Santander was the pits today !

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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

Can you use PayPal?

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.

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.

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

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.

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 😀

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