Santander free forever bank account changes

Section62

Smurrfmo said:

From the BusinessMatters article quoted above, hits the nail on the head:

While Santander insists it is acting within the terms of its account agreements, business owners and legal commentators are questioning whether a unilateral reclassification of accounts can override an explicit, written lifetime guarantee.

“The right to change an account type does not override or invalidate a specific and binding contractual promise,” the letter argues. “None of the [stated] exceptions — changes in law, regulation or tax — apply here” .

If regulators agree that the promise constituted a contractual assurance, Santander could face formal complaints and potential enforcement action. At the very least, it risks reputational damage at a time when trust in retail banking remains fragile.

....and at a time when Santander UK want to grow the business and get regulatory approval to buy TSB.

RichardStevensons

Smurrfmo said:

From the BusinessMatters article quoted above, hits the nail on the head:

While Santander insists it is acting within the terms of its account agreements, business owners and legal commentators are questioning whether a unilateral reclassification of accounts can override an explicit, written lifetime guarantee.

“The right to change an account type does not override or invalidate a specific and binding contractual promise,” the letter argues. “None of the [stated] exceptions — changes in law, regulation or tax — apply here” .

If regulators agree that the promise constituted a contractual assurance, Santander could face formal complaints and potential enforcement action. At the very least, it risks reputational damage at a time when trust in retail banking remains fragile.

  That was me!! 

solidpro

Now it's hit the Sun, Telegraph, Guardian and a bunch of other national press, what's the chances of Martin talking about it on his podcast or show?

LadyJaz

Smurrfmo said:

Santander playing for time, saying it will be 8 weeks to provide a response to my complaint.  if they're so sure of their position it would take a day.  I will be on to the Ombudsman the second the 8 weeks are up and there is plenty of time to get this sorted before the deadline.  Why Santander chose to pick a fight with their customers like this is bizarre, especially after what happened last time.  I have had and have plenty of products with them, not only am I determined to see them honour their promise but I will be going elsewhere for everything else.

From what I gather, Santander is already issuing formal responses, with the resolve to proceed with the account changes "under Section E of our General Terms and Conditions" which they claim allows them to convert accounts "to another product in our range", and that they are no longer offering free business accounts so are giving customers 2 months notice to consider their options, which I believe they say are 1) accept the new account 2) Close the account 3) Change banks 4) Ombudsman.

I don't believe this is a very nice way to treat old customers that they promised 'free business banking forever' too, customers who have been loval for many years (almost 20 in my case), They are making a choice to close the free accounts, it hasn't been imposed on them in law, and comes at a time when other major banks are offering free business accounts, so the banking landscape can't be that detrimental to free business accounts. So ultimately the Ombudsman will have to decide if they are doing the right thing and I will be referring my case their in due course. 

GW19

I opened my Abbey National Business Account in May 2005 and partly on the promise of "Free Banking Forever" for my Sole Trader business consultancy.

So like many others I was dismayed to get the Santander email recently as they attempt to migrate my (and many more) to a "Business Classic Account" and to charge £9.99 a month for the privelige. Clearly it is not the money each month, but the principle and I for one will not pay £10 a month for something that I signed up for 20 year ago for £0 a month. Personally I was not aware of the first attempt to make this change in 2012 but this time I will consider undertaking a complaint action to not let them get away with it. 

I will lodge a complaint but my own feeling is that it probably won't work and Santander will do everything in their power to push these changes/charges through. I am currently looking at some alternatives (Monzo/Starling and Mettle are the best or most suitable ones I have researched thus far) for both App based banks and also one "High Street" (as if any are left now?!) Bank as well. 

Out of interest I noted that HSBC (no affiliation) now offer their Business Account as free of all charges and suspect that might be in response to the Santander move. Has anyone else looked at HSBC as an alternative please?

I'm not sure if I should wait and see what happens with these complaints and what, if any, action the Financial Ombudsman take for this case............or simply vote with my feet and go to another Banking provider, be that App based or High Street. Interested to hear what other Sole Traders are thinking of here....

ForumUser7

GW19 said:

I opened my Abbey National Business Account in May 2005 and partly on the promise of "Free Banking Forever" for my Sole Trader business consultancy.

So like many others I was dismayed to get the Santander email recently as they attempt to migrate my (and many more) to a "Business Classic Account" and to charge £9.99 a month for the privelige. Clearly it is not the money each month, but the principle and I for one will not pay £10 a month for something that I signed up for 20 year ago for £0 a month. Personally I was not aware of the first attempt to make this change in 2012 but this time I will consider undertaking a complaint action to not let them get away with it. 

I will lodge a complaint but my own feeling is that it probably won't work and Santander will do everything in their power to push these changes/charges through. I am currently looking at some alternatives (Monzo/Starling and Mettle are the best or most suitable ones I have researched thus far) for both App based banks and also one "High Street" (as if any are left now?!) Bank as well. 

Out of interest I noted that HSBC (no affiliation) now offer their Business Account as free of all charges and suspect that might be in response to the Santander move. Has anyone else looked at HSBC as an alternative please?

I'm not sure if I should wait and see what happens with these complaints and what, if any, action the Financial Ombudsman take for this case............or simply vote with my feet and go to another Banking provider, be that App based or High Street. Interested to hear what other Sole Traders are thinking of here....

Not a sole trader, but AFAIK no where else will give you a free forever guarantee. Would wait and see what happened with this, as if enforced by regulators or FOS you’ll potentially still have free forever. If you move to HSBC for example, nothing is to stop them adding fees down the line

LadyJaz

GW19 said:

I'm not sure if I should wait and see what happens with these complaints and what, if any, action the Financial Ombudsman take for this case............or simply vote with my feet and go to another Banking provider, be that App based or High Street. Interested to hear what other Sole Traders are thinking of here....

I'm in the same position and am inclined to wait as once we close the account it is gone forever whereas the Ombudsman might rule in our favour and we can keep our account. I understand, though, if some don't want to as I personally have lost all respect for Santander. However, I genuinely can't afford £9.99 a month, and have no photo id (so getting a new free account elsewhere will be a hassle or an expense of near £100 if I need a passport to get an account) so if I can keep my account for free it would be the easiest option for me. But if they do go ahead with the charges, which is probably likely, then I will have to close my account and change banks. 

GW19

ForumUser7 said:

GW19 said:

I opened my Abbey National Business Account in May 2005 and partly on the promise of "Free Banking Forever" for my Sole Trader business consultancy.

So like many others I was dismayed to get the Santander email recently as they attempt to migrate my (and many more) to a "Business Classic Account" and to charge £9.99 a month for the privelige. Clearly it is not the money each month, but the principle and I for one will not pay £10 a month for something that I signed up for 20 year ago for £0 a month. Personally I was not aware of the first attempt to make this change in 2012 but this time I will consider undertaking a complaint action to not let them get away with it. 

I will lodge a complaint but my own feeling is that it probably won't work and Santander will do everything in their power to push these changes/charges through. I am currently looking at some alternatives (Monzo/Starling and Mettle are the best or most suitable ones I have researched thus far) for both App based banks and also one "High Street" (as if any are left now?!) Bank as well. 

Out of interest I noted that HSBC (no affiliation) now offer their Business Account as free of all charges and suspect that might be in response to the Santander move. Has anyone else looked at HSBC as an alternative please?

I'm not sure if I should wait and see what happens with these complaints and what, if any, action the Financial Ombudsman take for this case............or simply vote with my feet and go to another Banking provider, be that App based or High Street. Interested to hear what other Sole Traders are thinking of here....

Not a sole trader, but AFAIK no where else will give you a free forever guarantee. Would wait and see what happened with this, as if enforced by regulators or FOS you’ll potentially still have free forever. If you move to HSBC for example, nothing is to stop them adding fees down the line

Yes, totally understood on all fronts. For me I am looking to wind down/close my business in the next few years anyway so if I did switch to HSBC and they introduced charges that would just force me to change to an App based Bank I guess.

But for now it probably pays to sit tight a while and see how this plays out but I still intend to close the account IF Santander "win" and I will not stay with them after this proposed change.

Lightning360

And yet they've done it before and haven't collapsed with the weight of the complaints. Whether you like it or not, most people won't care about this. It won't matter if you think trust in banks is low. You all stayed with them despite them trying this before. You clearly didn't care enough to leave.

subjecttocontract

Well surely there is always the chance that an individual account holder or a group of affected account holders will fight the change through the courts. If so, the outcome could be that Santander will be instructed to refund all the monthly £9.99 payments made to them.