“Horrible company, bunch of con artists is what they are. Outrageous interest rates and won't let us refinance our vehicle even when we built our credit from nothing to good range over the last 2 years. Santander sickens me, they stuff their pockets and care NOTHING about their customers. Santander SUCKS”
“Awful. Utter horrible. So my ‘spare’ account was sitting there with minimal money, just in case, for an emergency. I got an email telling me they were closing the account because i had not used the account in 3 years. I rang up on Saturday to be told i must go into branch to reactivate my card. So on the Monday i try to do just that, only the bank is closed with a piece of paper on the door telling me the back is closed for the foreseeable future…. But wait, when i opened the account just a few years ago, there were 4 branches close to me i could use, this closed branch was the last one i could use… the notice is telling me my nearest branch is a train journey away, but i do not wish to pay public transport just to activate a card, and why did i not get notified my local branch was closing? As well, currently bus and train strikes are making getting about quite hard right now… so i called the number on the card, and im waiting ages, and finally when i do get to speak with someone i can only describe her as sassy, as well as rude, as she argued that my branch was not closed, when clearly it is! She then asked me if i knew where my bank really was, and could i perhaps have got the wrong building? Really! As i tried explaining with all due respect that i did in fact know where my bank is, that i did in fact have the right building, Lady Sass hung up! I then tried for quite some time trying to access via the ‘Bot’, only to keep getting the same response of ‘please reword your answer’ to every time i wrote ‘Help’. I admitted defeat and tried calling again, waited for ages… again… this time i got a lovely bloke, but i struggled to understand his accent, and he clearly had problems understanding mine… eventually he decided he was going to escalate this as a complaint, so he put me on hold for yet another very long stretch. Eventually Mr Nice came back and told me there was no one in complaints available, so he said he would file the complaint himself, and he attempted to fill out a form on my behalf. I told him the only thing i really would want to complain about was the tone of the previous representative, as i felt she was not professional, and if they were to play back the conversation they would hear i was quite calm, i was not even challenging, but i did not deserve to be insulted as to how she made me feel… i was promised a callback, but in all honesty i had no confidence one would come. The bottom line was my account was imminent to closing, with my money still in it, that i felt i could not access, as i did not have a workable bank card, and no bank to activate the card in! So i did what anyone else would do in this situation, i simply accessed my mobile banking app and transferred all the funds over to my usual account (fortunately with a different bank). Even that was not easy, as i was bombarded with pop up responses ‘this is a scam’ ‘once this money is transferred we cannot get it back for you’ - yet the money was going to another account of the same person, with the same address, which is ME! Sometime later that day i did get a call off Customer Services, and lets just say, the representative spoke down to me, he was horrible, he would not let me get a word in, he basically called me a liar, and stated Lady Sass did not have a tone at all, and she never hung up! I believe he could not have listened to those recorded phone calls because i certainly did not imagine it. He also told me that i was never told to go to branch by the first guy, but wait, why did i make the trip anyway? I did not dream this, i had wrote down the first guys instructions in my diary during our call! As far as i was bothered, the money could have sat in that account for another 3 years, but only for the instructions given to me following the email Santander sent me in the first place, this whole fiasco played out leaving me overwhelmingly exhausted and upset! Mr Nasty reduced me to tears as he asked me what i felt i thought i would get from raising a complaint - i tried telling him it was the last representatives idea to raise a complaint, and all i wanted was to make them aware about how Lady Sass was talking to their customers, and perhaps maybe he could suggest a solution as to how i could get my money? Mr Nastys response to this was ‘what do you suggest?’ and i simply answered ‘well its your bank, i thought you would have more of an idea than me’… oh dear, that set him off again, and this time it was all too much, ranting on, not letting me speak, so this time i hung up. But Mr Nasty was not done, he only called me back to continue his tirade. I calmly said ‘there is a reason why i hung up, so please leave me alone’… but he was still ranting on when i hung up for the second time, i dont think he even heard what i said. I immediately blocked the number. So please… dont bank with these bullies, there are far better and much well known other banks on the high street!”
“The worst bank you could ever bank with, I have never seen any organisation putting you to one colleague after the other. I was told by one rude lady I did fraud on my account. I asked her okay justify and give a response to me as the only transactions that have come through is from the insurance company and I have bought a car. Because of Santander not giving access to my accounts I could not pay my penalty charge for my old car. The penalty charge has now gone up 3 times my rent of 525 couldnot be paid with my weekly salary so I had to ask my friend. On Thursday night I ask Santander can I have £20.00 for fuel and £20.00 as I have gone my over my overdraft. I raised a question that in 2 weeks I wont be paid my weekly salary and will have to wait 4 weeks for my wages to come there was no response. I went into branch and they said my complaint wasn't registered. I phone up they say my complaint has been registered. When the complaint was registered I had no reference details of the complaint.
Honestly please do not bank with Santander they are troublesome. I said I gave a 29.00 to my gym and nationwide refused the payment and let me know why and not block the whole account.
Santander still think it is funny to cause people stress. They think the customers have heaps and heaps of time to sit on the phone to get complaints resolved.
Once again people please don't trust them
Date of experience: 12 August 2022”
“If your business is a victim of fraud santander will cut all ties with you after freezing you account for a month. Refused to provide me with any evidence to go to the police with and made my business go bankrupt. Avoid having a business account with them at any cost!!!”
“Santander blocked my account and when I called they refused to give me a reason or tell me when it would be unblocked. Totally untrustworthy, complete cowboys, even if you try to complain about the customer complaints staff they refuse to escalate it higher and just “investigate” themselves(!) then “close” the complaint against them. My advice, go with a proper professional bank, one with substance.”
“Quicker to catch the bus into Peterborough (18 minutes) and the same home. Waited 50 minutes on the phone and no one answered before I gave up. Cannot understand why they abandoned securemessage on their banking app.”
“If I could give them a zero I would. I came to unblock my account but end up having to wait two hours for someone to get me and unblock it and every time I would ask them if they can do it they say yeah in just a min and then they go and help someone else. I am just wondering if you tell someone you would be with them in a min it means a minute not 2 whole hours, and not to mention the attitude was absolutely ridiculous they were very rude and when I tried to translate they would interrupt me ever single time. I just hope that this is a one time thing because I don’t want anyone to be treated like this.”
“Santander sucks as a company. Representative Nadia 800259 was rude & a disgrace to the company. I was trying to tell her that an email was sent with no attachments as she kept trying to over talk me with her rude self. I guess she matches the company as a whole.”
“have Abkhazia in the list of countries where selecting telephone code. Since when Santander joined Kreml to recognise part of Georgia as a separate country?”
“Worst credit card ever. Legitimately disputed a charge on my card with a company that did not refund my money even when I returned the item. City bank and any other credit card I have gives you a temporary credit immediately, but not Santander. They make you swear it out and interrogate you when you file a dispute. I stopped using this card and went back to Citibank.”
“Been trying for two days to speak to someone at Santander. All I need is an online statement for my mortgage. 3 hours on hold yesterday with the same hold music and another 1 hour today so far and not managed to speak to a single person. Live chat is useless as well - they hardly ever respond and then say I have to call the phone number. Awful service.”
“Many of the customer service representatives who answer 1-877-768-2265 will outright lie to you to get you off the phone or put you on hold and then hang up. I have one simple transaction pending that is taking weeks due to their exceptionally poor communication skills and customer service. I made at least ten phone calls to inquire about the transaction’s status. The last five or six phone calls, including two today, started with “please do not hang up on me.” Despite my pleadings, the representatives hung up on me immediately. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get past them to speak with a supervisor who can help with your problem. The only reason I scored Santander a 1 was because 0 was not an option. I am looking forward to never doing business with Santander again.”
“I have been a customer of the bank for many years and unfortunately I cannot say a good word. The bank’s staff have not only a very low level of service but also a very low level of knowledge , which I have experienced countless times. Even during the difficult Covid period, everything that was connected with this bank only caused problems, not help!
The worth thing is that the bank DOES NOT care about it’s reputation and thus is not comparable to any other bank in England.
It seems that things are not going well for the bank and you can draw your own conclusions- why!”
“After trying to open my first bank account (I recently turned 18 and would need it for my job and college) I decided to try and open a current account at Santander and believe me when I say TRY. I first began by going to the closest branch to my home to try and do it in person because as I have stated above, I have never had to open a bank account before and would need help also I am Portuguese so I knew they would need some extra documents from me than the average UK national. I was promptly told to go home and do it myself online as it would be "easier". What a lie that was. I was asked for my passport, settled status and a letter which could prove that I had lived in the UK for at least 3 years which had both my name and address so I asked my college if they could write and sign a letter to prove that. After that I was constantly emailed saying that this was not sufficient evidence or that my passport was expired or that the letter wasn't enough evidence (Which I found kind of weird that they would need a letter proving that when they had my settled status document which proved that I have lived here for a minimum of 5 years). That kind of worried me as I quickly began to believe that it was a scam. After trying one last time I can now say I have given up on opening an account with Santander and will be opening one at Danske. Santander customer service is awful for new customers and from what I have now heard for their current customers as well. I do not know if this will help anyone, but I just needed to vent my experience with Santander, best of luck to anyone that will try to use them as their bank.”
“Absolutely THE worst company to get a car loan with. You end up paying 3-4 times more than the loan is..after 3 years they reposed mine for being 6 weeks late with the payment & auctioned it (probably back to the dealerships that work with them) almost immediately then said I owed the difference which was almost what my loan original loan was for. Left me w/o a vehicle, ruined my credit & years after this happened they turned this over to lawyers..it never ends. I still don't have any paperwork on this 4% loan the dealership told me they approved me for after repeatedly asking for the contract. Its just so shady & have lost class action suits against them before because of their business practices. I just wish there was a current one going in now so I could be a part of it. BUYER BEWARE. Don't get a loan thru them. You WILL be sorry.”
“Horrendous experience with these charlatans who froze account without warning/reason leaving me without funds for daily essentials, in person branch visits entirely incidental with one hour calls exactly the same.
I’ve been a customer 30+ years during which I’ve had numerous examples of stupidity, dishonesty & even theft.
After recent interaction they had audacity to send me a survey which I completed and was able to explain that thanks to them I had no food or electricity.
Avoid at all costs.”
“Apalling customer service, complaints department are rude and unhelpful. Also make changes without any communication, though the say they do. If only I could give less than one star.”
“Had to transfer parent's funds into my account as BREXIT has meant UK citizens living abroad have had accounts shut with no notice. Put a large amount of funds into a student account, start paying mortgages and obviously note student-type expenses. Have two transfer of 15,000+ pounds into account from unlisted Chinese accounts, no problem. Go to transfer 5000 pounds back to my parents (the accounts have the same surnames and are both British) and everything is blocked. Been on hold for around nine hours over the last ten days speaking to unhelpful call-center worker after call center-worker. I am sick of having to give out my financial information an personal information to random people in call centers who judge you and make assumptions about you. I had one man ask me if I had another account I could use - when I replied that no, I haven't got a spare fifty grand sitting around in another account to use I was met with incredulity. Long story short, I have been lied to, strung along and poked fun at. I have a mortgage to pay, rent to pay, a downpayment for a flat, flights so I can get home to book and a family to look after. I have no way of paying any of this without this account. I also need to transfer more large sums out of this account and am scared to now because what if it gets blocked again and no one can tell me how long to unblock it? Why is there no emergency phone number? Absolutely ridiculous. I'll be putting my money under my floorboards once I can get off hold to shut this damned account. Bank literally anywhere else.”
