“This is worst bank ever my advice take your money & run!!! My son got his tax rebate through from HMRC but this shitty bank has blocked all of his account as they saying he is not entitled to this refund. Never in a million years have I heard nor has anyone I’ve spoken too including other accountants - heard of a bank asking for your yearly income to say wether or not you can have the money. HMRC are aware of this & are doing there best to get it sorted but said the bank is still refusing to back down & give my son his money. 1st hand thieves, absolutely disgusting bank & it don’t matter who you speak with they all have attitude. Wants closing down!!!!
Stay away & go to a bank that deserves your customer because Santander definitely DONT .”
“Santander is the worst bank that I have ever had. The customer Service is poor. If card is lost or stolen or if you have had theft, it takes them a full week or more to mail you a new card. Most banks will overnight you a card or you can walk into a local branch. Not so with Santander, they do not even offer you a temporary card. Terrible! If you have have a dispute with an outside Vendor, forgot about Santander helping get your money back, if it does not benefit them they are not going to help. They claim about respect yet they offer none. I lost my phone and my Venmo account was hacked for 4 thousand dollars and Santander denied my claim. Fortunately Venmo believed that my account was true after an extensive investigation and refunded my stolen money. I closed my account and went to a local bank in Boston where they truly do care about their customers. Santander has no shame.”
“Worst bank ever! I've been with this bank for over a year. Without reason, cause, or notification, they have locked my account and for an entire week, no one still knows why or who has locked it.
The CEO's PA has written to me informing me that he will get back to me 'soon', and apologise for the wait, but he would get back to me once he's stepped out of the Jacuzzi, butane may as well have added, that he can't be arsed with 'little' customers. The app is super sensitive and even when you put the correct pin number in to access your account, it mostly locks your account and then you have to reset it!
Avoid this bank, and use banks like Nationwide or Barclays, they will treat you like a human and not like a *hit”
“I recently wanted to transfer my Mothers account (for whom I hold Power of Attorney) to Santander who I already bank with. This I found out was not possible to on-line or over the phone, however despite the covid-19 restrictions the telephone operator booked an appointment for me at the Farnborough branch. When I arrived at branch I was told that I had got it wrong, even though I am completely sure I did not, and ended up in an argument with the manager on the pavement outside the branch in front of other customers.
Why inefficient: If it had been possible to do this on-line or over the phone with me posting the PoA to Santander this would not have been a problem. It may be that this was possible to do and the operator was not aware, he did after all ask that I brought my 98 year old Mother with me so he obviously had no idea what a PoA is.
Why Inept: Beside the fact that I was told I could have an appointment when I could not, the appointment was booked to meet someone named Daniel but when I arrived I was told that Daniel had not worked that this branch for months.
Why arrogant: Over the years I have often found Santander to be arrogant, but the manager on this occasion surpassed anything encountered before.
Santander has lost all my business, and with an 83% one star rating on Trust Pilot I wouldn’t be surprised if many others follow suit. There are better banks out there with better interest rates, and it is extremely easy to move accounts these days from the comfort of your home – providing it’s not a PoA account.”
“Awful and terrible service by Santander bank. First you block and close I and my partner's accounts, demand we pay up overdrafts in 7 days even though we only received your letter 5 days after you sent it, which meant we had 2 days to pay. All this in the midst of Coronavirus pandemic. Your letters stated no payments will be allowed out of the account but lo and behold few days later you send an email saying i went into unarranged overdraft, not just that you tell me i have a document waiting for me online and to log on. Have you forgotten you already closed my accounts? Even if the current account is still open due to overdraft pending, how will i log on when you have removed all access. Also if no payments are allowed out, how did any payments leave the account. Your email states exceeded arranged overdraft on 10/03. Your letter of closure of account dated 12/03 was received on 17/03. The account was deffinitely in arranged overdraft on 10/03 so i am not sure what you are talking about. Plus you are not picking calls. You sure can do better.”
“Its ok for Boris to say you will you get 3 months mortgage payment freeze, HOW? if Santander don't answer there phones, at least say on your recorded messages where we are in the queue, i was on hold from 0800 - 1700 yesterday and no one answered, i am now doing the same. I have no work so i have time to do it. I know most people are in the same boat. Should i just stop the mortgage payment going out from my bank? I'm worried it will impact my near perfect credit score.”
“Continual bad experience as a business customer. Frequent locking of account and inability to make payments, wasted hours spent on phone trying to resolve issues with a Customer Service team that are totally incompetent. Avoid at all costs and look elsewhere which is what we will be doing,”
“WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
This small print on Santander Consumer Finance (car finance) terms & conditions section 4.4 states no one else can drive the car unless there on the finance agreement, BE VERY CAREFUL PEOPLE AS THEY WILL PUT A DEFAULT ON YOUR NAME AND ONLY WAY GETTING OUT OF IT IS YOU HAVE TO CLEAR THE FULL SETTLEMENT FIGURE, THERE IS ALSO SOMEONE ELSE HAD THE SAME ISSUE AND COMMENTS ON HERE DATED 9TH OCTOBER WRITTEN BY AMELIA. DONT FINANCE WITH SANTANDER EVEN THOUGH MAYBE A BIG NAME AVOID AT ALL COSTS FOR YOU OWN BENEFIT”
“WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
This small print on Santander Consumer Finance (car finance) terms & conditions section 4.4 states no one else can drive the car unless there on the finance agreement, BE VERY CAREFUL PEOPLE AS THEY WILL PUT A DEFAULT ON YOUR NAME AND ONLY WAY GETTING OUT OF IT IS YOU HAVE TO CLEAR THE FULL SETTLEMENT FIGURE, THERE IS ALSO SOMEONE ELSE HAD THE SAME ISSUE AND COMMENTS ON HERE DATED 9TH OCTOBER WRITTEN BY AMELIA. DONT FINANCE WITH SANTANDER EVEN THOUGH MAYBE A BIG NAME AVOID AT ALL COSTS FOR YOU OWN BENEFIT”
“Locked out of account with no warning and told the only way to rectify is to call them. Called them but they wouldn’t talk to me as they told me my date of birth was not the same as that on my account.
Absolutely mystifying considering I supplied a passport etc to open the account and I know the date I was born. This raises major concerns around whether they are complying with their anti money-laundering obligations as if they are not checking the detail of the ID’s provided when opening accounts then how are they verifying and transcribing the personal data contained therein? Where has the incorrect DOB come from? How was this verified by the bank’s internal processes and why has it not been simply checked and rectified against the existing data they already hold? What else have they got wrong and what could be the consequences? If they can’t get a DOB correct from simple documentation provided in support of opening an account, what on Earth are they capable of getting wrong?
And not only this, but their shoddy internal practices do nothing to audit, verify or check they have appropriately complied with their legal obligations in transcribing/verifying the information provided. This is somehow left to the customer to do as a “third party that has failed security” by giving the correct information which they are unwilling to verify against their info.
Had me questioning my sanity then their customer service constantly slopey shouldered me to various other departments (on hold for over an hour). Was told that they would not speak to me about anything (account, SAR, making a complaint, rectifying the issue with appropriate ID (passport I had to hand)) and that I should take time off to go to a branch to try and resolve it there.
I have huge concerns over my personal data and how it is handled at Santander. The accuracy of the data is obviously incorrect and I have contacted the Financial Ombudsman and the ICO about the issue.
Santander said that I was asking questions a fraudster would though I didn’t request absolutely any account information (I provided them all that on the phone (Including personal ID numbers, security numbers, pins) but again to no avail). I queried where I had agreed that a DOB (incorrect or otherwise on their system) was to be used as an access authorization given all of the other information I had to hand. I cannot understand how the DOB can possibly differ from the documentation I originally provided in setting up the account or why that data couldn’t be checked.
They refused to check the account info against the ID used to set up the account for reasons unknown. Also refused to provide names of who I was speaking to or to take what I was saying seriously.
I was only told that if I was locked out of the account (which I have never withdrawn from so it holds a very large sum of money) then I had either:
> Entered the pin / passcode incorrectly three times (I have never used a passcode and only use a fingerprint for the app); or
> A very large sum of money had been withdrawn from the account.
.. I cannot ensure that there has been no fraudulent activity on the account because I have no way of accessing it but they have strongly suggested that my life savings may be gone.
Makes for a fun day off work tomorrow trying to sort out their absolutely abysmal mistakes. They also said that it was unlikely that the branch will be able to resolve this kind of issue tomorrow!
This is in a large ISA and this kind of ineptitude could potentially cost you a house!
Totally dreadful.
I cannot understand how banks can legally lock you out of your account without any form of communication (even a letter to the account holder or an email explaining that a password reset or similar is required). Instead I’m in the situation where I don’t know if I have lost all the money I own and I have had absolutely no help from Santander.
Once resolved I will be closing this account.
BEWARE.”
“Bank Lost correspondence! Santander lost their own important correspondence relating to permission to rent out my home whilst I am sailing around the world. Their FAILURE means i have to pay their additional fee (of course) and make a new 2012 application, yes going back 8 years! You cannot trust any bank santander that loses their own documentation and charges a fee for their failure!”
“AVOID AVOID AVOID
Santander online banking is the worst experience I ever had! Closed my accounts with them ! It was a big mistake. Hassles hassles and more hassles with Santander! Go somewhere else as they make problems with simple transfers or logging in ..”
“AVOID AVOID AVOID
Santander online banking is the worst experience I ever had! Closed my accounts with them ! It was a big mistake. Hassles hassles and more hassles with Santander! Go somewhere else as they make problems with simple transfers or logging in ..”
“I was a victim of fraud on my current account. I spoke to the fraud department as soon as I noticed and they have been of absolutely no help whatsoever. I got told at one point that "we're seeing more and more fraud of this type" by one of the fraud team. Well that's wonderful, why then aren't you doing something to protect my money and close down an obvious flaw in the system.
Absolutely useless and I still haven't got a penny back, 2 months on. I am reporting them to the financial ombudsman and I advise you all to never ever use this bank. I am certainly closing my accounts with them.”
“I was a victim of fraud on my current account. I spoke to the fraud department as soon as I noticed and they have been of absolutely no help whatsoever. I got told at one point that "we're seeing more and more fraud of this type" by one of the fraud team. Well that's wonderful, why then aren't you doing something to protect my money and close down an obvious flaw in the system.
Absolutely useless and I still haven't got a penny back, 2 months on. I am reporting them to the financial ombudsman and I advise you all to never ever use this bank. I am certainly closing my accounts with them.”
“Applied for a personal loan after checking the starting APR 2.9%.
Did not expect that rate but with a good income and little outgoings and a credit rating, a few points off excellent I expected a fair rate. After conducting a search they sent me an offer which I had to sign before knowing the APR, 19.9%. The search has now decreased my credit score and I am reluctant to apply with another lender. This amounts to sharp practice where after jumping though the hoops they bank on customers accepting the higher APR. Why is no onegoing after these corporate criminals”
“There mortgage on interest only…
There mortgage on interest only (beware) they will use every trick to continue to attempt to keep you on these terms. Getting information off them and a breakdown they will avoid.
My interest rate had continued to increase and they have misold and taken advantage of a vulnerable position and not explained the terms of the mortgage.
Having been declined two times to change my mortgage (explaining my position) I have now entered a consent to rent my property this information costs 295 and they have not given me advice I could do this instead they continue to charge me 4.9%interest.
Pursuing a legal challenge and ombunusmen following their lack of ethics and integrity. They also advise your complaint can only be persued Upto 6 months following the response of their complaint which is not true!
Telegraph news has reported extensively about Santander's deliberate attempt forcing borrowers most at risk of falling into arrears the most highest interest rates.
Watchdog tackles 500 complaints from Santander borrowers locked on high rates!! Interesting that they have not learnt from their investigation nor have they acknowledged the ongoing investigation. You now have 501 to investigate further.”
