Santander free forever bank account changes

drphila

I'm not sure how relevant timeframe actually is.

It seems to me that the 2015 contract is in breach of consumer regulations in that it contains "surprising" content that is not adequately brought to the customer's attention. Even if those regulations were not in force at the time, I would assume that the onus was on Santander to review and amend their existing contracts when the Regulations did came into force (unless they excluded retrospectivity).

On this basis, the contract (or relevant parts thereof) became invalid when the Regulations came into force, is invalid now and will be invalid in 10 years time (unless superceded or the Regulations change)

eskbanker

drphila said:

I'm not sure how relevant timeframe actually is.

I asked about whether Santander were dismissing complaints on timebarring grounds, i.e. if they're seeking to rely on the promise being broken ten years ago, but if they're not doing so then it's unlikely to be relevant.

drphila said:

It seems to me that the 2015 contract is in breach of consumer regulations in that it contains "surprising" content that is not adequately brought to the customer's attention. Even if those regulations were not in force at the time, I would assume that the onus was on Santander to review and amend their existing contracts when the Regulations did came into force (unless they excluded retrospectivity).

On this basis, the contract (or relevant parts thereof) became invalid when the Regulations came into force, is invalid now and will be invalid in 10 years time (unless superceded or the Regulations change)

Which post-2015 regulations are you specifically thinking of, that mention "surprising"?

GW19

I'm inclined to just close the Santander Business Account and move to one of the on-line/app based options.

Anyone else feel the same? Cannot really see Santander caving in and rolling this decision back personally......hence my thinking to vote with my feet to another Bank. 

neilsedaka

GW19 - Santander caved in last time around, so the more of us that complain again and follow through with the FOS the better.

GW19

neilsedaka said:

GW19 - Santander caved in last time around, so the more of us that complain again and follow through with the FOS the better.

Yes, I see that logic Neil but we're in a very different landscape financially speaking to 2012 in my view. But you might be right that if enough appeals are lodged that Santander may reverse, or moderate, the decision but my gut feel says that they won't this time.

I tried to lodge my appeal by calling Santander and after being on hold with a dreadful signal for 18 minutes I was simply cut off. Will have to try once more!

IanManc

GW19 said:

neilsedaka said:

GW19 - Santander caved in last time around, so the more of us that complain again and follow through with the FOS the better.

Yes, I see that logic Neil but we're in a very different landscape financially speaking to 2012 in my view. But you might be right that if enough appeals are lodged that Santander may reverse, or moderate, the decision but my gut feel says that they won't this time.

I tried to lodge my appeal by calling Santander and after being on hold with a dreadful signal for 18 minutes I was simply cut off. Will have to try once more!

You're not "lodging" an "appeal", you're making a complaint, and you need to make sure it's recorded as a complaint.

tacpot12

irritated_tyke said:

...

My own interpretation of the above is that it would be unreasonable of Santander (having taken over Abbey National's contracts) to renege on the Free Forever promise, which was a very clear and direct offer designed to attract business customers, by effectively saying, "we don't like it and have changed our minds". I can see why they might not like it but that is not our problem, we agreed a contract which offered Free Business Banking within specified transaction limits and we expect Santander to honour that commitment.

I agree with this, and made this point to the Santander Complaints Handler that called me today to discuss my complaint about this. I also made the point that Santander knew about these account and took them over along with all the liabilities associated with them. 

The complaint handler reiterated that Santander were allowed to change the product terms and conditions providing they gave 60 days notice and said that because of this they weren't upholding my case, but I could take it to the FOS. So that is what I can shall be doing.

Interestingly, the complaints handler didn't try to suggest that my ex-Abbey Business account wasn't advertised as free forever when I opened it in 2011. The "Free Forever" Banking offer was still being made then and it was that which had attracted me to the account when I needed an account for my property rental business. (I had had a business account with NatWest for some contracting work in earlier times and wasn't impressed with having to pay £5 a month for an account that only had 25 transactions a year on it.)

drphila

eskbanker said:

Which post-2015 regulations are you specifically thinking of, that mention "surprising"?

I actually said may have been post-2015. In fact, checking dates the relevant legislation came out the same year: Conumer Rights Act (2015)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/450410/Unfair_Terms_Explained.pdf

Clause 20: "....If a term could come as a surprise to the consumer, it will require more effort to ensure its prominence compared to other terms (and this applies not only in the contract but to all pre-contract information, for example brochures or webpages)"

ilenedover

same letter received today ...  October 2025 new charges of 9.99 (for less facilities it seems)  yet the account was set up as 'free lifetime business account' ...   lifetime in my book is as long as Santander exists, the the account is free.     Is there a collective complaint/challenge to this being set up   (similar to previously they tried it ?

as an aside, there are other options elsewhere for free business banking it seems ... but are they free lifetime !

thank you

eskbanker

drphila said:

eskbanker said:

Which post-2015 regulations are you specifically thinking of, that mention "surprising"?

I actually said may have been post-2015. In fact, checking dates the relevant legislation came out the same year: Conumer Rights Act (2015)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/450410/Unfair_Terms_Explained.pdf

Clause 20: "....If a term could come as a surprise to the consumer, it will require more effort to ensure its prominence compared to other terms (and this applies not only in the contract but to all pre-contract information, for example brochures or webpages)"

That's a guidance document rather than the legislation itself, but CRA's unfair terms provisions were largely carried over from previous legislation, namely the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, so a proper legal challenge to Santander's actions may need to factor those in too, given that their 2015 changes predated CRA.

There's also the question of whether omission of a term would be regarded in the same way, i.e. the crux of this issue is the post-2015 absence of the promise to retain free banking, rather than the ongoing presence of an unfair term as such.