Santander free forever bank account changes

Enzo_L

subjecttocontract said:

As reported earlier the share price has doubled this year and as this is a finance forum id be very surprised if there weren't some happy Santander shareholders around who hope the outcome is in Santanders favour. So, yes there must be some Santander supporters around, perhaps quite a few, who knows ?

As this is a finance forum I'd be surprised if there was anybody here who knew so little about finance that they thought whoever wins this battle would have the slightest effect on Santander's share price.

But you never know.

eskbanker

Enzo_L said:

subjecttocontract said:

As reported earlier the share price has doubled this year and as this is a finance forum id be very surprised if there weren't some happy Santander shareholders around who hope the outcome is in Santanders favour. So, yes there must be some Santander supporters around, perhaps quite a few, who knows ?

As this is a finance forum I'd be surprised if there was anybody here who knew so little about finance that they thought whoever wins this battle would have the slightest effect on Santander's share price.

But you never know.

Well, yes, but there is undoubtedly a school of thought among some on here that this has the potential to be a Ratner moment, in which a misguided and misjudged action ultimately leads to (welcome) catastrophic corporate downfall, and, given the tone of some of the posts, anyone daring to challenge that viewpoint runs the risk of being dismissed as a 'fanboy', given the binary thinking of 'if you're not with us you must be against us'!

mcouriers

Hi all I've got the free forever bank account. I was speaking to a Santander employee & they told me to keep my account open. I'm a sole trader & I was thinking of opening a Santander everyday personal current account & closing my business account or opening an account with mettle. I've got a NatWest personal account for things that are not related to m work. Would the Santander Everyday personal account be ok? What would be best? Any advice would be much appreciated. 

gt94sss2

mcouriers said:

I'm a sole trader & I was thinking of opening a Santander everyday personal current account & closing my business account or opening an account with mettle. I've got a NatWest personal account for things that are not related to m work. Would the Santander Everyday personal account be ok?

I would not use a personal account for running a business. It will almost certainly be against the t&c of the account.

There are several banks which do not charge any monthly fees for small business accounts such as HSBC and Mettle.

mcouriers

gt94sss2 said:

mcouriers said:

I'm a sole trader & I was thinking of opening a Santander everyday personal current account & closing my business account or opening an account with mettle. I've got a NatWest personal account for things that are not related to m work. Would the Santander Everyday personal account be ok?

I would not use a personal account for running a business. It will almost certainly be against the t&c of the account.

There are several banks which do not charge any monthly fees for small business accounts such as HSBC and Mettle.

Hi thank you. I've had a look a Mettle & it seems the best option. It's a shame really I've had the Santander account since it was Abbey & I've always had a good service. I was hoping they backed down like last time, especially when you opened the account in good faith for being free. I only thought a personal account would be ok due to being a sole trader & not limited. 

Renfrewman

Enzo_L said:

subjecttocontract said:

As reported earlier the share price has doubled this year and as this is a finance forum id be very surprised if there weren't some happy Santander shareholders around who hope the outcome is in Santanders favour. So, yes there must be some Santander supporters around, perhaps quite a few, who knows ?

As this is a finance forum I'd be surprised if there was anybody here who knew so little about finance that they thought whoever wins this battle would have the slightest effect on Santander's share price.

But you never know.

Judging by some of the comments you'd be wrong!

amyfairweather

eskbanker said:

Enzo_L said:

subjecttocontract said:

As reported earlier the share price has doubled this year and as this is a finance forum id be very surprised if there weren't some happy Santander shareholders around who hope the outcome is in Santanders favour. So, yes there must be some Santander supporters around, perhaps quite a few, who knows ?

As this is a finance forum I'd be surprised if there was anybody here who knew so little about finance that they thought whoever wins this battle would have the slightest effect on Santander's share price.

But you never know.

Well, yes, but there is undoubtedly a school of thought among some on here that this has the potential to be a Ratner moment, in which a misguided and misjudged action ultimately leads to (welcome) catastrophic corporate downfall, and, given the tone of some of the posts, anyone daring to challenge that viewpoint runs the risk of being dismissed as a 'fanboy', given the binary thinking of 'if you're not with us you must be against us'!

I think the 'fanboy' comment is just another way of saying troll or whatever way you wish to describe those who deliberately take the opposing viewpoint just to stir up an argument.

In this case, how many of these so-called "fanboys" even have a Santander business account or, for that matter, ever created or ran a business?

Fair enough, everyone has the right to give their two penneth on a subject, but if the bank where these "fanboys" do their banking had offered them something 'free forever' and were now reneging they would, no doubt, be complaining.

I don't know about others, but if I was not banking at that same bank, I would have zero reason to go on to 'their' thread and start talking others down merely for wanting to push back against a broken promise.

It's quite bizarre, actually.

As for the Santander share price and/or reputational damage, both have become a kind of 'dog with a bone' thing in this thread for some reason when, in reality, both are a moot point in this whole debacle.

solidpro

Just as a heads up to everyone feeling the need to summarise where 'we' are. It's mid September and still around a month away from Santander reneging on their contract based on their reinterpretation of the contract headlined forever when it no longer suits them. I personally am going to sit tight, wait for the outcome from FOS to see if it triggers anything else and then, sometime in the Autumn if nothing has changed, switch everything I have away from Santander. 

2 Santander credit cards will just be cancelled.
5 Santander personal bank accounts (1 Personal, 1 Joint, 1 Savings, 2 childrens) will all be closed. I have accounts already with other banks.
3 Santander Business accounts (2 'free forever', 1 monthly charged) will be moved to either Mettle, HSBC or Monzo. 

Business contacts, friends and my children will only hear the name Santander mentioned in the context of untrustworthy and unscrupulous penny-pinching. It's commendable for a business to try and raise profits, but by going back on an agreement stinks. If you can't trust the company you do business with then I walk away and find another. There are plenty of others.

Ultimately, if they want to be like this, I'll vote with my feet. As a customer in a capitalist nation, sometimes the guardrails are not quite good enough and you have to simply vote with your feet and hope that plenty other do the same. I'd rather pay a higher monthly fee to another bank I can trust than anything to a bank I can't.

They'll lose customers, they'll lose the interest they've kept over the years on all my balances, they'll lose the opportunity to up-sell me other products (which possibly personally being in the top 10% is quite valuable to them) and they'll lose the goodwill of my word-of-mouth. If enough people do the same, it'll affect their share price and that's the only power I have.

Futuristic

amyfairweather said:

eskbanker said:

Enzo_L said:

subjecttocontract said:

As reported earlier the share price has doubled this year and as this is a finance forum id be very surprised if there weren't some happy Santander shareholders around who hope the outcome is in Santanders favour. So, yes there must be some Santander supporters around, perhaps quite a few, who knows ?

As this is a finance forum I'd be surprised if there was anybody here who knew so little about finance that they thought whoever wins this battle would have the slightest effect on Santander's share price.

But you never know.

Well, yes, but there is undoubtedly a school of thought among some on here that this has the potential to be a Ratner moment, in which a misguided and misjudged action ultimately leads to (welcome) catastrophic corporate downfall, and, given the tone of some of the posts, anyone daring to challenge that viewpoint runs the risk of being dismissed as a 'fanboy', given the binary thinking of 'if you're not with us you must be against us'!

I think the 'fanboy' comment is just another way of saying troll or whatever way you wish to describe those who deliberately take the opposing viewpoint just to stir up an argument.

In this case, how many of these so-called "fanboys" even have a Santander business account or, for that matter, ever created or ran a business?

Fair enough, everyone has the right to give their two penneth on a subject, but if the bank where these "fanboys" do their banking had offered them something 'free forever' and were now reneging they would, no doubt, be complaining.

I don't know about others, but if I was not banking at that same bank, I would have zero reason to go on to 'their' thread and start talking others down merely for wanting to push back against a broken promise.

It's quite bizarre, actually.

As for the Santander share price and/or reputational damage, both have become a kind of 'dog with a bone' thing in this thread for some reason when, in reality, both are a moot point in this whole debacle.

As someone with 

1. Santander customer (unused now, they offer nothing) 
2. Santander business customer (switching soon - outdated banking UI, terrible app, no real time notifications). Account has been used to receive payments and moved straight out to 4-5% saving accounts. Beyond me why people want to hold tens/hundreds of thousands gaining nothing.
3. Santander have paid us £100+/year for having a business account for last 7+ years and in few weeks won't be. Just waiting for this last payout after 1st Oct
4. profitable business

 So you just want bunch of "yes men" who only favour your argument, like the ones whose posted paragraph after paragraph whilst having no Santander account and probably no actual legal qualifications or ever worked for the FOS/FCA.

It looks like some of you may be about to learn in life nothing is forever, odd it will have taken 20+ years to recognise this. You got free business banking during a period of 10-15+ years where no small bank let alone high street was offering this, should be more grateful perhaps. 

If I was affected by this change I'd complain simply to get potentially free money and move on, this potential free money according to quite few comments here is worth more then their business (idle/unused accounts/low profitable business)

For those threatening to leave along with their personal accounts, congratulations. What took you so long? 

If you look on the site your on, you will be able to find significantly better current accounts, credit cards and anything else Santander offer which is no where close to competitive or better. 

Smurrfmo

Oh dear there is a great deal of teeth gnashing in this thread, who would have thought that a huge financial institution reneging on a promise could get everybody so exercised, especially those who have absolutely no skin in the game.  This matter will be settled in court, then either Santander will have got away with it or I'll be back to say I told you so.  I'm not a betting man so I won't be offering odds, suffice to say that after having another read of Section E14 I am even more confident of success.