Santander free forever bank account changes

Section62

GJS123 said:

eskbanker said:

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!

Thanks for pointing this out!  Hopefully, the FOS will also realise that 8 weeks has passed and deal with the complaint.

I think you'll need to be proactive and tell them you still haven't had a response and the 8 weeks is up.

Be prepared for them to possibly say you need to submit a new complaint (to FoS) because the first one was premature.  They might not, but it is arguable the first one wasn't a valid complaint because you didn't have a final response from Santander and less than 8 weeks had passed.

If FoS do reject your complaint on those grounds then the sooner you know and can submit a fresh complaint the better.  Hence be proactive with them.

Renfrewman

Santander share price has doubled in the last year which is excellent news for them.

vcsa

One for you Legal bods.
As well as the FOS route which will probably not be decided until after Santander introduce the changes, has anyone looked at applying to Court for an Injunction to delay introducing any charges until at least the FOS has given a ruling.
Some sort of group action possibly?

eskbanker

vcsa said:

One for you Legal bods.
As well as the FOS route which will probably not be decided until after Santander introduce the changes, has anyone looked at applying to Court for an Injunction to delay introducing any charges until at least the FOS has given a ruling.
Some sort of group action possibly?

Not a lawyer, but aside from the purely legal aspects of any argument, there is the practicality to consider here, namely that any such action costs money, which can be significant - happy to be corrected but I don't recall any mention of any collective fundraising activity to generate funds for that sort of thing?  A quick look at the oft-cited Facebook page doesn't seem to indicate anything.

Section62

vcsa said:

One for you Legal bods.
As well as the FOS route which will probably not be decided until after Santander introduce the changes, has anyone looked at applying to Court for an Injunction to delay introducing any charges until at least the FOS has given a ruling.
Some sort of group action possibly?

I'm not a lawyer either, but if a court(/FoS) were to deem the charges unlawful(/unfair) following a full hearing(/an ombudsman decision), then either the court (or FoS) could simply require Santander to refund the amounts paid to date.

So spending money seeking an injunction is probably unwise... the final outcome of not having to pay a fee (if the case/argument) is won is still available even if Santander have already introduced charging before FoS make a decision.

On balance I also suspect a court would be reluctant to grant an injunction because 1) if FoS decide what Santander are doing is 'fair' then it would leave Santander having to catch up with unpaid charges, which some customers might struggle with/refuse to pay, and 2) an injunction might make more sense if the delay was in waiting for a full court hearing, not for a FoS complaint.

Smurrfmo

I will be taking legal action in relation to this in the very near future.  An injunction is not necessary.  I cannot say any more at this point as Santander are no doubt monitoring this thread, as well as their obvious fanboys.  I believe I will be successful but with litigation you never know.  

MeteredOut

Smurrfmo said:

I will be taking legal action in relation to this in the very near future.  An injunction is not necessary.  I cannot say any more at this point as Santander are no doubt monitoring this thread, as well as their obvious fanboys.  I believe I will be successful but with litigation you never know.  

I have't noticed any obvious fanboys here. Can you point them out please so we can be wary of them?

Good luck with your legal action; it will be interesting to hear your basis for this once you are able to share. Do you have a rough timescale for the "very near future". eg, days, weeks?

Middle_of_the_Road

MeteredOut said:

Smurrfmo said:

I will be taking legal action in relation to this in the very near future.  An injunction is not necessary.  I cannot say any more at this point as Santander are no doubt monitoring this thread, as well as their obvious fanboys.  I believe I will be successful but with litigation you never know.  

I have't noticed any obvious fanboys here. Can you point them out please so we can be wary of them?

I doubt the only two fanboys I've seen would be posting on MSE 🕺🕺

The_Maluka

MeteredOut said:

Smurrfmo said:

I will be taking legal action in relation to this in the very near future.  An injunction is not necessary.  I cannot say any more at this point as Santander are no doubt monitoring this thread, as well as their obvious fanboys.  I believe I will be successful but with litigation you never know.  

I have't noticed any obvious fanboys here. Can you point them out please so we can be wary of them?

Good luck with your legal action; it will be interesting to hear your basis for this once you are able to share. Do you have a rough timescale for the "very near future". eg, days, weeks?

We all know that "forever" ends on the first of October 2025, so better be quick before you literally run out of time.