Santander Security is OTT

GeoffTF

You can apparently get the Edge Saver without a monthly fee by opening an Edge account and not setting up any Direct Debits. It is not tax efficient for me to hold much cash and regular savers are a pain in the bum, especially for just 5%. I do have a Nationwide Flex Regular Saver paying 6.5% to get the Fairer Share though. I have also got the Edge Saver. The cashback on my Edge account is £2 per year more than my monthly fees. That is lean pickings, but there is free CHAPS and commission free debit card use abroad. The account is fine but nothing exciting apart from the ease with which I can move large sums.

fluffy_kittens47

Bit late to the thread, and my opinion is the opposite of the OP. Santander does not require 2FA to access my account. IMO, this is a gaping hole in their security. I am currently looking at other banks as a result of this.

Then, when THEY decide an OTP is required, they use an 8 digit letter.number combo. Ridiculous. One extreme to the other.

Best bit is, they LOVE to send messages about how YOU need to be better at security. ROFL.

Officer_Dibble

Trying to link my own account with another bank to Santander to make a withdrawal recently proved farcical - I had to scan my passport then take a selfie which apparently didn't match the passport (no one's ever complained at an airport). Fortunately I already had a different account already linked so I just used that for an extra hop of the money. I'm slowly moving away from Santander as they've overstepped the line between sensible security and mindless hoop jumping. It shouldn't be so hard to link an account in your own name. As had been pointed out their approach to security is completely inconsistant (between lax and fort knox) and gives the impression that they haven't a clue what they're doing.

alanwsg

Santander has just stopped asking for 2FA when accessing my accounts.

It used to ask my for confirmation via the app, or I could choose to have an SMS sent, now it goes straight in after I've typed my security number.

Can't figure out how to turn it on again.

booneruk

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036595#Comment_82036595

I bet if you chose incognito/private mode in your browser it would. There's often a concept of 'trusted devices' that leads to reduced checks when logging in, I'd imagine it's this.

molerat

^^This^^ And your device should be secured by a password / PIN / biometric lock. People seem to think that security is a one way thing.

morgmonster

It's funny how some of us find it too much and some find it not enough. I've been reasonably happy with Santander which I've had for probably 15-20 years since Alliance and Leicester got taken over by then, but in the last few months the Tesco online grocery shopping payment which I have made every week for the past 13 years at least is failing every time. Until last week it seemed to be because an OTP authorisation was needed, but this week I've done two shops and when I clicked through to 'update payment' when it failed, no authorisation was requested so I don't know why the payment didn't work in the first place. It's frustrating as the payment goes through at a fairly random time on the morning of delivery so I have to hope the texts from Tesco come through - they don't always - or that I remember to go into the app and sort the payments manually. I think i'm ready to change banks now but it's difficult to know in advance whether I'll face the same issue elsewhere.

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036682#Comment_82036682

I do not understand what the issue is here. Tesco says that grocery deliveries have to be paid by credit/debit card. OTP authorisation is to be expected, but Santander may not ask for that for a small payment to a regular payee (you have good protections if that goes wrong). Either way, Tesco's website should confirm immediately that the payment has been made. If you have a problem with one card, try another.

I had problem with a Barclaycard. The expiry date was in 28, but some paint had worn off the 8 and it read as a 6. I could not make any online payments with that card until I spotted that.

gould300

I'm going round in circles at the moment since the mobile app wants to confirm my identity and is threatening to limit access to my accounts after 90 days if I don't comply.

That would be fine apart from after three goes providing an acceptable image of my paper ID it fails at the "take a selfie" stage and just errors out. I tried the chatbot and got through to a human eventually. They just copied and pasted boilerplate text then gave me to the link to their web page that basically says "we're asking 'cos of UK legislation". No other bank has done this after my initial account setup and some I've had for much longer than Santander.

And to make it more annoying it randomly triggers so I can't just try again until it decides to pop up. Jeez.

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82050069#Comment_82050069

The legislation does not tell the banks what checks they have to do, but they get fined heavily if the checks are not deemed to be sufficient after the event. Santander has either found a concern about your identity or the thoroughness of the checks that they have already carried out. It sounds like there is problem with the app, your phone or the app's compatibility with your phone. Try restarting the phone, and try again.