Santander was the pits today !

I have had bank accounts in three different banks with branches in my town. Each time the staff have been very helpful and I always went inside the bank to get money from the ATM and they got to know me, and my usual ways of using the bank. I would give them advance warning of plans to change the car or if I was buying something a lot more than my usual amount. I chose to change each time a bank closed its branch, as previously there had once been a problem and it took me nearly 40 minutes to be answered by the fraud line. As it happened it was sorted, but I had visions of my account being emptied by the time the phone was answered. So then I knew I could literally drive to the branch in less than 5 minutes , should the need arise.
Now they have all closed and there is only a once a week hub for each bank, so we are getting a lesser service anyway.

My son does a lot of travelling and tends to live on his phone of course. But we have an arrangement if ever I am unsure that it is definitely him sending a text or wanting me to get him some money in a hurry. He has a name that is not on his birth certificate, nor driving license or any other document. So I can text and ask what is your name, and if the answer is one from his birth certificate given, then I know not to trust it. I have a family name from back in my mothers side, which he also can ask me for, if he sees anything at all suspicious. I think this is useful, and we do not use either of these names in any other passwords or documents. I have been careful never to use birthdays or pets names etc , but it really is a hassle now to get your own money out of your bank, It is a case of best bit or scalded, as either the banks are blamed for not checking , or complained about making it so difficult to get your money when you want it!

I had difficulty in extracting money from Santander for my son. T'was about 3 years ago. I had multiple online hoops to jump through and had to fax a mug shot of me holding my passport photo next to my face at the same as speaking to a representative within a 15 minute time frame .Luckily a neighbour had a fax machine. Too stressful so once the deed was done, I closed the account.

Sago was that journalist a radio presenter? Possibly a BBC one but I’m not certain.
I seem to remember hearing him relaying his tale on the Jeremy Vine radio show a couple of years ago.

We all know we have to be ultra vigilant with our finances but banks and building societies too have to carry out multiple checks as of course they have to reimburse the scammed customer unless they can show that they have repeatedly issued warnings.

I am another fan of Nationwide.

I do however totally understand why banks and building societies are so diligent, not wanting to sound ageist particularly with older people.

The scammers are getting more and more clever, a journalist reported recently how he was very nearly scammed.
He received a call from his bank about a data breach, he went through the whole process of answering questions and whilst doing so checked the call number was correct, it was but something niggled away.
He terminated the call and contacted his bank on another device, it was a scam.
The caller had a British accent and was very articulate and well spoken.

Remember most online bank accounts now have a facility to immediately freeze your account if you are not sure of something, you can restart it immediately without having to speak to anyone.

I’m glad it worked for you too Stumpiel 👍

Moving from Santander to Nationwide was the best decision we’ve ever made

AN UPDATE

After my dreadful experience with Santander with me trying to send my niece some much needed money in Italy, I told the teller in The Nationwide, where I also bank, what had happened. She said when you feel better come back to me and I will help you.

Moving on yesterday I visited the Building Society with the same paperwork I had when visiting the Santander Hub she sat me down asked me about 4 questions and then proceeded to send money from our joint account to my niece (took about 10 mins) I then gave her a cheque from Santander and replaced the £700 in our account. Easy peasy.

What I found surprising was that she said I could do any Santander transactions through the Abbey National and I never need visit Santander again 😀

Halifax were very thorough with me when I was paying substantial sums to a couple of builders for work done. I suppose better safe than sorry.
However, my M&S card was frozen and a transaction blocked last weekend when trying to pay for an expensive holiday - easily and competently dealt with by their call centre the following morning. Unfortunately it meant DD2 having to pay (to secure a discount) so now I’ve to transfer the funds to her, which isn’t ideal.

Nannytopsy

This week Santander refused our card payment for our cruise, at a high street travel agent. Couldn’t get a reply on the telephone number they issued. The bank branch is only part time too and I couldn’t draw cash as the machine was out of order.
Until recently I have been happy with them.

Any payment outside your usual routine may be questioned i dont think we can criticize them for that I get the odd text message asking for confirmation and all online payments have a security code by text.
Nationwide are even tighter needing a card reader

This week Santander refused our card payment for our cruise, at a high street travel agent. Couldn’t get a reply on the telephone number they issued. The bank branch is only part time too and I couldn’t draw cash as the machine was out of order.
Until recently I have been happy with them.

The anti money laundering regulations are now very tight and generally speaking, Santander are to be applauded for enforcing them. However it can be very annoying and inconvenient.

Can you use PayPal?

Sending money overseas can be a nightmare using a local bank, there are international banks that make it easy, I use XE, its very quick and easy as long as you have a UK bank account and the receiver also has a bank account in their country.

I use Santander and they have 3 warnings about scams for online banking, but the local branch has closed so the odd cheque is a hassle

I went to Santander last week to withdraw £100, not a fortune. I couldn't use the ATM ads I wanted mainly tens, fivers and £1 coins. I was grilled as though I was helping myself to somebody else's account. I no longer drive so I had no security. Luckily I answered the questions easily, but I have never done that for such a small amount. I rarely use money, but I need cash for mini and black cabs because of my mobility problems.

It may well be that Santander have tightened up procedures even more because it is the same bank that was involved in the case of the woman who was scammed into buying Rolex watches and giving them to couriers. She went on Good Morning Britain to complain bitterly about it.

The bank claimed they did go through security checks but she was adamant she wanted the money and showed them paperwork from the jewellers (which was just up the road) for the watches. In the end they decided the transaction was genuine and released the funds. Subsequently she claimed the bank should have done more to stop her. Damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

When she went to another bank to get money for a car for the scammers she did not have any paperwork or seem to know anything about the car she allegedly wanted. This made the bank suspicious so they refused the transaction and froze her account.

I closed my account with Santander a while ago because they gave me the impression they were doing me a favour letting me bank with them!

Everything with banking seems to be more difficult now, perhaps because of scams and money laundering.

It was kind of you to offer to help your niece but had your niece phoned you herself and mentioned she was struggling and needed money, NanKate? It might be that her phone had been hacked by a scammer asking for money and possibly details of your bank account. It happened to a friend of mine who lost quite a lot of money.

That said, we did have some problems with Santander years ago and closed our account with them.

Thats really annoying for you i hope you manage to sort it out without anymore upset. I must say i do use Santanders App and have transferred money abroad to my son and his children without any problems, the app does ask several questions before it goes through but they are answered in seconds.

While the actual money launderers get away Scott free most of the time..🤔😬

I've been through this with Santander and I do have the banking app,they put a block on my account and didn't tell me , I had to ring them to find out why I couldn't buy anything online or transfer money,the lady I spoke to said they'd been trying to contact me,I disagreed,no calls,as they say they don't call you,no texts ,no emails.
I know the rules regarding money transfers and payments as I worked in a post office and we had to do the same but Santander are to my mind excessive