Santander free forever bank account changes

GeoffTF

solidpro said:

The point being many people only said yes to this contract because forever meant forever.

Would you really have opened another account if the Santander account had been advertised as free for 10 years? How much money have you lost as result of having the account all this time?

unclevanya

solidpro said:

I close my accounts, but if that happens, maybe they'll get that month or two out of me but they will lose the annual interest they gain on a fair selection of balances in a variety of accounts which they pay me naff all in interest, my childrens accounts and various credit cards, along with another business bank account I have with them which I already pay a monthly fee for.

I already closed one other paid business account as they were upping the monthly.  I will wait it out on my "Free Forever" account and see what happens as I want to support the effort.  If they do not move I know where I am going.  It does seem odd as I have been with them for over 20 years and always had a positive bank balance with very low number of monthly transactions.  I guess they are just not interested in companies with a below £1M tornover?

solidpro

The only reason I heard about it was because so many people were hyping up about the free forever slogan, so if it had been time limited then no, I don't think I would have known about it or signed up.

GeoffTF

solidpro said:

The only reason I heard about it was because so many people were hyping up about the free forever slogan, so if it had been time limited then no, I don't think I would have known about it or signed up.

What did the T&Cs say? I expect that they permitted changes to be made after giving notice. This seems to be an advertising issue more than a decade ago. Advertising issues happen all the time. The Advertising Standards Agency is currently banning adverts that show healthy young women that it thinks look thin. The sanction is to stop the adverts. Santander stopped the "free forever" adverts long ago. Perhaps the FOS should order a refund of the monthly fees that you have been paying.

neilsedaka

GeoffTF said:

 Perhaps the FOS should order a refund of the monthly fees that you have been paying.

We have not been paying any monthly fees because the account in question is "business banking free forever".

RichardStevensons

eskbanker said:

I don't know when the promise was first made, or even if it predated Abbey's acquisition, but am sure that it would have continued under Santander's name too.  Still doesn't alter the point anyway - there's no evidence that I'm aware of that there was any attempt to deceive at the time of sale, whereas it's not difficult to see that the changes in 2015 had at least one eye on future charging....

GeoffTF said:

So what is your loss? Free banking for many years? The inconvenience of having to transfer your account to a bank that still offers free business accounts? Are you entitled to compensation because the bank has been sneaky and underhand? Perhaps they will argue that this is business account, not a personal account, and that if you are in business, you are expected to read the terms and conditions. Whatever their case, I expect that they have consulted some expensive lawyers.

@eskbanker - In our case, we opened ours in January 2010 - way way after the acquisition.  We opened the account with Santander, under Santander branding and there was no mention of Abbey whatsoever.

@GeoffTF - Our loss? ... This really isn’t about the £9.99 monthly charge, it’s about the cumulative consequences. The “Free for Life” commitment wasn’t just a headline offer, it fundamentally shaped how we approached our banking from a business and personal point of view:

 - We shaped our business financial processes around the lifetime guarantee, accepting the limitations (no counter service, postal cheque deposits, reduced interest ) that other banks didn’t impose.

 - We also actively discounted alternative banking products with other banks because the promise was clear, permanent, and written.

 - We didn’t just commit our business banking to Santander, we also committed our personal finances too. Out of loyalty and to keep everything “in one house”, we moved or opened (when the time came) our personal current accounts, mortgage, and even our children’s savings accounts with Santander.

Santander have made a good amount of money out of us based on this promise, and we’re not the only ones…

GeoffTF

neilsedaka said:

GeoffTF said:

 Perhaps the FOS should order a refund of the monthly fees that you have been paying.

We have not been paying any monthly fees because the account in question is "business banking free forever".

So you would get nothing.

GeoffTF

RichardStevensons said:

Our loss? ... This really isn’t about the £9.99 monthly charge, it’s about the cumulative consequences. The “Free for Life” commitment wasn’t just a headline offer, it fundamentally shaped how we approached our banking from a business and personal point of view:

 - We shaped our business financial processes around the lifetime guarantee, accepting the limitations (no counter service, postal cheque deposits, reduced interest ) that other banks didn’t impose.

 - We also actively discounted alternative banking products with other banks because the promise was clear, permanent, and written.

 - We didn’t just commit our business banking to Santander, we also committed our personal finances too. Out of loyalty and to keep everything “in one house”, we moved or opened (when the time came) our personal current accounts, mortgage, and even our children’s savings accounts with Santander.

Santander have made a good amount of money out of us based on this promise, and we’re not the only ones…

How much did it cost you to not use counter service postal cheque deposits and reduced interest? Do you have proof of that cost? I expect that the FOS would consider the other claims to be vacuous. You did not have to put other business with Santander. If you are making a compensation claim, you are expected to mitigate your loss. Your allowable loss cannot therefore be more than the additional cost of an alternative service whatever is included. If that alternative service includes counter service postal cheque deposits and reduced interest, you would have to subtract the money that you would have saved by using those from the additional cost of the alternative service.

neilsedaka

GeoffTF said:

neilsedaka said:

GeoffTF said:

 Perhaps the FOS should order a refund of the monthly fees that you have been paying.

We have not been paying any monthly fees because the account in question is "business banking free forever".

So you would get nothing.

The subject of this thread is "Santander free forever bank account changes", specifically the impending loss of the "free forever".

GeoffTF

neilsedaka said:

GeoffTF said:

neilsedaka said:

GeoffTF said:

 Perhaps the FOS should order a refund of the monthly fees that you have been paying.

We have not been paying any monthly fees because the account in question is "business banking free forever".

So you would get nothing.

The subject of this thread is "Santander free forever bank account changes", specifically the impending loss of the "free forever".

You have misunderstood what I was suggesting, which was that no compensation was due for the reasons that I gave. I joked by saying that the FOS might award the monthly fees that were paid, i.e. nothing. Perhaps I should have included a smiley.

Claiming compensation for being given a free account is laughable, as far as the past is concerned. As far as the future is concerned, people can switch to another free account. That account may not be free forever, but we have been told that FOS does not consider hypotheticals, and people can switch again anyway. Perhaps the FOS will award an inconvenience payment (£100 to £300 apparently).