Hi Exsudbury,

Now that is what I call a result. Brownie points for Santander, but again surely they should be able to back track their records to trace in detail a history of the account.

Regards

Nic Otine

Thanks for that, and it prompted my memory on a more positive note. I am not a fan of Santander and transferred my main account to Co-op (who I have found to be very good). However, my wife discovered an account with in excess of £10,000 in her name that she could not recall. After considerable research (by us and Santander) it transpired she had held an account with Alliance & Leicester that had been taken over by Santander. Unfortunately Santander could not give much detail but assured her the money belonged to her because all the relevant details matched!

Hi Exsudbury,

On another subject with banks. I noticed you mentioned Santander which reminded me of watching a "Rip Off Britain" programme on t.v.

The story was, a working woman who while working was financially independent, was left money by her mother of approximately £25000.00 which was in an account of Santander. She did not need to withdraw any funds but she added to the account money she had saved from selling knitwear. When she retired she decided she needed to withdraw some cash from the account but when she presented herself to a branch of Santander she was told there was no money and she had closed the account. The woman in question apparently went to the ombudsman who could not assist her and when she went to"Rip Off Britain" they approached Santander who said because the ombudsman had investigated the case they had no further need for another investigation.

When they were asked about records of the account they said since the government had relaxed rules they only kept record going back approx 2 years therefore they could not locate anything relating to the account other than it had been closed, so the lady lost £25000.00 which had been left to her by her deceased mother.

In order to avoid any legal problems I suppose I should add the "alleged" savings account.

Obviously it put a negative feeling in my mind about Santander but possibly other people will have similar stories about other banks!

It just makes you even more wary about the banks after the PPI fiascoe!

Regards

Nic Otine

Thank you for your response. I just cannot see the logic of these Banks, after all we are able to move money from one to another quite easily (we have just moved a sum from Santander to Nationwide) via the Internet including, for my wife, registering for gross interest without having to fill in an HMRC form - it was all done online.

Many years ago, when I worked for a major Bank I told one of the directors that while we were chasing customers of other Banks we were not looking after our own with the result that we sometimes lost some of our best. Who dreams up these ideas!

Hi Exsudbury,

Just seen your post. I had a similar problem with my bank (Lloyds) account. I Have an Easy Saver account where I can have immediate access without penalties. After 12 months they wrote to me to advise the interest would drop to a ridiculously low amount unless I went into my brank to sign up for an identical account with a different number. I asked them to explain the logic considering their time is more expensive than mine and I was told it is the system.

I wrote to the C.E.O. and received a reply explaining the bonus on the account was a promotion and therefore could not be carried over for the next 12 months.

However, when my account reached its 12 months maturity and I went in to make an appointment to fill out a form for a new account number for the next 12 months I was told I did not need an appointment because I could keep the same number and they just changed something on their computer to say I was again allowed the promotional interest rate for the next 12 months.

Whether the C.E.O. realised how ludicrous and costly the system had previously been I do not know. I would say the interest rate is not the best in the world but it saves me chopping and changing banks.

Regards

Nic Otine

What really annoys me are the banks, such as Santander, that give a good rate of interest for a year because of a bonus and then at the end of the period it is necessary to transfer the balance and interest to an almost identical account (with a different account number) to start again. This must increase the costs to the Bank even when this is done on line and probably increases the possibility of moving the balance to another provider. Is anyone aware of an institution that will continue to give a good rate of interest on short term without the need to keep transferring?