaps the Vonage VOIP system I use? Anyway, I tried 3 times - no joy.

Eventually I managed to get through to a human again.

At first she told me I would have to visit a branch in person to close the account.

Following some incredulous protests she eventually took the sort code and destination account number for the accrued interest.

I reckon it took about 1hr to close the account.

jim1999

The AI menu system works very well for closing accounts in my experience, very easy to use.

I suspect not responding to its prompts is why you found it so painful.

refluxer

When you say the 'close account' option did nothing, was that via the online chat bot ? I closed a previous version a while ago this way - it only took a few minutes and the account was closed a few days later. 

friolento

 Closing is very easy via the Chat Bot

Warslet

I also used the Chat Bot to close a savings account recently.  The experience was as I expected, straightforward and the account was closed. 

Beddie

I used the app chatbot too, very easy and only took a few minutes. It does seem the human approach is becoming harder, banks just don't want to employ a call centre any more.

Futuristic

As others used the live chat bot and had no issues either. That said Santander have been pretty quick to pick up calls as a (Select) customer which is a significant improvement to before.