Santander
Author
Discussion

trickywoo

Original Poster:

13,747 posts

254 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
Don’t suppose anyone has a phone number that might get something done they could pm me?

The short story is I received a single email in February requesting verification details. It looked very fraudulent to me, years old postcode and suspect links going to addresses that weren’t Santander.

I phoned up their fraud line and discussed the message. They told me it did indeed look fraudulent and to email it to their phishing email address which I did that day.

Fast forward to yesterday and it turns out they have locked my account from sometime in April. They have still been taking the monthly account fee ok and they let me transfer a large sum in yesterday. Obviously I can’t now take it out. It was to pay a bill.

Phoning them just goes round in circles with each department claiming there is nothing they can do and the other department has to do it.

I have received zero communication about it apart from that one message I considered to be phishing.

Thanks.

Edited to add they are saying that email was genuine and me not responding led to the locking of the account, not any actual fraudulent activity. I only do five transactions a year and being cynical I think they did this because I let the balance drop into the £100s because of the very poor interest they were offering.

Edited by trickywoo on Friday 2nd August 07:57

ferret50

2,748 posts

33 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
This is why I now bank with Nationwide!

I found Santander repeatedly blocked any payment above cira £1k, despite having the account limit set at £20k, made, for example, paying a years ISA very time consuming.

skyebear

1,114 posts

30 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
Google for "CEO email" sites (also LinkedIn) and find senior Santander people to contact directly. Copy them all in to same email as at least one of them will want to be seen to be doing something (or their PA will flag it).

Explain what's happened, what impact it's had on you and what resolution you require.

If no reply by end of Monday send another email making it clear you are registering a complaint. Banks hate complaints.

Also look at saynoto0870 dot com as you might find a direct number to fraud team or similar.



Edited by skyebear on Friday 2nd August 08:42

LooneyTunes

9,061 posts

182 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
skyebear said:
Google for "CEO email" sites (also LinkedIn) and find senior Santander people to contact directly. Copy them all in to same email as at least one of them will want to be seen to be doing something (or their PA will flag it).

Explain what's happened, what impact it's had on you and what resolution you require.

If no reply by end of Monday send another email making it clear you are registering a complaint. Banks hate complaints.

Also look at saynoto0870 dot com as you might find a direct number to fraud team or similar.
That will, unfortunately, almost certainly get him nowhere as they won't see that they have done anything wrong.

Santander are awful to deal with for "customer verification" (for anti-money laundering). Not sure if it is the same team for Personal as it is Corporate, but if so their number is 0808 812 6665. If it isn't they may be able to steer in the right direction.

SO27

644 posts

235 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
Go into a branch.
Take ID, Santander app on your phone, statements, emails etc

trickywoo

Original Poster:

13,747 posts

254 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
Thanks all.

I’m told today it’s been escalated to a manager but I’m not holding my breath.

Will try branch if no movement next week.

It’s really farcical when I have departments telling me each one doesn’t know what they are talking about and it’s the others job to unlock it.

Taking names and explaining what each has said makes no difference.

Bizarrely they also talk of April this year in the same way as decades ago and how it’s so long ago everything is frozen and the person noted on the file has left.

alscar

8,284 posts

237 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
Dealing with Santander on both one account of ours which I wanted to transfer to another product with them was absolutely painful and time consuming.
When I then had to deal with tracing and dealing with a relatives account for whom I held LPA , I had to end up making a formal complaint as to their total ineptitude and lack of sympathy.
This was cc’d to their CEO with a very polite request to get his executive team involved.
In fairness to that team , all was resolved.
Never again though will I have any account with them.

VTC

2,341 posts

208 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
Shower for us
after banking with them for 30years (inc time as alliance and leicester) 5 mortgages over that period inc
loans etc, they decided they want a scan of my passport to confirm my identity.
as simple as that sounds it made me decide to remove all the money in the accounts and close them.
HSBC have been a good replacment since TBH.

Now it may be pig headed but I did not like their needless request in my opinion.

skyebear

1,114 posts

30 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
VTC said:
Shower for us
after banking with them for 30years (inc time as alliance and leicester) 5 mortgages over that period inc
loans etc, they decided they want a scan of my passport to confirm my identity.
as simple as that sounds it made me decide to remove all the money in the accounts and close them.
HSBC have been a good replacment since TBH.

Now it may be pig headed but I did not like their needless request in my opinion.
For us it was going into a branch for assistance and being directed to a bank of phones to ring their call centre. Moved to Nationwide and First Direct and never looked back.

ar-em-en

255 posts

126 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
It's only my personal experience but I've always found them excellent in branch so that would be where I'd start.

anonymous-user

78 months

Friday 2nd August 2024
quotequote all
VTC said:
Shower for us
after banking with them for 30years (inc time as alliance and leicester) 5 mortgages over that period inc
loans etc, they decided they want a scan of my passport to confirm my identity.
as simple as that sounds it made me decide to remove all the money in the accounts and close them.
HSBC have been a good replacment since TBH.

Now it may be pig headed but I did not like their needless request in my opinion.
Seems a bit dramatic. Whats the problem with them validating your ID to confirm your identity?