Santander free forever bank account changes

MeteredOut

Smurrfmo said:

Somebody posted this over on the Facebook group:

"My MP said this I am between appointments now but can confirm that representations have been made to Santander and the Department for Business and Trade. I will return your call shortly. The are looking into what regulations have been breached and told Santander to restore our accounts".

That's a very presumptive statement in stating that regulations have been breached? I know MP's are involved in making laws, but they are not the arbiters.

And, which accounts are they being asked to restore? I'm not aware of them having forcibly closed any, or are they being told to restore accounts customers have asked to close?

Something doesn't quite add up with that statement.

Smurrfmo

MeteredOut said:

Smurrfmo said:

Somebody posted this over on the Facebook group:

"My MP said this I am between appointments now but can confirm that representations have been made to Santander and the Department for Business and Trade. I will return your call shortly. The are looking into what regulations have been breached and told Santander to restore our accounts".

And, which accounts are they being asked to restore? I'm not aware of them having forcibly closed any, or are they being told to restore accounts customers have asked to close?

Restore all accounts to being free forever I assume.

eskbanker

Smurrfmo said:

MeteredOut said:

Smurrfmo said:

Somebody posted this over on the Facebook group:

"My MP said this I am between appointments now but can confirm that representations have been made to Santander and the Department for Business and Trade. I will return your call shortly. The are looking into what regulations have been breached and told Santander to restore our accounts".

And, which accounts are they being asked to restore? I'm not aware of them having forcibly closed any, or are they being told to restore accounts customers have asked to close?

Restore all accounts to being free forever I assume.

It does return to the question of who actually has the authority to tell Santander to do this - my understanding is that this is likely to be beyond the remit of FOS and falls within FCA or PRA territory rather the Department for Business and Trade or individual MPs, although the courts may ultimately have a role to play too....

amyfairweather

Assuming there's no resolution from the FOS by the time these charges are introduced.

If we were to raise an "unauthorised payment" and request a refund or chargeback, were that to be (inevitably) denied by Santander, would we then be able to open a second/third/fourth dispute with the Ombudsman based on that until this matter is resolved?

GJS123

I made my complaint to Santander on 16th July by telephone and obtained a complaint reference.  As soon as I described the basic nature of the complaint the agent said that they would not change their decision to charge for the account and that they would not provide a response.

I waited for 30 days as a reasonable grace period for them to provide a response in case the agent was wrong (especially as this in itself seemed to me like it would be contrary to banking regulations).  No response was received.  I escalated my complaint to the FOS and they responded asking for a copy of the "final written response" letter.  In case it helps anyone else, and just to keep everybody appraised of progress, the text of my response to the FOS is shown below.

I would be interested to hear if others have had the same response from Santander and the FOS.

Many thanks.

======================

"Dear Sir/Madam,

I am not able to provide you with a copy of the "final written answer" letter from Santander as they have specifically refused to provide any response at all.

When I contacted Santander to make the complaint (on 16th July 2025, complaint reference xxxx xxxx), immediately upon my describing the basic nature of the complaint, the person I spoke to made two statements:

1.  My compliant would have no effect on Santander's decision to begin charging for my business bank account (an account sold to me as "free forever").
2.  Santander would "...NOT PROVIDE A RESPONSE TO MY COMPLAINT."

This would seem to me to be a shameless attempt to discourage me from lodging a complaint in the first instance and create a barrier to my escalating the complaint to you the Financial Ombudsmen Service.  Your procedures clearly state that a final written answer is required but I have no way of compelling Santander to provide such a response.

Please do not hesitate to  revert to me if I can provide any further information.

Kind Regards,"

=========================

Smurrfmo

GJS123 said:

I made my complaint to Santander on 16th July by telephone and obtained a complaint reference.  As soon as I described the basic nature of the complaint the agent said that they would not change their decision to charge for the account and that they would not provide a response.

Santander is obviously trying to run the clock down on complaints to the FOS, not a sign of an organisation that has any real faith in its position.  If they don't respond you have to wait 8 weeks to complain to the FOS.  They did the same to me and no doubt many others.  You need to diarise the end of the 8 week period and make sure to get your complaint in so that your voice can be heard.  In the end it won't succeed as my complaint has gone in but I will also be taking legal action regarding this outrageous attempted breach of contract by Santander.  I cannot say too much on that at this point, walls have ears and all that.  I'm pretty sure that Santander will have taken external legal advice before attempting to apply monthly fees and I would be amazed if any advice did not come with strong warnings and caveats.  But all of this will no doubt emerge in the fullness of time.

OrangeBlueGreen

Wishing all the best to those that have business accounts with Santander in the hope that they back down.
They chose to use 'forever', they should have to stick by it.

I hope the 2015 changes ultimately do not affect customers. If they do, it will have been the sneakiest change to T&Cs:
2015 - Change T&Cs and don't bring in fees so that no one can really complain because fees have not started to be charged
2025 - Start charging and blame it on it being 'discretely advertised' in 2015 so that complaints are 10 years out of date

Section62

GJS123 said:

I made my complaint to Santander on 16th July by telephone and obtained a complaint reference.  As soon as I described the basic nature of the complaint the agent said that they would not change their decision to charge for the account and that they would not provide a response.

I waited for 30 days as a reasonable grace period for them to provide a response in case the agent was wrong (especially as this in itself seemed to me like it would be contrary to banking regulations).  No response was received.  I escalated my complaint to the FOS and they responded asking for a copy of the "final written response" letter.  In case it helps anyone else, and just to keep everybody appraised of progress, the text of my response to the FOS is shown below.

I would be interested to hear if others have had the same response from Santander and the FOS.

Many thanks.

======================

"Dear Sir/Madam,

I am not able to provide you with a copy of the "final written answer" letter from Santander as they have specifically refused to provide any response at all.

When I contacted Santander to make the complaint (on 16th July 2025, complaint reference xxxx xxxx), immediately upon my describing the basic nature of the complaint, the person I spoke to made two statements:

1.  My compliant would have no effect on Santander's decision to begin charging for my business bank account (an account sold to me as "free forever").
2.  Santander would "...NOT PROVIDE A RESPONSE TO MY COMPLAINT."

This would seem to me to be a shameless attempt to discourage me from lodging a complaint in the first instance and create a barrier to my escalating the complaint to you the Financial Ombudsmen Service.  Your procedures clearly state that a final written answer is required but I have no way of compelling Santander to provide such a response.

Please do not hesitate to  revert to me if I can provide any further information.

Kind Regards,"

=========================

For info, not wanting to discourage you or anything, but the bit in bold is incorrect.

You either need to have/provide a copy of the final response, or wait 8 weeks without a response.  30 days is not long enough.

Are you sure they gave you a "complaint reference"?  Some people's complaints were recorded as a "dissatisfaction" which Santander said they wouldn't take any further - the collective view here is a "dissatisfaction" still has to be treated as a complaint, but Santander's opinion might still be different, and we don't yet know which way FoS will side.

amyfairweather

You can also raise a second complaint that your original has not been dealt with correctly.

eskbanker

Smurrfmo said:

GJS123 said:

I made my complaint to Santander on 16th July by telephone and obtained a complaint reference.  As soon as I described the basic nature of the complaint the agent said that they would not change their decision to charge for the account and that they would not provide a response.

Santander is obviously trying to run the clock down on complaints to the FOS, not a sign of an organisation that has any real faith in its position.  If they don't respond you have to wait 8 weeks to complain to the FOS.  They did the same to me and no doubt many others.  You need to diarise the end of the 8 week period and make sure to get your complaint in so that your voice can be heard.

Fortunately there's no need to diarise this as such, as eight weeks from 16 July is...........today!