Santander free forever bank account changes

eskbanker

neilsedaka said:

This is how far my FOS case has progressed.
[Image redacted by Forum Team for personal information]

For context, when did your complaint reach FOS?

neilsedaka

esbanker - 14 September 2025.

eskbanker

neilsedaka said:

esbanker - 14 September 2025.

Thanks - perhaps worth noting that this is still within the timeframes in their published guidance:

In general, it takes about two to three months for a case to be allocated for investigation. It can sometimes take longer, depending on what your complaint is about.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/how-long-it-takes

Section62

eskbanker said:

neilsedaka said:

esbanker - 14 September 2025.

Thanks - perhaps worth noting that this is still within the timeframes in their published guidance:

In general, it takes about two to three months for a case to be allocated for investigation. It can sometimes take longer, depending on what your complaint is about.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/how-long-it-takes

Interesting though - that if as speculated FOS will be treating this as a mass complaint issue and have a dedicated team producing largely identical responses, then you'd think perhaps the responses would be coming much quicker now they have a team in place and a 'standard' response ready to go.

....unless they are waiting on an ombudsman final decision for one of the first cases to confirm their standard response position at investigator level?

eskbanker

Section62 said:

eskbanker said:

neilsedaka said:

esbanker - 14 September 2025.

Thanks - perhaps worth noting that this is still within the timeframes in their published guidance:

In general, it takes about two to three months for a case to be allocated for investigation. It can sometimes take longer, depending on what your complaint is about.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/how-long-it-takes

Interesting though - that if as speculated FOS will be treating this as a mass complaint issue and have a dedicated team producing largely identical responses, then you'd think perhaps the responses would be coming much quicker now they have a team in place and a 'standard' response ready to go.

....unless they are waiting on an ombudsman final decision for one of the first cases to confirm their standard response position at investigator level?

Just went over to the Facebook group and the guy who runs it did get his final decision from an ombudsman last week, aligning with the investigator's one:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/434991753218662/permalink/25582013988089758/

Edit: I read the decision document (don't think it's published on the FOS decisions database yet) and it may not constitute a precedent for others as the account concerned was apparently opened in 2011, i.e. after Santander had stopped promising free banking:

F has provided copies of a large amount of marketing information, as well as other documents, that state the account provided by Santander offers free banking forever. Much of this documentation appears to date from before F's account was opened, and before F existed as a limited company. I haven't seen any documentation which states it was sent to F in relation to its account. And, as I've outlined above, Santander has said none of the documentation or marketing information contained a reference to fee free banking after 2010 — the year before F opened its account. 

So it doesn't appear F did receive marketing or any other information stating its account would be fee free forever.

GlitterMedusa

Not only did they not close my account when I requested them to at the end of September, they've started charging. Got a message this morning that my account was in an unauthorised overdraft...
Now sorted after a phone call but I'm not exactly happy about the whole thing 

GlitterMedusa

Aaaaaand this morning I got another 'your account is in an unauthorised overdraft' message. Waiting for the call centre to open at 8am to call, again. I think this time I will ask to raise a complaint, this is really not acceptable.

Edit: they've checked and my account is in the last stages of closure. Yesterday's £9.99 account charge was reversed manually, but today's will get cancelled automatically once the account closure is complete. Allegedly. So I was told not to worry about it. Not sure I can believe that, but we'll see 

travelodger

I just hopped into the thread after a long absence, prompted by Santander taking £9.99 in fees when I have only £50 in my business account. My income from my hobby business is so small that £9.99 seems too big a proportion. 

Not been able to open an account with any of the rivals because I don't have a passport or a driving licence. I'm a disabled OAP.  Tried to apply for a provisional driving licence today purely to use as ID and was refused as I "failed the verification process".

I feel really annoyed at Santander. I've had my account with them for 20 years. I'm also cross that, at nearly 70, born in England, lived here all my life, have my birth cert, house deeds and loads of other ID, business banking is being made extremely awkward for me - in fact, impossible - just because I don't drive and don't travel. Surely this is illegal discrimination against the elderly and/or disabled?

My next move is to direct my incoming payments to my personal account. Yes I know it's not allowed. But my income is small and I have few payees. I can ask my local retailers to pay me in cash, and tell them the honest reason why. If I do that, I will have only two firms paying me by bank transfer,  so hopefully my bank won't notice.

Section62

travelodger said:

...
My next move is to direct my incoming payments to my personal account. Yes I know it's not allowed. But my income is small and I have few payees. I can ask my local retailers to pay me in cash, and tell them the honest reason why. If I do that, I will have only two firms paying me by bank transfer,  so hopefully my bank won't notice.

This would be really unwise.  If your bank does notice then they would almost certainly be justified in closing your account.  Opening a new account with a different bank would probably be very difficult for you (as you've already discovered) without having the ID documents they require.

If you have multiple personal current accounts with different banks then this might be less of an issue, but if "my person account" implies you only have the one account then don't risk that by breaching the T&Cs.

travelodger

@Section62 yes I realised what a risk I was taking and I was loath to risk my current account. Anyway, the problem is now SOLVED!

Last night I tried applying to one more bank, mainly in order to get the screenshots demanding the documents I don't have, so I could print them out and present them to an actual branch, along with every other document I have that confirms my ID. To my amazement, it let me through without passport or DL and this morning I got an email welcoming me to the bank and saying that I had passed all the security checks etc. 

I could not be happier! I cannot WAIT to tell Santander where to stick their £9.99 a month fee. 

The bank I applied to was Virgin Money, which has recently been bought by Nationwide, with whom I have had a current account in excellent standing for 42 years. I don't know if they found that out "behind the scenes" nor whether that affected my application.