Santander free forever bank account changes

amyfairweather

Well I've just submitted my case to the FOS today and the reply came back as "Thank you for submitting your complaint form to the Financial Ombudsman Service.  We’re helping a lot of customers at the moment, so we won’t be able to reply straight away."

So, the system appears to be completely clogged up.  Which, from our point of view, is a good thing.

Smurrfmo

I can see this all blowing up in Santander's face and they fully deserve it.  You would have thought they would have learned from the climbdown in 2012.  There will be a flood of FOS complaints and I can easily see the FOS ruling against them.  Litigation is an option if this doesn't work.  Nobody likes anybody who tries to break a promise, especially where some underhand nonsense is cited as the reason.  I would advise everybody to complain, keep their accounts running and be prepared to take it to the FOS.  Apparently there are 50k accounts still covered by the promise, if a good proportion complain this will be seriously costly for Santander, not to mention the loss of business from disgruntled customers.  Make sure you get a reference number when you complain, this will allow you to go to the FOS.  I already have one, having complained the day I got the letter but Santander are probably panicking a bit now and trying to slow the process a bit.  Be firm and insist on your right to complain.  If they make it hard or try to dismiss or miscategorise complaints that is also a reason for a further complaint.  Who knows if they will buckle but any lawyer who advised they had good grounds for this is in my opinion on very thin legal ice.        

Section62

amyfairweather said:

Well I've just submitted my case to the FOS today and the reply came back as "Thank you for submitting your complaint form to the Financial Ombudsman Service.  We’re helping a lot of customers at the moment, so we won’t be able to reply straight away."

So, the system appears to be completely clogged up.  Which, from our point of view, is a good thing.

This is normal for FOS, they are always very busy.

eskbanker

amyfairweather said:

Well I've just submitted my case to the FOS today and the reply came back as "Thank you for submitting your complaint form to the Financial Ombudsman Service.  We’re helping a lot of customers at the moment, so we won’t be able to reply straight away."

So, the system appears to be completely clogged up.  Which, from our point of view, is a good thing.

I think that's a pretty standard acknowledgement to be honest, in that when I escalated a complaint to them a couple of years ago I got a slightly more apologetic "We’re helping a lot of customers at the moment, so I’m sorry we won’t be able to reply straight away".  They set expectations of "about two to three months for a case to be allocated for investigation" and up to 90 days thereafter, so it's rarely a quick process:

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

solidpro

eskbanker said:

Surely the purpose of the placeholder responses is to buy a bit of time - those receiving them can't escalate to FOS (not FSO!) until they receive the final response, unless the eight week timeout is reached.

That was also one of my guesses. Verbal complainents are reporting that they're being told they're "overwhelmed" with complaints. I would presume not only is there the mooted £650 potential cost of each complaint which may sit in the thousands of complaints, how these influx of complaints and their metrics affect other, perhaps automatic flags the bank has to deal with could mean they intentionally create a pause, or maybe it's just 'not enough processing power' or maybe it's re-evaluating, or maybe it's just a big nothing burger.

neilsedaka

The "50k accounts still covered by the promise" was only someone's guess. None of us know the reality.

solidpro

It's somewhere between 650 and 230,000 so that narrows it down.

solidpro

https://www.betterretailing.com/santander-breaks-promise/

It actually really really stinks that anyone asking for comment, from a customer to a news site, to an MP all get the exact same cut and paste response. It's like someone has decided the most insulting way to respond to anyone and everything is with a computer saying 'no'.

“The business banking landscape has changed significantly over the last decade. As such, we are simplifying our business banking offering as the first step to ensure that we can sustainably and efficiently evolve to better meet the needs of our business customers in the future.”

Nothing in this word salad explains to the world why they believe this is OK.

drphila

solidpro said:

https://www.betterretailing.com/santander-breaks-promise/

It actually really really stinks that anyone asking for comment, from a customer to a news site, to an MP all get the exact same cut and paste response. It's like someone has decided the most insulting way to respond to anyone and everything is with a computer saying 'no'.

“The business banking landscape has changed significantly over the last decade. As such, we are simplifying our business banking offering as the first step to ensure that we can sustainably and efficiently evolve to better meet the needs of our business customers in the future.”

Nothing in this word salad explains to the world why they believe this is OK.

But this does:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jul/17/santander-business-accounts-free-owners

MellowJello

headsman said:

Section62 said:

As for the sums involved, I don't think someone running a small business would necessarily expect to stop at state pension age - particularly if they have employees and/or family members who help run the business.  There's no reason to think "forever" means 'until reaching age 65'.  However, the uncertainty about how long someone might continue to need their free business account could be a weakness in any 'small claims' for a specific amount.

The business is the relevant entity for this discussion, not the person owning / running it.  It has the legal status of an individual on its own and there's no retirement age for a business and the ownership can change.

Hi, I agree with you. No reason to assume that the 'free for life' promise should end at 65 years. That would be ageist. I was one of the first to take out the 'free for life' account with Abbey National, when it was first introduced over 20 years ago. I still have this account, am considerably older than 65 years and use the account for my various self employed earnings. If Santander start charging then I will have to leave, but I will also cancel the credit card and other accounts I hold with them. If the Government do not force Santander to make a sharp U turn and if any group 'small claims' is filed then I would want to be part of this. 'Free for life' means just that, no less. Also deceitful of Santander to hide the fact that they planned to change the account in 2015, so it no longer meant 'free for life'. The jury is out on that though.