Santander

Jeremy

Here's the chain of events: 1) I transferred $3K from my bank account to a newly formed account for my business 2) The transaction still said "In review" the next day, so I called customer support. I spent 45 minutes on hold with three different departments and was told that everything was fine and the amount would be transferred the next day. I'm upset it's taking so long, but I suck it up and go to bed. 3) The next day I wake up and I AM LOCKED OUT OF MY BANK ACCOUNT. I can't access it through the online portal. It's also PAYDAY, so I cannot access my funds on the one day I got paid this month. It says I'm locked out because of "too many failed password attempts." 4) I call the phone number it tells me to call, and the person I speak with says I was at the wrong department (because it said to dial "4" when I reached the menu). I'm looking at the !@#!ing screenshot of the message I got from the portal and it tells me to dial "4" at the menu. So either this guy is lying to me, or the website is. 5) I get transferred to another department, and after 45 minutes she tells me I have to unfreeze my credit reports for her to verify my identity... which makes ME suspicious, so I tell her no way in hell, they're my bank and they have my money and I should have access to it. So she says I have to go into a bank branch and show my ID. For those watching at home, at this point I have wasted 3 hours of my life on the phone and online trying to just get access to my money. 6) I take time off work to go to the branch, where after an hour on hold the branch manager finally gets my account unblocked. However.... the transfer (the one I've been waiting on for THREE DAYS NOW!) is CANCELED, and I have to initiate a brand new one, starting all over again. The branch employees have been wonderful during this experience, but the online and corporate bureaucracy part of this company has FAILED to deliver even the most basic modicum of clear communication or customer service. This has now wasted FOUR HOURS of my life this week, and the funds are STILL not in the account that they need to be. Because of the aforementioned four hours of wasted time, I do not have the bandwidth right now to change banks — but at some point in the next three weeks I am going to close my accounts and find a different bank. This has been, frankly, a load of steaming bullcrap. EDIT TO ADD: In the end, after I sent the transfer a second time... it again got flagged for fraud. I am DONE with this bank. I will open a new account with literally any other bank in the world as soon as the weekend's over.

Randy of Thief

Positve: + Instant transfer for high amounts (>50k€) work clean and instantly + Very fast support + good offers for new customers Negative - Almost no information available in the online Banking, you need to ask the support for everything - Not really attractive conditions for existing customers

Krystal Gault

I've been trying to make a complaint for a month. I'm unable to make calls and I'm on their "tell me once" accessibility register. Nobody has responded on the online chat in all this time, despite repeatedly requesting an agent. I finally spoke to someone over a week ago through another call, and asked to make a complaint. I was told it would be 3-5 working days to investigate and I would get an email response. That has passed and I haven't. I still cannot communicate with anyone. This is not the first time I've had issues with them being ableist, and received a formal apology and compensation last time, and was promised I would be better taken care of from then on. Yet here we are, this is even worse. I have banked with Santander for decades. They have become an absolute disgrace. Update 7 Apr 25. I received a snotty letter from them claiming they have investigated and there is no mistake from their end, and I just need to wait for an agent to respond. What, for weeks? Even though it is my only means of contacting them with time sensitive financial issues? The investigator clearly did not read back through the lengthy thread of weeks of me asking to speak to a human agent and getting no response at all. So now apparently I have to write to the financial ombudsman. Meanwhile I still have no means of communication with my bank.

Michael

I was a co-owner of accounts with my daughter and mom. My daughter had difficulty and they never reached out to me for a solution. It was not until I had a different bank tell me that Santander put a flag on me so I could do no business with any other bank. When I went to close my primary account- they never bothered to ask why I was closing with them. They have 0 customer service skills.

Randy

Was a great bank, but customer care has gone right down hill and interest rates are lowest

Izabella LeBlanc

This bank gets 0 starts..Their hi yield svg's acct I opened on 12/10/24 via Santander Openbank on their website is ATROCIOUS. They got $64K & didn't even provide the acct # to me via email. Their website wouldn't let me monitor the balance until I opened their "mobile app" but their app stinks & is not user friendly--have a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE; on Dec 18,they lowered the interest on this acct from 5% to 4.75% & until I was tortured by their awful app, the bank WOULD NOT let me login to monitor my balance via their website! Twice I complained about their mobile app! UNACCEPTABLY BAD CUST SVC AND HORRIBLE WEBSITE & MOBILE BANKING APP. I did NOT want to use the app, I wanted to use my laptop & login via the website & wasn't able to do so!

S Pannakar

shockingly consistently bad customer service, for proof, try contacting their customer service

Gallifray Falls

Applied for an account with them, they rejected. Dodged a bullet there and remained with Monzo. Two weeks later they wrote to me threatening to put a CIFAS fraud marker on my credit file if I did not immediately go into branch with my ID and proof of address to prove it was me who made the rejected application two weeks prior, which I had to do on foot, in the rain, wasting my ink and paper for an account they already told me they refused to open, when I should be at home working. I used to work for Abby back in the day at HO in Bournemouth. My goodness, it really has gone down hill hasn't it? Time wasting excuse for a bank, behave like Gestapo demanding papers or they will engage in wilful damage of the financial affairs of random members of the public, an appalling abuse of CIFAS, and devoid of any kind of welcoming or friendly disposition. "Sorry about that" as I left the branch with numerous printed and copied documents they demanded, now soaked in the rain walking home. What an utter shower of a company. Judging by the comments of others on here it's about time they bucked their ideas up and prep themselves for some very invasive regulator investigations. I would imagine it won't be long before someone in branch gets a knuckle sandwich for their lunch, not that I would condone such an obvious consequence of treating members of the public like dirt. How dare they? Who do they think they are? The woman in branch was as cold as a rock too. I have launched an Ombudsman complaint against them to waste their time and money, and look forward to being compensated for my time and money they have wasted. I'm going to waste as much of their time as possible, and cost them not insignificant sums. Suggest others do the same. It costs them hundreds of quid each time someone opens an ombudsman complaint against them. Oh dear, how sad, never mind. I'm going to suggest they rebrand their logo to a Swastika, and feature their next TV campaign with those two clowns on a U-Boat. It would better suit the character and disposition of their staff and public image.

Dave D

Santander are a bank of opposites Santander are a bank of opposites. Some staff you meet are great and they deserve to be praised, but their efforts are completely destroyed by the unhelpful , dysfunctional incompetence of other depts. Primarily the customer contact team. If youre not familiar with them they're the ones who send out the anonymous (don't tell you who they are other than santander) mildly threatening letters and emails telling you they need to speak with you or they'll close your account. Well despite complying with everything they wanted they've decided to close our current account and have closed it without telling us. I could fill a whole volume with the now 3 month story of their inneficiency, lies and lack of communication but I won't bore you. Examples of their stupidity? Apparently to help them close it they need us to go into a branch and provide details of our addr. That'll be the same details we provided in June to them , as they're aware approx 4000km away from the nearest branch.If I had a mind to visit I couldn't because I can't spend my money. Speaking of addresses. They told me an electricity bill was acceptable as proof. No problem off it goes only to be rejected as the address didn't match their records. Errrr no thats my addr to the left, the one you're quoting is the leccy board main office for our district, I haven't moved there. This idiocy would be amusing if it wasn't for very serious fact that as they seem to hold the power of life and death on your finances they kill you off. They are a law unto themselves and Ombudsman intervention comes after resolution so you are in their hands. This has caused us tremendous stress and inconvenience. My advice to anyone reading would be at least don't out all your eggs in one basket in case you fall victim and have other accounts, better still leave or don't open an account with them If an advisor decides to respond with the usual "we're sorry", don't bother. I will simply post my list of complaint reference numbers, several to date have been found against you and resulted in compensation being paid to us. FOS beckons. Please trust pilot set up the system so we can award zero or negative stars 👍 santander don't even deserve zero

Joan

Very helpful staff I had been trying to change my current account to a Santander edge current account online but the technology defeated me. I made an appointment in the Didsbury branch and saw Aisling Ennis, who explained all the available accounts so I could choose what suited me, then set it all up with just a few questions, she took all the hassle out of it and also helped me with a savings account I wanted. Lovely lady and very efficient. Top marks from me.

Jez Harrison

Santander blocked a transfer (the second one not the first, which was for a higher amount) to my wife's account and disabled my online banking in an apparently entirely arbitrary manner. I wouldn't care but I've sent much higher amounts in far more risky-looking transactions several times before, but no - sending a hundred quid to a family member is a crime, followed by an insulting lecture over the phone about security and fraud before the transaction would be processed and I was permitted to have 'control' of my own money again - despite me having done NOTHING wrong. If you're unconcerned about the implications of a cashless society, then this Kafkaesque mini-nightmare is why you should be - you'd be safer keeping your money under your mattress than trusting it to Santander...

HR

Nice high saving percentage, but impossible to open an joint savings account with my partner if you have a original account on two names. They keep telling me they need two transactions to verify our identities from individual accounts. When I tell them we have only one joint account I get no responses. In the meantime 45 days have passed and they cancelled my application. Worst bank experience ever. Would not trust them with 10 euro.

Kamal

Hello! I had an appointment yesterday, I have an open contract as a Manager in Amazon with high salary and that's why my resident permit is EU blue card "The EU Blue Card is a residence permit for highly qualified workers from non-EU countries",I was told that I can't open an account with santander bank neither debit nor credit card! Because of my resident permit! As I read the requirements I can't find where it is written resident permit with high salary is prohibited from opening account with Santander bank, knowing that I already have bank account with another bank but I wanted to change it! I need an explanation for this! Thanks

Charles Dashwood

it is as if their system does not work on a sunday, every single sunday my card refuses to work.

Chris Stewart-Moffitt

Santander Bereavement Services have made life more difficult for my wife by giving wrong advice on dealing with my mother-in-laws few shares and then sending the wrong forms. After a week they told us we must fill different forms in additionally adding to the stress of the bereavement. Hopeless customer service by people who don't speak English as their first language. Looking forward to closing the account and being rid of them for good.

Joey coleman

Using unchallenged easy platform, it acts as a bridge between alternative currency transactions and Santander, but for a while now as I received profits from ‘unchallenged’ without any issue, I have only had issues accessing my funds at Santander

Anthony Elleray

Yet again Santander blocked my accounts. My Crime? Daring to transfer funds to another, more professional, banking provider. They claimed it was because I had done the transfer at "an unusual time of day". What utter nonsense. Is this bank not open online 24/7? They claim it's to prevent fraud. In reality the reason is to make it as difficult as possible to do business with any other bank. Dreadful behaviour. The app has not worked properly since November. All I get is a spinning circle. Despite me reporting the fault in November and countless other complaints on Google Play Store, even this morning Santander denied there are any issues with their app. Liars. I will be so pleased when 26th Feb comes around when my account switch takes place and I will be rid of this awful bank forever

V.B.

I read Chris Vinall's review and it echoes the appalling experiences of so many Santander's customers who have also been repeatedly locked out of their account by the thugs in their Bootle fraud centre. Why is this? Could these repeated lock outs have anything to do with the fact that Santander was last year fined by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) for £107m for money laundering? Could they in in some perverse way be trying to gain access to legitimiate customer's funds? Santander will lock your out of your account for the slightest excuse. I read a recent review where a mother was blocked access when she was questioned about a payment from an insurance company following her son's accident abroad. This was a legitimiate payment towards his hospital treatment yet Santander's infamous fraud department in Bootle bullied her and blocked her from accessing her account for months. Thhis is outrageous behaviour it is criminal and Santander should be challenged on this fraud by customers taking legal action againstr them and reporting them to the FCA. Little wonder the bank is losing customers in droves. I've repeatedly been blocked from accessing my account when travelling. This results in long distance calls to their call centre only to be bullied and argued with when their fully aware that you are genuine as your voice has been verified for telephone banking yet they will continue to harass you when all you want to do is pay a utility bill. I have emailed their CEO but he never responds. So if the man at the top does not care what does that tell you about Santander?

Mikael

You cannot close an account without specifying a withdrawal account even though the value is equal to zero. Really bad! This is their bank in Sweden.

Michele March

Worst Bank I have EVER dealt with & I have Dealt with many! I live in York County and when you go in the Shrewsbury branch well you know don't bother the manager because she's busy you know picking at her grapes and doing her nails etc etc so if you have a question you'll just have to wait till then before you could ask her it could just be like a simple question like what does 1 + 1 equal but she couldn't possibly answer that because she's so busy playing with her nails and watching on her snacks which I never seen anybody eating in a bank before in my life secondly my account was supposed to be frozen but I was told I could push checks through okay well instead of doing what they promised me they would do I said listen and these checks are going to go through and you're going to bounce my checks, I cannot afford those fees! So just forget about. No I was absolutely 100% guarantee that they would go through absolutely no problem whatsoever well that was of course BS and one of them went through the least amount you know but the other one for my mortgage did not go throw in the other one for my laughter did not go through so therefore they kept sending them through and they kept denying them so then my fee which was you know could have been $100 ends up being $200 and they don't want to give me any money back they don't want to make anything right when their person guaranteed me that it would go through their representative guaranteed me it would go through the worst company in the whole world I can't stand them at all don't stay away if you want your money stay away if you want to lose your money go there!