Santander free forever bank account changes

noitsnotme

Smurrfmo said:

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. 

Just out of interest, and appreciate if you’d rather not say at this stage, but is this through the small claims track?

Smurrfmo

The first rule of litigation is that we don't talk about litigation.

noitsnotme

Smurrfmo said:

The first rule of litigation is that we don't talk about litigation.

No problem 👍

Enzo_L

Smurrfmo said:

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. 

Section E14 of what?

amyfairweather

Futuristic said:

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. 

Incorrect, we just want what was promised - free business banking forever.

As for no other banks offering such a thing, plenty are but they're not free forever.  Perhaps today, tomorrow and next year, but not forever.  A bit like Santander are now trying.

I'm told HSBC are now offering free business banking, albeit they are still charging for cash and cheque deposits.

Why would I need to be "more grateful" to Santander giving me free business banking?  That's exactly what they promised and are now trying to renege on.  Another bizarre statement.

We're not complaining to simply get free money.  That's probably what Santander want, the ombudsman to find in our favour but "only" offer a token gesture of £200 compensation.  The reason we're complaining is simple - we only want what we were promised in the first place.  Nothing more, nothing less.

MeteredOut

I simply cannot foresee a world where the FOS or the FCA will (or even can) force a bank to keep an account fee-free forever, even if they do agree that's what was promised.

Not fair, but it just aint going to happen.

So, for those involved, I'd be thinking about what alternative you would accept.

Best bet IMO is an extension to the fee-free period for a period of time equal to the time between Santander announcing the change and a decision being made by the FOS/FCE, and/or some financial compensation.

(does that make me a Santander fanboy?)

Section62

MeteredOut said:

I simply cannot foresee a world where the FOS or the FCA will (or even can) force a bank to keep an account fee-free forever, even if they do agree that's what was promised.
...

Why not?

If the promise was free for 5 years, and the bank then started charging after 3, do you think the regulator would say that was fair?

Or if the promise was to pay a fixed rate of interest on a savings acount for 10 years, then stopped paying after 8?

If there is some kind of line drawn where a promise no longer needs to be kept, then what is the legal basis for that line?

huw01

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.

How likely is this to happen ?

 I've operated a standalone personal current account with another bank which I use to have my income used for self assessment returns for some time.

Paye income goes into one current account which also has my household DDs, whilst I suppose what you would call my sole trader income going into another personal current account and I use the debit card with that account to pay claimable expenses, meals, fuel etc.

What would trigger the bank to say hang on this geezer is using it as a business account. Looking at any monthly statement it just looks like I have a few part time jobs.

clairec666

Section62 said:

MeteredOut said:

I simply cannot foresee a world where the FOS or the FCA will (or even can) force a bank to keep an account fee-free forever, even if they do agree that's what was promised.
...

Why not?

If the promise was free for 5 years, and the bank then started charging after 3, do you think the regulator would say that was fair?

Or if the promise was to pay a fixed rate of interest on a savings acount for 10 years, then stopped paying after 8?

If there is some kind of line drawn where a promise no longer needs to be kept, then what is the legal basis for that line?

Totally agree - this is an unusual case because I've never seen anything else offering "free forever" and it's a bit of a strange thing for Abbey to have offered without some legal small print that allowed them to wiggle out of it after 10 years or something. So "forever" surely must be taken to mean the literal English meaning of the word.

The problem is that Santander might have dodged the "forever" promise with their 2015 changes, and any legal ruling may rest on whether they adequately informed customers on the implications of those changes.

MeteredOut

Section62 said:

MeteredOut said:

I simply cannot foresee a world where the FOS or the FCA will (or even can) force a bank to keep an account fee-free forever, even if they do agree that's what was promised.
...

Why not?

If the promise was free for 5 years, and the bank then started charging after 3, do you think the regulator would say that was fair?

Or if the promise was to pay a fixed rate of interest on a savings acount for 10 years, then stopped paying after 8?

If there is some kind of line drawn where a promise no longer needs to be kept, then what is the legal basis for that line?

I'm not saying they'll say its not fair, but I simply cannot see a regulator imposing something for perpetuity. I think they'll find a way to allow Santander to do what they want with within the framework they operate, but probably something customers will see as no more than a slap on the wrist.

And, perversely, yes, I do think that if the promise was for 10 years (or even 20) and stopped after 8 (or even 2), the it is more likely that they'd enforce it to completion.

Let's see if I'm right or wrong. If wrong, I'll openly admit it. Opinions can be wrong.