Santander free forever bank account changes

born_again

OrangeBlueGreen said:

I saw the post with the answer on the live chat saying "We will not open complaints relating to this" - page 7 of this thread, very first post. Genuine questions: can banks really do that? I thought they had to log them even if they then have template responses sent out to say they don't believe they've done anything wrong and refer to the Ombudsman if customers want to take it further.

I'm not surprised Santander are doing this but it's about the principle so I hope they do another U-turn as this is not fair on customers who signed up for this. "Free forever" was beyond risky and stupid to advertise from a business point of view, but this is of the bank's own doing. The anger should be directed at the product and marketing teams of the time, not towards customers who took this out in good faith.

Santander really are the Ryanair of banks from a customer service point of view. This is the same Santander who are taking over TSB and in their communication say "having successfully acquired and integrated Abbey in 2004 and both Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley in 2008. It has a proven track record in successful banking platform migrations." I am sure many of us remember how their systems were continuously down during the A&L and B&B integrations, how they were always bottom of customer service leagues and how awful their reputation was at the time with accounts being charged even though they'd never gone over the overdraft limit or interest when overdrafts were never used.

Failing to log a complaint is a serious issue FOS will take a very dim view of that stance.

BlueSunnySky1001

First of all, a big huge enormous gigantic colossal THANK YOU to amyfairweather for uploading those documents. I will be printing them out and adding them to my complaint before I post them out tomorrow. I hope everyone will do the same at some point soon. Fantastic! Corporations have to abide by all their terms and conditions, not just Section E(14) like what Santander are doing. This is just brilliant. United we stand, Divided we fall! Good luck to all of us, Brothers and Sisters!

glasgowdan

So Santander thinks it's ok to lie to get us to open accounts with them? Do they know what the word "forever" means? Nothing vague about it, they used this as a clear promise.

Does anyone know if this has been brought to the attention of Martin?

Smurrfmo

born_again said:

OrangeBlueGreen said:

I saw the post with the answer on the live chat saying "We will not open complaints relating to this" - page 7 of this thread, very first post. Genuine questions: can banks really do that? I thought they had to log them even if they then have template responses sent out to say they don't believe they've done anything wrong and refer to the Ombudsman if customers want to take it further.

I'm not surprised Santander are doing this but it's about the principle so I hope they do another U-turn as this is not fair on customers who signed up for this. "Free forever" was beyond risky and stupid to advertise from a business point of view, but this is of the bank's own doing. The anger should be directed at the product and marketing teams of the time, not towards customers who took this out in good faith.

Santander really are the Ryanair of banks from a customer service point of view. This is the same Santander who are taking over TSB and in their communication say "having successfully acquired and integrated Abbey in 2004 and both Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley in 2008. It has a proven track record in successful banking platform migrations." I am sure many of us remember how their systems were continuously down during the A&L and B&B integrations, how they were always bottom of customer service leagues and how awful their reputation was at the time with accounts being charged even though they'd never gone over the overdraft limit or interest when overdrafts were never used.

Failing to log a complaint is a serious issue FOS will take a very dim view of that stance.

I logged a complaint and had a complaint reference number, so it's not true.

Smurrfmo

99% of small businesses can complain to the Financial Ombudsman.  As long as your small business has (1) turnover less than £6.5 million and (2) a balance sheet total of less than £5 million, or employs fewer than 50 people, you'll be fine.  It would be rude not to in this egregious case.

chestercoops

Just read my letter.  Opened our account with Alliance and Leicester in 2009 but have no paperwork.  If  anyone can post terms i`d be grateful.

When Santander took over our account on 28 May 2010 I believe we were just put on a standard business current account which clearly stated ` free day-to-day business banking forever`.  Link from their website on 4 sept 2011.




fees and Charges from 22 May 2010 just after take over.  

Lightning360

So these confirm it is the account that is free, not a lifetime deal with Santander forever. I think Santander is perfectly correct to close the current account and transfer you to a paying account

flickadee001

I have just signed up to MSE, and found this Santander Business Account thread, as I too (like everyone here) have had a letter this morning too!
I've had free Santander Business Account, Everyday Personal Account and a Business Reserve Account, since moving to Santander in 2005-ish?

All been fine..

Now it seems we are all being migrated?

I haven't had time to read all the posts here, but is there anything we can do?
Complain etc?

I did use their Online Chat, but it was so unhelpful! A real person and they just told me to close the accounts when I am ready.

Fine. Happy to do so, and will close all 3 accounts too, but its just the hassle of updating everything.

Can anyone recommend a better bank for free (small) Business Banking? maybe a newer internet only bank?
I already have an account with First Direct, but not sure if they do this?

Thanks for any help

BlueSunnySky1001

Smurrfmo said:

99% of small businesses can complain to the Financial Ombudsman.  As long as your small business has (1) turnover less than £6.5 million and (2) a balance sheet total of less than £5 million, or employs fewer than 50 people, you'll be fine.  It would be rude not to in this egregious case.

Yes, we must. We just need to complain to Santander and go through their internal investigation first but if they have already made up their minds and just say No, sorry, this is our decision, which looks like the case from reading these comments, then yes, we can escalate to the Financial Ombudsman very quickly and save us all some time. I think every Ombudsman requires us to sort it out with the company first before we can escalate. It is a pre-requisite. 

And yeah, I think the media will love this story too and hopefully that will happen soon. Anybody know any popular journalists/bloggers? could be good exposure, considering how it went in 2012 and Santander are daring to do this again 13 years later.

Lindylootoddy

We too have the same issue.  Does anyone still have the original T&C?  Thanks