Santander free forever bank account changes

Emmia

Section62 said:

Lightning360 said:

Emmia said:

singhini said:

Out of curiosity, why don't Santander just notify their customers they intend to close all these types of accounts (similar to what TESCO did with their current accounts back in November 2021)?

Are Santander not allowed to do it? 

I've asked this already... There's nothing stopping them other than "optics". I personally think negative optics are likely to be short-lived on this issue.

I agree. The vast majority of people won't even know about this and of those that do, many won't care. It's funny how everyone complaining has completely failed to answer this question.

Answer which question?

The question as to whether Santander can remove free business banking.

Answer, yes they can. Either via notice or by declining to continue serving those businesses by closing the accounts.

Section62

singhini said:

I thought the MSE moto was "ditch and switch"?
I'm assuming these people are aware other banks offer free business banking: such as Virgin Money, Monzo and Tide (looks like Tide are doing £100 and £200 cash back at the moment

Are any of those other banks offering a promise of free business banking "forever"?  If not, then how are they better?

The MSE 'ditch and switch' would come with the caveat of not switching if the product you currently have has some advantage over anything new you could get - the premise is to move to a product which is better/cheaper, not a product which is worse/more expensive.

Someone with grandfathered "free forever" rights would be ill-advised to 'ditch and switch' to a product with less advantageous terms.

singhini said:

Hey ho, never mind 
Personally i'm gutted these people are complaining (im a Santander Shareholder............. Ive got "double digit" shares.............. Yes that's right "DOUBLE-DIGIT

As a Santander shareholder myself, my main concern is about reputational harm.  A bank which wants to grow in the UK by taking over another bank, and one which has recently had a very public whinge about regulation, needs to tread lightly when it comes to making changes to customer accounts which have previously proved controversial.  The numbers are no doubt fewer than in 2012, but if the issue is taken up by someone effective at making a noise about bank's behaviour then the actual numbers don't really matter that much.  One is enough, if enough noise is made.

I'm not going to predict the outcome, but I'd suggest the idea that banks can do what they want without consequences is somewhat outdated.  And poor business decisions are potentially more of a threat to shareholder value than continuing to absorb the cost of giving free business banking to a diminishing number of customers.

Lightning360

Emmia said:

Section62 said:

Lightning360 said:

Emmia said:

singhini said:

Out of curiosity, why don't Santander just notify their customers they intend to close all these types of accounts (similar to what TESCO did with their current accounts back in November 2021)?

Are Santander not allowed to do it? 

I've asked this already... There's nothing stopping them other than "optics". I personally think negative optics are likely to be short-lived on this issue.

I agree. The vast majority of people won't even know about this and of those that do, many won't care. It's funny how everyone complaining has completely failed to answer this question.

Answer which question?

The question as to whether Santander can remove free business banking.

Answer, yes they can. Either via notice or by declining to continue serving those businesses by closing the accounts.

Will be interesting to see if anyone addresses this, or the defense Santander has given, or just continue to push through complaining 

Section62

Emmia said:

Section62 said:

Lightning360 said:

Emmia said:

singhini said:

Out of curiosity, why don't Santander just notify their customers they intend to close all these types of accounts (similar to what TESCO did with their current accounts back in November 2021)?

Are Santander not allowed to do it? 

I've asked this already... There's nothing stopping them other than "optics". I personally think negative optics are likely to be short-lived on this issue.

I agree. The vast majority of people won't even know about this and of those that do, many won't care. It's funny how everyone complaining has completely failed to answer this question.

Answer which question?

The question as to whether Santander can remove free business banking.

Answer, yes they can. Either via notice or by declining to continue serving those businesses by closing the accounts.

Well that one has been answered by both you and Hoenir already, so I don't understand Lightning360's point, or amusement?

Those complaining don't need to answer that question.

Lightning360

Section62 said:

Emmia said:

Section62 said:

Lightning360 said:

Emmia said:

singhini said:

Out of curiosity, why don't Santander just notify their customers they intend to close all these types of accounts (similar to what TESCO did with their current accounts back in November 2021)?

Are Santander not allowed to do it? 

I've asked this already... There's nothing stopping them other than "optics". I personally think negative optics are likely to be short-lived on this issue.

I agree. The vast majority of people won't even know about this and of those that do, many won't care. It's funny how everyone complaining has completely failed to answer this question.

Answer which question?

The question as to whether Santander can remove free business banking.

Answer, yes they can. Either via notice or by declining to continue serving those businesses by closing the accounts.

Well that one has been answered by both you and Hoenir already, so I don't understand Lightning360's point, or amusement?

Those complaining don't need to answer that question.

It would help them realise why Santander is doing this and if complaining will actually get anywhere. 

Smurrfmo

The Santander argument that they are no longer offering the product in an effort to impose charges is a falsity. Santander made the promise that customers would have free business banking forever and need to honour that promise.  Trying to pull the wool over and claim the customers are no longer entitled to free banking by changing the account type will not work.  Remember they changed the account type also in 2012 also but had to backtrack and remove the fees when the backlash from customers began.  A promise is a promise and it should be honoured in full.     

Larson1012001

noitsnotme said:

Looks like they've made a judgement call and calculated that the amount they will have to pay out in respect of FOS complaints offset against how much they will save by closing the free banking accounts, is worth taking the risk of proceeding.

As mentioned above, I don't know why people are wasting energy over this when there are other (better?) free banking options out there.

I think it's more a case of being offered a guaranteed something, only to then have it taken away, also you wonder why, if these banks can do it for free then why not Santander?  Afterall the account we are talking about is internet only, like many that are already on offer.  I doubt the savings would be massive, especially when you consider that these accounts have probably been dying off since they stopped offering them.  It would be interesting to see just how many accounts there still are. 

And whilst I agree, whats the point in fighting for it, when you can simply move to another bank that offers free banking and actually wants you as a customer, I think you need to remember there is the hassle in moving everything to another bank, which will inevitably have teething problems, and also whats to stop that bank withdrawing the free service at anytime?

singhini

Section62 said:

singhini said:

I thought the MSE moto was "ditch and switch"?
I'm assuming these people are aware other banks offer free business banking: such as Virgin Money, Monzo and Tide (looks like Tide are doing £100 and £200 cash back at the moment

Are any of those other banks offering a promise of free business banking "forever"?  If not, then how are they better?

The MSE 'ditch and switch' would come with the caveat of not switching if the product you currently have has some advantage over anything new you could get - the premise is to move to a product which is better/cheaper, not a product which is worse/more expensive.

Someone with grandfathered "free forever" rights would be ill-advised to 'ditch and switch' to a product with less advantageous terms.

singhini said:

Hey ho, never mind 
Personally i'm gutted these people are complaining (im a Santander Shareholder............. Ive got "double digit" shares.............. Yes that's right "DOUBLE-DIGIT

As a Santander shareholder myself, my main concern is about reputational harm.  A bank which wants to grow in the UK by taking over another bank, and one which has recently had a very public whinge about regulation, needs to tread lightly when it comes to making changes to customer accounts which have previously proved controversial.  The numbers are no doubt fewer than in 2012, but if the issue is taken up by someone effective at making a noise about bank's behaviour then the actual numbers don't really matter that much.  One is enough, if enough noise is made.

I'm not going to predict the outcome, but I'd suggest the idea that banks can do what they want without consequences is somewhat outdated.  And poor business decisions are potentially more of a threat to shareholder value than continuing to absorb the cost of giving free business banking to a diminishing number of customers.

In my defence i never said anything about better (just other banks also have fee free business accounts)

Reputation -----> their a bank (they face criticism routinely).

I whinge about regulation, i still don't understand why banks are forced to provide a basic bank account for free.

I agree with "poor business decisions are potentially more of a threat to shareholder value" -----> very poor decision to offer these accounts in the first place IMHO

singhini

Good luck to you all
You should fight your corner if you feel unjustly treated.

boingy

It depends on the business but changing the main bank account can be a proper pain and can cause problems for months. Most of my customers paid me by bank transfer and that usually meant they just select you on their system and enter the payment details. I changed the invoice to the new bank details, I included a covering letter with those invoices and I wrote to each customer separately to change the details on their system and I still had payments going missing for weeks and months because they were sent to the closed account. The bigger the customer, the harder it seemed yo be to update the account details!

In retrospect it would have been cheaper and less stressful to bite the bullet and run the old account and new account in parallel for five or six months, even though I would have been paying the fees.

Interestingly that 2012 Beeb article says:

"We guarantee that unless there are any changes to the law or banking regulations, or any new taxes relating to bank charges, you will benefit from free day-to-day business banking forever," one brochure seen by the BBC said.

However you look at it, the bank was proper daft for putting that in writing.