Dormancy in join account - I can't get my money

Ergates

Tinkywinks108 said:

Theleak250 said:

Have you tried a different branch? Most of the time Santander don’t know what they are doing. It’s worth a try. 

Failing that and failing the complaint, write a real letter to them. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Funny you should say that, my partner reckons that if I had gone to his local branch (a more affluent area) there would have been a better outcome. 

It's maddening that when the account was accessible, (only a couple of months ago) I could withdraw all of the funds with no question.  

It's unlikely it would have made a different, regardless of what your partner thinks.

If the account is Dormant and a standard joint account, then both parties will need to authorise any changes to the account - including taking it out of dormancy.  This will be a standard bank process and whilst a "special" team (e.g. complaints team) might be able to circumvent the process, no branch staff would (or should) be able to.

The nature of your complaint would be that according to your timeline, the account would have been legally dormant (no transactions for 15 years) *before* you paid the money in, so Santander shouldn't have accepted the deposit.

Tinkywinks108

Ergates said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Theleak250 said:

Have you tried a different branch? Most of the time Santander don’t know what they are doing. It’s worth a try. 

Failing that and failing the complaint, write a real letter to them. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Funny you should say that, my partner reckons that if I had gone to his local branch (a more affluent area) there would have been a better outcome. 

It's maddening that when the account was accessible, (only a couple of months ago) I could withdraw all of the funds with no question.  

It's unlikely it would have made a different, regardless of what your partner thinks.

If the account is Dormant and a standard joint account, then both parties will need to authorise any changes to the account - including taking it out of dormancy.  This will be a standard bank process and whilst a "special" team (e.g. complaints team) might be able to circumvent the process, no branch staff would (or should) be able to.

The nature of your complaint would be that according to your timeline, the account would have been legally dormant (no transactions for 15 years) *before* you paid the money in, so Santander shouldn't have accepted the deposit.

With Santander, the account is made dormant after only 1 year of inactivity!! Dormant and lost accounts | Santander UK 

badger09

Tinkywinks108 said:

Ergates said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Theleak250 said:

Have you tried a different branch? Most of the time Santander don’t know what they are doing. It’s worth a try. 

Failing that and failing the complaint, write a real letter to them. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Funny you should say that, my partner reckons that if I had gone to his local branch (a more affluent area) there would have been a better outcome. 

It's maddening that when the account was accessible, (only a couple of months ago) I could withdraw all of the funds with no question.  

It's unlikely it would have made a different, regardless of what your partner thinks.

If the account is Dormant and a standard joint account, then both parties will need to authorise any changes to the account - including taking it out of dormancy.  This will be a standard bank process and whilst a "special" team (e.g. complaints team) might be able to circumvent the process, no branch staff would (or should) be able to.

The nature of your complaint would be that according to your timeline, the account would have been legally dormant (no transactions for 15 years) *before* you paid the money in, so Santander shouldn't have accepted the deposit.

With Santander, the account is made dormant after only 1 year of inactivity!! Dormant and lost accounts | Santander UK 

The 1st paragraph in your link says that Santander may treat the account as dormant. I have a joint account with Santander on which there was no activity for several years which was not made dormant. It had a balance of less than £3 so I’m puzzled why an account with £800 balance should be made dormant after such a short time. 

Tinkywinks108

badger09 said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Ergates said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Theleak250 said:

Have you tried a different branch? Most of the time Santander don’t know what they are doing. It’s worth a try. 

Failing that and failing the complaint, write a real letter to them. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Funny you should say that, my partner reckons that if I had gone to his local branch (a more affluent area) there would have been a better outcome. 

It's maddening that when the account was accessible, (only a couple of months ago) I could withdraw all of the funds with no question.  

It's unlikely it would have made a different, regardless of what your partner thinks.

If the account is Dormant and a standard joint account, then both parties will need to authorise any changes to the account - including taking it out of dormancy.  This will be a standard bank process and whilst a "special" team (e.g. complaints team) might be able to circumvent the process, no branch staff would (or should) be able to.

The nature of your complaint would be that according to your timeline, the account would have been legally dormant (no transactions for 15 years) *before* you paid the money in, so Santander shouldn't have accepted the deposit.

With Santander, the account is made dormant after only 1 year of inactivity!! Dormant and lost accounts | Santander UK 

The 1st paragraph in your link says that Santander may treat the account as dormant. I have a joint account with Santander on which there was no activity for several years which was not made dormant. It had a balance of less than £3 so I’m puzzled why an account with £800 balance should be made dormant after such a short time. 

Interesting....how long ago was that? I think  security measures may have tightened up in recent years due to the increase of fraudulent activity.

Ergates

badger09 said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Ergates said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Theleak250 said:

Have you tried a different branch? Most of the time Santander don’t know what they are doing. It’s worth a try. 

Failing that and failing the complaint, write a real letter to them. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Funny you should say that, my partner reckons that if I had gone to his local branch (a more affluent area) there would have been a better outcome. 

It's maddening that when the account was accessible, (only a couple of months ago) I could withdraw all of the funds with no question.  

It's unlikely it would have made a different, regardless of what your partner thinks.

If the account is Dormant and a standard joint account, then both parties will need to authorise any changes to the account - including taking it out of dormancy.  This will be a standard bank process and whilst a "special" team (e.g. complaints team) might be able to circumvent the process, no branch staff would (or should) be able to.

The nature of your complaint would be that according to your timeline, the account would have been legally dormant (no transactions for 15 years) *before* you paid the money in, so Santander shouldn't have accepted the deposit.

With Santander, the account is made dormant after only 1 year of inactivity!! Dormant and lost accounts | Santander UK 

The 1st paragraph in your link says that Santander may treat the account as dormant. I have a joint account with Santander on which there was no activity for several years which was not made dormant. It had a balance of less than £3 so I’m puzzled why an account with £800 balance should be made dormant after such a short time. 

The account was inactive for nearly 20 years - hardly a short time.

Emmia

Ergates said:

badger09 said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Ergates said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Theleak250 said:

Have you tried a different branch? Most of the time Santander don’t know what they are doing. It’s worth a try. 

Failing that and failing the complaint, write a real letter to them. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Funny you should say that, my partner reckons that if I had gone to his local branch (a more affluent area) there would have been a better outcome. 

It's maddening that when the account was accessible, (only a couple of months ago) I could withdraw all of the funds with no question.  

It's unlikely it would have made a different, regardless of what your partner thinks.

If the account is Dormant and a standard joint account, then both parties will need to authorise any changes to the account - including taking it out of dormancy.  This will be a standard bank process and whilst a "special" team (e.g. complaints team) might be able to circumvent the process, no branch staff would (or should) be able to.

The nature of your complaint would be that according to your timeline, the account would have been legally dormant (no transactions for 15 years) *before* you paid the money in, so Santander shouldn't have accepted the deposit.

With Santander, the account is made dormant after only 1 year of inactivity!! Dormant and lost accounts | Santander UK 

The 1st paragraph in your link says that Santander may treat the account as dormant. I have a joint account with Santander on which there was no activity for several years which was not made dormant. It had a balance of less than £3 so I’m puzzled why an account with £800 balance should be made dormant after such a short time. 

The account was inactive for nearly 20 years - hardly a short time.

I remain baffled as to why the OP put the money in this particular account in the first place. Opening an account in their sole name is straightforward.

Also given this was for money they were putting aside for university, surely an interest earning savings account would have been a more appropriate home than a joint account presumably paying no interest?

Ergates

Emmia said:

Ergates said:

badger09 said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Ergates said:

Tinkywinks108 said:

Theleak250 said:

Have you tried a different branch? Most of the time Santander don’t know what they are doing. It’s worth a try. 

Failing that and failing the complaint, write a real letter to them. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Funny you should say that, my partner reckons that if I had gone to his local branch (a more affluent area) there would have been a better outcome. 

It's maddening that when the account was accessible, (only a couple of months ago) I could withdraw all of the funds with no question.  

It's unlikely it would have made a different, regardless of what your partner thinks.

If the account is Dormant and a standard joint account, then both parties will need to authorise any changes to the account - including taking it out of dormancy.  This will be a standard bank process and whilst a "special" team (e.g. complaints team) might be able to circumvent the process, no branch staff would (or should) be able to.

The nature of your complaint would be that according to your timeline, the account would have been legally dormant (no transactions for 15 years) *before* you paid the money in, so Santander shouldn't have accepted the deposit.

With Santander, the account is made dormant after only 1 year of inactivity!! Dormant and lost accounts | Santander UK 

The 1st paragraph in your link says that Santander may treat the account as dormant. I have a joint account with Santander on which there was no activity for several years which was not made dormant. It had a balance of less than £3 so I’m puzzled why an account with £800 balance should be made dormant after such a short time. 

The account was inactive for nearly 20 years - hardly a short time.

I remain baffled as to why the OP put the money in this particular account in the first place. Opening an account in their sole name is straightforward.

Also given this was for money they were putting aside for university, surely an interest earning savings account would have been a more appropriate home than a joint account presumably paying no interest?

OP has acknowledged that, with hindsight, this wasn't a particularly good idea - people make mistakes.  Simple mistakes shouldn't result in losing large sums of money.

My point above is that:  At the point the OP put the money into the account it had been inactive for about 18 years.  This means that account *should* have been flagged as dormant several years before this and Santander should not have accepted the payment into it at all.  The situation the OP finds themselves in should never have happened as the deposit should have bounced.

What I believe Santander should do is accept that they should never have allowed the deposit to be made and to return the money.

eskbanker

Emmia said:

I remain baffled as to why the OP put the money in this particular account in the first place. Opening an account in their sole name is straightforward.

That point wasn't particularly constructive when you first made it earlier in the thread, so it seems even less likely to be helpful now?

Ergates said:
At the point the OP put the money into the account it had been inactive for about 18 years.

Has OP actually said that?  I thought it was opened "about 25 years ago" and "I've used the account sporadically for years with no issues", but I don't see any explicit reference to exactly when it was last used before the £800 deposit two years ago?

Tinkywinks108

Ergates said:
At the point the OP put the money into the account it had been inactive for about 18 years.

Has OP actually said that?  I thought it was opened "about 25 years ago" and "I've used the account sporadically for years with no issues", but I don't see any explicit reference to exactly when it was last used before the £800 deposit two years ago?

Correct - it's never been inactive for as long as 18 years. However I have definitely left it longer than a year in the past - I do think it's a recent Santander policy. Who knows, I may have received one of those long tiny print jargon heavy letters that inform customers of such changes. 

Tinkywinks108

I remain baffled as to why the OP put the money in this particular account in the first place. Opening an account in their sole name is straightforward.

Also given this was for money they were putting aside for university, surely an interest earning savings account would have been a more appropriate home than a joint account presumably paying no interest?

I'm not sure what to say really, overall it was obviously a huge mistake but if you need a breakdown....I'm not very good with money, not very organised, the last few years have been pretty chaotic with other time consuming problems far more important than money, I didn't think it would be in the account long enough to accumulate interest, I was in a rush to deposit the money somewhere as it would just disperse in my main account and since I've had no issues in 25 years didn't think it would be a problem. You know, life.