Santander free forever bank account changes

GeoffTF

eskbanker said:

GeoffTF said:

I would be surprised if Santander has not taken legal advice on this matter.

You'd have expected them to have taken legal advice last time they tried too but they went ahead anyway and had to climb down, although in turn you'd expect them to have learned lessons from that and to be surer of their legal footing this time round....

It may be more difficult for Santander to predict what the FOS will do. So far, Santander does not appear to be bowing to public pressure. Perhaps they are following orders from Spain.

subjecttocontract

Sometimes the details are not as clear as you might think, they are not right or wrong, sometimes there are grey areas. In our particular case (against West Brom BS) I believe the group were told there was a 60%+ chance of the case being successful. The result, surprisingly, was the group lost the case and ended up going to the court of appeal where they did finally win.

So even if legal advice has been sought by Santander it may not be clear cut and the judgement on wether to proceed will need to be decided by their senior management.

eskbanker

subjecttocontract said:

Sometimes the details are not as clear as you might think, they are not right or wrong, sometimes there are grey areas. In our particular case (against West Brom BS) I believe the group were told there was a 60%+ chance of the case being successful. The result, surprisingly, was the group lost the case and ended up going to the court of appeal where they did finally win.

So even if legal advice has been sought by Santander it may not be clear cut and the judgement on wether to proceed will need to be decided by their senior management.

My comment about legal advice related to dialogue prior to announcing the start of charging, rather than choosing whether or not to defend a future court claim - clearly there'd be overlap but essentially different decisions, one of which has already been taken.

MellowJello

Government need to step in, not just.lolotely ask to reconsider. Doubt they will pile on any pressure. Santander should not be allowed to renege on the deal, especially not in the current financial climate where many are struggling financially. From 'free for ever' to £9.99 a month is a huge hike and I don't know any other 'organisation' that would be permitted to do such a thing.

clairec666

MellowJello said:

Government need to step in, not just.lolotely ask to reconsider. Doubt they will pile on any pressure. Santander should not be allowed to renege on the deal, especially not in the current financial climate where many are struggling financially. From 'free for ever' to £9.99 a month is a huge hike and I don't know any other 'organisation' that would be permitted to do such a thing.

Also the "free banking forever" promise unfairly gained them a lot of customers - there are other options for free business banking, but presumably people opted for Santander (or its predecessors) because it was free forever, something that other banks weren't offering.

Other banks could claim that Santander have stolen customers from them, by falsely advertising their account.

Also, business banking is very different from personal banking. If they added fees to a personal current account, people would just vote with their feet and switch to the best deal elsewhere. Business don't want to be messing around with switching accounts, and the hassle of updating their banking details with all of their clients. Santander know this, and are taking advantage of the fact that a proportion of their business customers will just cough up the £9.99 per month; a fair chunk will leave in protest, but they won't care, as they've shed all those free accounts that they wanted to be rid of.

I know it's been mentioned already, but don't close any accounts yet, you're unlikely to be able to get it back if Santander are forced to back down - the free banking forever promise will only apply to existing customers, and they simply won't offer that account to new customers.

gt94sss2

clairec666 said:

MellowJello said:

Government need to step in, not just.lolotely ask to reconsider. Doubt they will pile on any pressure. Santander should not be allowed to renege on the deal, especially not in the current financial climate where many are struggling financially. From 'free for ever' to £9.99 a month is a huge hike and I don't know any other 'organisation' that would be permitted to do such a thing.

Also, business banking is very different from personal banking. If they added fees to a personal current account, people would just vote with their feet and switch to the best deal elsewhere. Business don't want to be messing around with switching accounts, and the hassle of updating their banking details with all of their clients. 

The Current Account Switch Service (CASS) supports business accounts changing banks as well as personal ones

https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/

singhini

MellowJello said:

Government need to step in, not just.lolotely ask to reconsider. Doubt they will pile on any pressure. Santander should not be allowed to renege on the deal, especially not in the current financial climate where many are struggling financially. From 'free for ever' to £9.99 a month is a huge hike and I don't know any other 'organisation' that would be permitted to do such a thing.

Their in the same climate as you (perhaps that why their wanting to charge). 

singhini

clairec666 said:

MellowJello said:

Government need to step in, not just.lolotely ask to reconsider. Doubt they will pile on any pressure. Santander should not be allowed to renege on the deal, especially not in the current financial climate where many are struggling financially. From 'free for ever' to £9.99 a month is a huge hike and I don't know any other 'organisation' that would be permitted to do such a thing.

Also the "free banking forever" promise unfairly gained them a lot of customers - there are other options for free business banking, but presumably people opted for Santander (or its predecessors) because it was free forever, something that other banks weren't offering.

Other banks could claim that Santander have stolen customers from them, by falsely advertising their account.

Also, business banking is very different from personal banking. If they added fees to a personal current account, people would just vote with their feet and switch to the best deal elsewhere. Business don't want to be messing around with switching accounts, and the hassle of updating their banking details with all of their clients. Santander know this, and are taking advantage of the fact that a proportion of their business customers will just cough up the £9.99 per month; a fair chunk will leave in protest, but they won't care, as they've shed all those free accounts that they wanted to be rid of.

I know it's been mentioned already, but don't close any accounts yet, you're unlikely to be able to get it back if Santander are forced to back down - the free banking forever promise will only apply to existing customers, and they simply won't offer that account to new customers.

Ergo; perhaps its a good thing their starting to charge, people will now go elsewhere and they won't have all these "stolen" customers,

Hassle is the word but as pointed out, CASS supports business banking aswell

singhini

@singhini [MUTED]

Zara2025

flickadee001 said:

Zara2025 said:

I've had my account for more than 20 years, back when it was Alliance and Leicester, and I received no notice about these changes until receiving a letter 3 weeks ago. I had logged in early July and saw a notice come up about needing to provide extra personal details, but I believe we were supposed to have 60 days to complete these, so just continued into my account as normal.

Despite I didn't have 60 days warning, they blocked my account for not verifying myself. Between that and the upcoming charges, I called them up and asked them to close my account. It took one hour on the phone, being passed to 5 different people, each one telling me that the person I was being forwarded onto was the person who could help me. Ultimately the block on the account had to be removed by somebody in the back office before they could proceed, but just a few days ago my account is now closed for good. I would have continued with it, had they not tried to force all these changes (and charges).

I’ve had the same thing happen too – and it’s been a nightmare.

I’ve been with them for over 20 years, and after these letters went out to long-standing “Free Forever” business customers, I decided to close 2 of my 3 accounts out of sheer frustration – my Business Reserve Account and Everyday Personal Account. I left my main Business Account open just to see what would happen with all the backlash.

The customer service was beyond bad – after 30 minutes on the phone I genuinely wondered if the rep was asleep… or drunk. I made it crystal clear that my main Business Account should stay untouched, but somehow she managed to cancel my business debit card without my consent.

I only discovered it when it vanished from Apple Pay and got declined everywhere. That left me completely unable to pay for things online, in shops, or via Apple Pay – all because of their mistake.

I complained 2 weeks ago, and a week later got a one-liner saying: “We will arrange for a senior complaints manager to contact you at their earliest opportunity.” I replied again to say how unacceptable it was… and still no response.

Honestly, I never had a single issue in 20 years until now. Since these letters, Santander seems to have completely fallen apart.

I've never had this before, so not sure my next steps on just getting this resolved?
I now do have a new card, but surely with a complaint and the inconvenience this was really out of order.

Do I reply again to the email complaint acknowledgement?

All this, ontop of Santander wanting to charge me for my Business Acc! 
Seriously thinking of moving now, regardless..

That's pretty awful to make such a mistake. Did they compensate you in anyway?

I had a problem with Santander about 10 years back, when some manager had decided they were going to close my account (I hadn't requested a closure and hadn't done anything to warrant it !). Despite numerous phonecalls and service reps not understanding it either (siding with me), they could see a manager had put this out, and couldn't go against them! I ended up nearly emptying my account and setting up my credit card payments elsewhere, worried they'd follow through with it. I also wrote a strong letter of complaint - ultimately (after about 6 weeks) I got an apology, was told the manager would be reprimanded and I was given financial compensation. That experience certainly soured me to Santander.

Regarding your situation, I'd research other free business accounts, but bide your time just a while to see if there's enough pressure for them to stop doing what they're proposing to do in October.