Anonymous
Santander UK profiteering by withholding my money I have been a loyal customer at Santander UK for around 20 years. I felt betrayed by them from the following event. On 3 July I received a large sum of money from my pension fund into my current account with Santander UK. I called them to transfer some to my saving account with another bank I had opened and deposited from Santander already. They carried out a number of checks with me to prevent fraud, and also asked me to call the bank to make sure the account is genuine and protected by FSCS, which I did. However, I was told that they would withhold my fund for up to 72 hours for further review (did not specify what exactly). I was under the impression that only the amount of money I intend to transfer out was withheld, so I moved more money into this account the next day in order to transfer out to my other saving accounts by myself. To my dismay, I could not move out any money at all from this account (very conveniently, I could pay in). Nobody told me this! As a resuly, I had more fund stuck in this account. I called them the next day and was told again the fund would be released and I would be able to transfer money out within the next two days. After 72 hours (on 6 July), I called them again because the fund was still in my current account without earning any interest. I was told that the "up to 72 hours" promise was a mistake and the truth was that there was no timescale for the fund release because my case was in a queue for the back office to process (for further checks) and there was absolutely nothing they could do to make this process faster. They would not let me know what they had done for the last 72 hours and what checks would be needed that had not been done with me already. I felt hopeless, betrayed and distressed because of the uncertainty. I was told the back office would contact me if needed. Nobody from Santander did call me. I was on holiday abroad from 30 June and came back home on Sunday 9 July. Having not received any call from Santander and having a large sum of money stuck in the current account, I called them on Monday 10 July. I was told at first the same old story about the queue and no timescale. I told them that I felt they were making excessive and unfair profit by deliberately withholding my money at the expense of my interest and that I would contact the press with my story and make a complaint to Financial Ombudsman Service. All out of a sudden, the queue at the back office disappeared and the reviews were no longer needed, they transferred my money out and I could move out money myself although the pay-in window for some of my accounts was closed. I asked them why my account was suddenly unblocked but did not get a straight answer. I strongly believe that there was no queue and no reviews were conducted for the seven days, and Santander was profiteering by withholding my money. If I had not made the call to push them, the fund would be stuck in my current account with Santander for a long time.
9 months ago
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