Advice please

lm75 · 16 November 2019 at 7:52PM

Recently declared bankrupt, has been going through for the last couple of weeks.I have a basic bank account with santander that has a top up debit card, i naively thought that as it is a basic account with no money owed to santander that it would be ok, but it seems that they have frozen the account, im now left with no money for the rest of the month. Are they likely to unfreeze it if i phone them and explain or should i just try and open a new basic account somewhere else? Bit concerned as its only two weeks till pay/benefits etc are due to go in.

mwarby · 16 November 2019 at 8:38PM

All accounts get frozen when you go bankrupt, normally the OR will allow one account to be unfrozen. Some banks are quicker at this than others, worth calling both on Monday and see what they say

TheGardener · 16 November 2019 at 10:20PM

Unfortunately, Santander are notorious for not being BR tolerant. I would advise you open a basic account with Nationwide or Barclays or similar asap while you wait for Santander to unfreeze your account and make every effort to ensure your pay is paid into the new account. Santander will probably close the account (never seen a post on here where they didn't) but they must give you your money.
If you have any problems accessing the money - call the OR and ask them to give Santander a call on your behalf.

wildheart83 · 18 November 2019 at 9:09AM

My account with Santander stayed open back in 2010, but when I spoke to them after going BR they assured me it definitely would be closed. They also said that on the rare occasion it stayed open, that the only way to get money would be to go into the branch and physically lift the cash; basically my card would no longer work in cash machines.

It did stay open, my card continued to work in machines, but by then I had already opened an account elsewhere and I migrated away from Santander as I didn't agree with how they treated people.

lm75 · 18 November 2019 at 1:08PM

Thanks for the advice, have spoken to santander and they say i need a letter sating that there's no interest in the account and then they will unblock it. I'm going to open a new basic account account just to be sure, any advice on good ones, can't use barclays as that is where some of the debt is.
Many thanks

luvchocolate · 18 November 2019 at 5:09PM

lm75 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, have spoken to santander and they say i need a letter sating that there's no interest in the account and then they will unblock it. I'm going to open a new basic account account just to be sure, any advice on good ones, can't use barclays as that is where some of the debt is.
Many thanks

Try Nationwide or Coop

TheGardener · 19 November 2019 at 8:40PM

@wildatheart - I think you were the beneficiary of an 'admin error' on Santanders part - their policy is not to accept BR's as account holders - as they told you.

@Im75 - Santander is playing for time in my view - they should have already been told by the OR that the account was your 'every day' account and that the OR had no interest in it - customers are not generally asked to provide that proof.
Carry on with your plan to move to another bank - I doubt the effort will be wasted.

lm75 · 23 November 2019 at 7:54PM

Thanks @thegardener When i spoke to sanatander on the phone they said the account would stay open, they've unfrozen it but i've opened up a nationwide account and will transfer everything over to that just to be on the safe side.
Thanks for the advice, this is all completely new to me, bit scary and just trying to find my feet!

Advice please

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free