Santander free forever bank account changes

MeteredOut

There were a few folk threatening small claims after their first charge hit their account. Has anyone kicked that off yet?

Section62

travelodger said:

@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.

Probably not, as Virgin Money's own disparate systems don't talk to each other, let alone talk to a different bank.

Before telling Santander to stick their fee, wait for a week or so for the new Virgin account to settle down.  It isn't unknown on this forum for people to open accounts with assurances everything is Ok, only to get a notice of account closure shortly after when some additional check has been carried out.

OblongHead

thedean1999 said:

OblongHead said:

I have an active complaint with Santander about the old Abbey National “Free Banking Forever” business account. My case has gone through the first FOS investigation stage and is now escalated to an Ombudsman for a full decision, which they say takes six to twelve weeks.

For others going through the same process, this is what has happened so far.

Santander applied a £9.99 charge to my account on 11 October 2025. The account balance was zero at the time, so their fee pushed the account into an unarranged overdraft. I sent them a written notice pointing out that a firm cannot apply disputed fees while a FOS case is open, and they reversed the charge the next day. The account is back at zero.

The FOS investigator did not uphold my complaint. The main reasons were that Santander described the promise of free banking as marketing material, the bank refers to general variation rights in the old terms, and the investigator said that because I continued using the account after 2015 this can be treated as acceptance of any changes they made. The investigator did not treat the 2012 letter that reaffirmed Free Banking Forever as a binding commitment. This seems to be happening to a number of people because very few can prove whether they did or did not receive a particular letter ten years ago.

I rejected the investigator’s view and asked for an Ombudsman review. My challenge focused on the points many of us share:

• Santander reaffirmed Free Banking Forever in writing in 2012, after an earlier attempt to remove it.
• A specific lifetime guarantee cannot be removed silently by a general variation clause.
• The bank has not provided evidence that they gave clear and prominent notice that the lifetime status was ending in 2015.
• Continued use of an account is not valid consent if the customer had no idea the key feature was removed.
• A lifetime guarantee does not expire simply because time has passed.

I kept my reply concise and factual, which seems to work best with FOS escalation teams.

If you are preparing your own complaint or escalation, it helps to focus on these core points rather than the wider history. The FOS process for this type of dispute seems to turn on evidence of what was promised, what was reaffirmed, and whether any clear notice was given that the promise was being removed.

Happy to share updates when the Ombudsman decision arrives.

Thank you for sharing. I have been toying about whether to escalate or just move my account (but it will be a pain to do so).

In particular I am concerned that if the case takes ages to be resolved will I be on the hook for the fees that would have been charged in the interim? ie though they have not applied the charges, will they be able to apply the charges backdated to the date of the first one if the ombudsman finds in their favour?

That's the danger. You could be liable for fees if the ombudsman finds in favour of the bank, which I suspect they might as they are siding with the idea that the free forever is "marketing fluff" (sic) and banks are entitled to raise costs as the banking landscape changes with new regulations. I used Monzo Business to switch out - had enough of Santander. Even if we win I didn't really want them to have my money any longer. They closed my business savings account and refused to reopen it 4 years ago. The banking switch to Monzo is automatic - very easy to do.

OblongHead

MeteredOut said:

thedean1999 said:

OblongHead said:

I have an active complaint with Santander about the old Abbey National “Free Banking Forever” business account. My case has gone through the first FOS investigation stage and is now escalated to an Ombudsman for a full decision, which they say takes six to twelve weeks.

For others going through the same process, this is what has happened so far.

Santander applied a £9.99 charge to my account on 11 October 2025. The account balance was zero at the time, so their fee pushed the account into an unarranged overdraft. I sent them a written notice pointing out that a firm cannot apply disputed fees while a FOS case is open, and they reversed the charge the next day. The account is back at zero.

The FOS investigator did not uphold my complaint. The main reasons were that Santander described the promise of free banking as marketing material, the bank refers to general variation rights in the old terms, and the investigator said that because I continued using the account after 2015 this can be treated as acceptance of any changes they made. The investigator did not treat the 2012 letter that reaffirmed Free Banking Forever as a binding commitment. This seems to be happening to a number of people because very few can prove whether they did or did not receive a particular letter ten years ago.

I rejected the investigator’s view and asked for an Ombudsman review. My challenge focused on the points many of us share:

• Santander reaffirmed Free Banking Forever in writing in 2012, after an earlier attempt to remove it.
• A specific lifetime guarantee cannot be removed silently by a general variation clause.
• The bank has not provided evidence that they gave clear and prominent notice that the lifetime status was ending in 2015.
• Continued use of an account is not valid consent if the customer had no idea the key feature was removed.
• A lifetime guarantee does not expire simply because time has passed.

I kept my reply concise and factual, which seems to work best with FOS escalation teams.

If you are preparing your own complaint or escalation, it helps to focus on these core points rather than the wider history. The FOS process for this type of dispute seems to turn on evidence of what was promised, what was reaffirmed, and whether any clear notice was given that the promise was being removed.

Happy to share updates when the Ombudsman decision arrives.

Thank you for sharing. I have been toying about whether to escalate or just move my account (but it will be a pain to do so).

In particular I am concerned that if the case takes ages to be resolved will I be on the hook for the fees that would have been charged in the interim? ie though they have not applied the charges, will they be able to apply the charges backdated to the date of the first one if the ombudsman finds in their favour?

The obvious answer is legally, yes they could, if the Ombudsman's decision determines the T&Cs that allowed for the introduction of a fee outweigh the misleading "free forever" marketing and those T&Cs were implicitly accepted by customers.

Whether Santander would chase for those fees is a different thing and each individual should weigh up the risk. But, I've seen a lot of comments of "I'm going to go to the Ombudsman just to cost Santander £450", so perhaps Santander will do likewise and just pass those fees onto a debt collector.

I think people wanted a feeling of getting some autonomy back by going to FOS to fight against Santander (which costs them £650 a go I think), despite the odds being rigged against us. It might be worth all of us submitting a Data Subject Access Request to Santander to see if they did send out notice of account change in 2015. For those that want to inflict another poke at Santander, that would do the trick.

amyfairweather

MeteredOut said:

There were a few folk threatening small claims after their first charge hit their account. Has anyone kicked that off yet?

The first charge went out this week, I’ve raised a complaint about that and awaiting news.

In terms of small claims, I’ll be doing that if (when) there’s an unsuccessful resolution at FOS.  I’m yet to receive the cut and paste job yet though from the junior investigator, let alone be able to escalate it to an actual ombudsman.

noitsnotme

OblongHead said:

MeteredOut said:

thedean1999 said:

OblongHead said:

I have an active complaint with Santander about the old Abbey National “Free Banking Forever” business account. My case has gone through the first FOS investigation stage and is now escalated to an Ombudsman for a full decision, which they say takes six to twelve weeks.

For others going through the same process, this is what has happened so far.

Santander applied a £9.99 charge to my account on 11 October 2025. The account balance was zero at the time, so their fee pushed the account into an unarranged overdraft. I sent them a written notice pointing out that a firm cannot apply disputed fees while a FOS case is open, and they reversed the charge the next day. The account is back at zero.

The FOS investigator did not uphold my complaint. The main reasons were that Santander described the promise of free banking as marketing material, the bank refers to general variation rights in the old terms, and the investigator said that because I continued using the account after 2015 this can be treated as acceptance of any changes they made. The investigator did not treat the 2012 letter that reaffirmed Free Banking Forever as a binding commitment. This seems to be happening to a number of people because very few can prove whether they did or did not receive a particular letter ten years ago.

I rejected the investigator’s view and asked for an Ombudsman review. My challenge focused on the points many of us share:

• Santander reaffirmed Free Banking Forever in writing in 2012, after an earlier attempt to remove it.
• A specific lifetime guarantee cannot be removed silently by a general variation clause.
• The bank has not provided evidence that they gave clear and prominent notice that the lifetime status was ending in 2015.
• Continued use of an account is not valid consent if the customer had no idea the key feature was removed.
• A lifetime guarantee does not expire simply because time has passed.

I kept my reply concise and factual, which seems to work best with FOS escalation teams.

If you are preparing your own complaint or escalation, it helps to focus on these core points rather than the wider history. The FOS process for this type of dispute seems to turn on evidence of what was promised, what was reaffirmed, and whether any clear notice was given that the promise was being removed.

Happy to share updates when the Ombudsman decision arrives.

Thank you for sharing. I have been toying about whether to escalate or just move my account (but it will be a pain to do so).

In particular I am concerned that if the case takes ages to be resolved will I be on the hook for the fees that would have been charged in the interim? ie though they have not applied the charges, will they be able to apply the charges backdated to the date of the first one if the ombudsman finds in their favour?

The obvious answer is legally, yes they could, if the Ombudsman's decision determines the T&Cs that allowed for the introduction of a fee outweigh the misleading "free forever" marketing and those T&Cs were implicitly accepted by customers.

Whether Santander would chase for those fees is a different thing and each individual should weigh up the risk. But, I've seen a lot of comments of "I'm going to go to the Ombudsman just to cost Santander £450", so perhaps Santander will do likewise and just pass those fees onto a debt collector.

I think people wanted a feeling of getting some autonomy back by going to FOS to fight against Santander (which costs them £650 a go I think)

I'm not sure it necessarily does cost them £650 per complaint.  @eskbanker knows more about this I believe.

noitsnotme

amyfairweather said:

MeteredOut said:

There were a few folk threatening small claims after their first charge hit their account. Has anyone kicked that off yet?

The first charge went out this week, I’ve raised a complaint about that and awaiting news.

This is probably going to be viewed as a vexatious complaint, particularly if you keep making them, as you were already told you would be charged.  They could deal with vexatious complaints by closing your accounts, but if you're moving banks anyway that probably doesn't bother you too much.  It might not go in your favour if you're thinking of taking legal action.

amyfairweather

noitsnotme said:

amyfairweather said:

MeteredOut said:

There were a few folk threatening small claims after their first charge hit their account. Has anyone kicked that off yet?

The first charge went out this week, I’ve raised a complaint about that and awaiting news.

This is probably going to be viewed as a vexatious complaint, particularly if you keep making them, as you were already told you would be charged.  They could deal with vexatious complaints by closing your accounts, but if you're moving banks anyway that probably doesn't bother you too much.  It might not go in your favour if you're thinking of taking legal action.

They’ve started charging before the initial complaint has been dealt with by FOS.  That is why a second complaint has been raised.

noitsnotme

amyfairweather said:

noitsnotme said:

amyfairweather said:

MeteredOut said:

There were a few folk threatening small claims after their first charge hit their account. Has anyone kicked that off yet?

The first charge went out this week, I’ve raised a complaint about that and awaiting news.

This is probably going to be viewed as a vexatious complaint, particularly if you keep making them, as you were already told you would be charged.  They could deal with vexatious complaints by closing your accounts, but if you're moving banks anyway that probably doesn't bother you too much.  It might not go in your favour if you're thinking of taking legal action.

They’ve started charging before the initial complaint has been dealt with by FOS.  That is why a second complaint has been raised.

There was some discussion about that earlier in the thread.  I can’t be bothered to find it but I’m not sure they are obliged to suspend the charges while a FOS complaint is live?

Section62

noitsnotme said:

amyfairweather said:

noitsnotme said:

amyfairweather said:

MeteredOut said:

There were a few folk threatening small claims after their first charge hit their account. Has anyone kicked that off yet?

The first charge went out this week, I’ve raised a complaint about that and awaiting news.

This is probably going to be viewed as a vexatious complaint, particularly if you keep making them, as you were already told you would be charged.  They could deal with vexatious complaints by closing your accounts, but if you're moving banks anyway that probably doesn't bother you too much.  It might not go in your favour if you're thinking of taking legal action.

They’ve started charging before the initial complaint has been dealt with by FOS.  That is why a second complaint has been raised.

There was some discussion about that earlier in the thread.  I can’t be bothered to find it but I’m not sure they are obliged to suspend the charges while a FOS complaint is live?

Regardless, it would seem a bit harsh for Santander to close amyfairweather's account for making a 'vexatious complaint' about new charges whilst they patiently wait for FOS to do their job.

I feel Santander would struggle to justify setting the 'vexatious' bar so low.