Is Santander the worst bank ever?

[spinduffy]

I’ve been with Santander for years- personal, joint, mortgage, savings and business account. I transferred money from business account to an investment bank on Wednesday. This was declined and my account blocked. I spoke to someone on Wednesday and was told they would call me back. They didn’t. I called them and have now been on the phone for 1 hour and 43 minutes and am in tears. They are telling me I need to go into Branch. I work as hospital doctor and have no nearby branch. It is pure madness. I will obviously vote with my feet and move banks (apart from mortgage as on a 5 year fixed deal), but U.K. just feeling sorry for myself and feel I’ve been treated pretty badly for a customer of 20 years. I’ve also missed my wedding anniversary meAl which was booked for 7pm and I’m still on the call

I share a Santander current account with DH. Every time I try to buy something online it sends me the verification code . This is ok but annoying when I'm in the house but I tried to buy lunch in a new M and S cafe the other day using their app ( stupid new initiative from them given their demographic), and even that £23.40 needed verification. Every weeks online grocery shopping is the same and its a regular transaction. It never swipes contactless for me, I always have to try again and do the pin. Husband has his own card from the same account and never gets asked for verification or the pin.

I tried to ask about this online but got that stupid chatbot and couldn't wait any longer after holding on for 20 minutes.

Sadly I have no idea if you can switch Business bank accounts online as I only deal with personal accounts and we as staff understand the frustration of being asked to go to a branch but out of our control.
will say having seen figures of thw amount we pay back when customers have been scammed and it's not the banks fault but they still repay money I can see why they ask for ID. There are cases where people have given out their OTP numbers to fraudsters where text specifically says no member of staff would ask for this number so it really is the customer error and bank have still repayed the money

Trustpilot is right.

Bastard Barclays.

@Ahwig, what a horrendous experience for your poor mum.

Not going into my experience with them as I can't bear to relive it, but just bastard Barclays. I shut my account and have never stopped advising people not to bank with them.

Halifax and Nationwide have been ok in my experience. Santander made a really major fuck up with my account so they are second only to Barclays for shittiness. People like First Direct, but I like to be able to go to a branch as I don't have a phone/device etc so anything involving an app is irrelevant to me.

Yup, the worst, they even have a steaming turd as a logo!