To say SANTANDER

[CockyPants]

Are cunty fuck pigs.

First direct is fine. They even text me a mini statement every week. I also rate the co-op which hasn't managed to cock anything up in 16 years and manages to retain some moral high ground too.

i can't even make myself call it santander as i hate the word, really horrible word, i still call them abbey national :) , bastards

Oh god, am desparately trying to switch my Rbs current account before it becomes the S word... Already the level of customer service is slipping (by which I mean, completely fucking gone). They make me very stabby indeed.

But who to go with instead? I've heard nice things about the co-op.

just moved from Santanshite to Co Op.

Santander allowed a company to set up a DD on a friends account.....a company this friend hadnt purchased anything from for 5 years. The DD wiped out all their money!
when friend rang Satanshite they told friend he had called them the week before and had set it up therefore it was his fault...he hadnt called them.

Account had to be closed and no money could be accessed. New account opened a month ago and friends mortgage wasnt paid this week as Satanshite had forgot to set up the DD.

When friend spoke to them they denied they had told him he was to blame as he had "called them to set up the dodgy DD"....they said they hadnt had a call at all from him!

I've got an account with them which dates back to Abbey National days, as the branch nearest us was actually pretty good. Then we moved. Over the last 6 years since, we have been into our two nearest branches I don't know how many times to get our address changed. We have gone into branches near our old address for the same reason. We have filled in change off address forms I don't know how many times, made phone calls I don't know how many times - 6 YEARS!!!!! They still have our old address which no longer even exists as the block was demolished when we left. I have to go into several different branches whenever I need a new card and pick it up from one or other of them (they can never decide which). One is down the road and the other is 18 miles away.

The only reason I haven't moved the account is that my cb, dla and tax credits are paid into it and trying to get that changed is more trouble then it's worth too.

They are ALL fuckwits.

I left San fucking tander last year. Best move ever to Nationwide. So far, so good.

People are leaving in droves, as my bf and her mum have closed accounts recently too.

Can't see many joining whilst they're a shower of shite!

My dp banks with them and they are a bunch of incompetent cockwombles

mangomadness

Contact your bank outlining the complaint, what they did wrong, what the consequences have been and what you want them to do ie: rectify your credit report and possibly pay compensation if thats what you want.

They have 8 weeks to deal with the problem, if they dont then go to the FOS who will then deal with it.

Hope you get it sorted.

I used to work for them, totally abysmal. I strongly recommend anyone and everyone to move to First Direct. Their customer service is fantastic. Completely fantastic (and no, that?s not where I work now)

A lot of people don?t think they can use First Direct because of the minimum £1500 per month pay in. But, there?s an easy work around. Say you only earn £1000 a month. Then open an account with someone like HSCB and set up two standing orders for the same day: one to transfer £500 from First Direct to HSBC, and one to transfer the £500 back from HSBC to First Direct. Voila, you now have the extra £500 coming into your account each month. (This genuinely works)

YANBU. Their incompetence is becoming legendary. There is nothing that Santander cannot get wrong.

YANBU I can't stand them, in process of moving account from them to Halifax. Barclays are next on the list

Like others on this thread, I would recommend Co-operative Bank plc. I've been with it for 32 years and have never had a problem. I'm sent new debit and credit cards before they expire. I'm sent a cheque book before I finish the current one. I can access my account on line. I receive a monthly bank statement.

As for savings, I would recommend ING. This one is all on line or via telephone and, again, I've never had a problem. I post cheques to them to put into my account and interest rates are pretty good. I receive printed statements quarterly but I can see an to date statements on line.

I have heard about, read about and listened to criticism of Santander and would never consider leaving any money with them. I feel sorry for Abbey National because their name is going down with them.

The reason I'm with them and I think many others is that we had accounts with other banks who were OK that were taken over and with the best will in the world inertia sets in when faced with having to open a new account.

I tried to order a new cheque book recently and twice got an error telling me to try again later. On the third attempt it was sucessful.

Imagine my surprise (not) when 3 cheque books arrived in quick sucession. That will keep me going for the next few years

I bloody hate Santander too.

I had a large direct debit which was due out (£213), but the payment bounced despite there being more than enough in the account to pay it. It caused a £25 charge from them, and a £30 charge from my CC company, and a late payment being marked on my credit file.

After numerous phone calls, I managed to get to the bottom of it, and they cancelled the charge and I got £50 compensation, but the hassle was so annoying.

Once my fixed bonds mature I am moving to FD.

I read somewhere that you are more likely to get divorced than change banks, and I cant help wondering why when reading these horror stories!

They do everything they can to ensure their cards go into late payments, too.

YANBU. As others have said try First Direct. You will not be disappointed. Have everything with them now.

No press this, press that. Straight through to UK call centre staffed by competent people who seem to like their jobs.

To the tune of London Bridge
SANTANDER ARE FUCKING SHITE
FUCKING SHITE
FUCKING SHITE
SANTANDER ARE FUCKING SHITE
AND CUNTY FUCK PIGS.
Anyone else want to make up a verse for the MUMSNET WE HATE SANTANDER SONG?

YADNBU Santander are shit, their customer service (or lack there of) is shocking can't believe I was ever persuaded to bank with them.

We've been with First Direct for 2 years now, they do what you would expect a bank to do and their customer service is excellent.

I don't work for them I promise. Change now.

Do First Direct have an online service. One good thing about Santander is that the internet site is usually OK

When I worked there at the end of the day when everyone shut down their computers, it made the wee 'ding dong dong dong' noise that windows makes when it shuts down, and everyone would sing 'ab-bey-is-shite' in the same tune.

I'm quite scared to say this, my current account is with Santander but they haven't done anything to fuck me over YET.

We switched to Co-Op about ten years ago.

Yes, it seems a daunting task to change bank accounts but it's not that bad. DH and I split the job of advising everyone of new account details in half and it was done in a couple of days. Some things had been running for ten years or more and we'd mislaid contact details etc but we managed.

I can recommend the Co-Op. Apart from the ethical aspect, which was our main reason for switching, they haven't (so far) fucked up at all. And now the C&G down the road from my office is going to become a Co-Op I also have a branch nearby I can walk into if I need it.

I think this new deal with Lloyds, coupled with the overall distrust of most other banks, is going to bring Co-Op an awful lot of new business.

I have just switched from Santander to First Direct. I won't go in to the massive errors they made but they nearly lost me a house. Just calling them made me stressed they were so incompetent. (When I could actually get through to someone)
First Direct have been amazing, you get straight through and I find it easier to log on than I did with Santander, once set up there is no long number to enter each time as with Santander. If people start leaving in droves they may start to do something about their utter crapness, or they could just close down and stop inflicting their incompetence on the general public.

Just to add First Direct have a switching service so they will do all the changing if direct debits for you. I was sceptical about this working but they were great and everything was altered in time for the following month.