“Unbelievably poor and rude customer service! I have banked with them for over 8 years, went into the Southampton branch today only to be spoken down to, shouted on and pushed by a supposed supervisor at the Above Bar branch. I went in with identification and a simple request to change information on my account but a rude woman interrupted my conversation with a staff member, refusing my request, arguing with me about it, raising her voice then barging past me when I refused to speak to her about it any further. She then proceeded to go to the back and audibly complain about me to a colleague while I was standing there. Extremely unprofessional behaviour and unnecessary aggression, I would never expect this behaviour from any staff there. I am closing my account and would strongly recommend anyone not to bank with them. They do not value their customers and worse still, would not pick the phone several times when I tried to submit a complaint.”
“I would give them minus 5 stars
Someone got into my account and emptied it, they cancelled all my direct debits and closed my account. At the time i’d had a stroke, in hospital, half blind and paralysed, they weren’t interested. They spend a lot of money saying ‘problems? We are here to help’
TOTAL JOKE!!! Six months on and I’m still having problems, they have cost me a LOT of money, I am still extremely ill and they have the cheek to pay me £100 compensation into the account THEY CLOSED!!! Customer for 40 years! Absolutely DISGUSTING!! HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM BECAUSE WHEN THINGS GO WRONG THEY DON’T give a sH1T AND WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE HELL!!”
“Purchased a item online after doing all relevant checks but turned out to be a scam with payments made through their payment system. Santander refused to class it as a scam before the goods did not arrive then once the goods did not arrive their investigation concluded that I should have known it was a scam before the purchase and held me liable for the payment. They did not pursue the scammers and the investigators made their conclusions based on my age (I'm 74) rather than asking what checks I had made. Despite my husbands recent death which blocked our account (easiest way to complain) they refused to provide a complaints email and didn't send through phone transcripts that were promised when I had no option but to complain by phone. Wholly deserve their 1 star for terrible and dishonest customer service”
“My morrgage was up for renewal from 2nd of January. Before renewing I wanted to make an overpayment and then renew the mortgage. Santander do not deal with mortgages in their branches so the only way to renew is over the phone or through the banking App. Phone banking is a complete nightmare with long waiting being cut off and having to phone again and wait again hours of time wasting....the banking App does not function properly and you have to wait days/weeks for updates. I made £33,000 overpayment but my outstanding balance increased from £298,000 to £370,000 all they said is wait for the account to update...I wanted to pay another overpayment but none of the mortgage advisors could calculate how this would effect my mortgage. It took until mid February for my mortgage account to update by then interest rates had gone up they offered me £100 for the compensation of all faults occured nothing for the extra rate increase. They are not interested in resolving problems, phone banking hours waiting, branches not interested. Complete disaster I have reported them to The Ombudsman will take it as far as I can...stay away!”
“I have now been on the phone originally for 45 minutes and now another 35 minutes trying to get historical mortgage interest for my tax return and the issue is still not resolved - I am still waiting! if you suggest your customers to go paperless and if you don’t have enough staff to man the phones then you MUST allow them access to their information! it is ridiculous that I am unable to access my mortgage interest from 2021. tax returns don’t need to be in until the end of January! you are a financial institution - you should know this information is key!”
“Mother in law living alone in her eighties had a burst pipe with water leaking through ceiling. No hot water or central heating during very cold weather. As we live 250 miles away tried to urgently contact Santander who provide the house insurance which covers emergency plumbing. Attempted several different numbers but got so far then placed on hold and eventually cut off each time.
Awful customer care. Not apparently a one off as it seems many others have suffered the same experience. Would recommend that prospective customers avoid this company at all costs!”
“If I could give no stars then I would. Trying to get an answer online and it is a bot. You cannot get a sensible answer and end up going around in circles. This is the most frustrating experience that I have ever had online by far.”
“Many of the customer service representatives who answer 1-877-768-2265 will outright lie to you to get you off the phone or put you on hold and then hang up. I have one simple transaction pending that is taking weeks due to their exceptionally poor communication skills and customer service. I made at least ten phone calls to inquire about the transaction’s status. The last five or six phone calls, including two today, started with “please do not hang up on me.” Despite my pleadings, the representatives hung up on me immediately. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get past them to speak with a supervisor who can help with your problem. The only reason I scored Santander a 1 was because 0 was not an option. I am looking forward to never doing business with Santander again.”
“Closed down banking account, no official reason given.
Was a customer for over 10 years, did nothing wrong/money all lawful/legally obtained, was not aiding criminal organizations/committing fraud against the bank/aiding terror organizations and they completely closed down my account (fully ignoring their own dormant process when account aren't used for at least 1 or 3 years). Do Santander ban people for life for this?
I did not use my banking account for over 6 months due to unforeseen personal circumstances. After 6 months I was sent letters with cheques with all my funds and a generic letter saying we've decided to close down your account, we don't need to give a reason and so on.
I did not break any of their terms and conditions at all, nor did I do anything to them. I would advise anyone who wishes to join Santander UK to really read through their terms and conditions and compare other banks, credit unions etc. I also wouldn't recommend this bank if you want to hold many thousands of pounds as they could do it to YOU!
They jeopardized my assets by doing this, forcing me to live off very little cash for over 5 weeks. As of now, I've complained to them and they still don't justify the closing down of the account. I've taken my complaint to a 3rd party organization as I believe they should be held to account.”
“It doesn't deserve any stars at all.
The Bank is full of conmen who haven't got a clue of what they are talking about.
I am disabled and opened a Bank account after speaking with them. They advised to open Basic account as I don't have to come to Bank and there is no monthly payment.
I opened the account and advised them on two occasions that I will be receiving payment from my previous employer and they advised that it is fine.
On 13 Jan, they blocked my account as 13k came into the account. They called me and asked paperwork despite me telling them in advance.
I sent the paperwork and someone called on 16th that everything is fine and there will be no issues.
Did few transactions on card and card got blocked twice. Called them and removed block again.
One of their advisors mentioned to do BACS instead of more card transactions as it is basic account.
on 17th, I tried to do some BACS transactions and they blocked the account again. Spoke with few people and was told that someone will call me back but no one did. Today is 23rd and I spoke with them.
The guy over the phone wants me to come to branch when I am disabled and bed bound.
I literally advised everyone on the phone that I am disabled hence I opened Basic account. The lad on the phone kept advising to come to branch even if I am disabled.
Spoke with my son and they kept arguing.
The lad on the phone made me feel as if Santander is making fun of disabled people and don't care.
I also offered his Santander staff to come to house but he rejected.
They still have my 80k and I will be taking legal route.
AVOID THIS BANK AT ALL COST. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR MONEY AND PEACE OF MIND”
“Applied for a savings account at the start of October - 2.75% easy access. They emailed to say they had approved application and would be setting it up, then didn't hear anything. I chased it up and they said they had dropped the application as they had taken to long to proccess it! Like that is my fault they cant sort themselves out! And now they wont offer it anymore, they have downgraded it to a 1.8%.
Really wasted a lot of time and I could have put my money elsewhere if only I had known they were such liars and time wasters.
A good mind to take my current account to a different provider.”
“I was an hour and 20 minutes on the phone with them regarding a card dispute. Was transferred from person to person with very long waiting times, when the call was disconnected! Of course no one rang back. So trying to ring them again - I was told I was out of calling hours. I wish I did not bother calling!”
“I am disgusted with santander,they have blocked our card for no reason at all,been in branch,they haven't got a clue wants going on,our direct debits carnt be paid,been trying to get through to the number we were given,been on the phone several times for over an hour,nobody is anwsering,what can we do now?can any one give us advice.”
“Very unprofessional staff. The customer service number gets disconnected more than 80%of the time without reaching to the correct department. They don’t do the complete checks on their end and just keep customers hanging. The title of my vehicle was not submitted even after multiple follow ups.”
“Absolutely the worst bank in the world. They take your money promise you second day availability and then they hold it for another 7 days this bank is horrible do not do business with this Bank stay away from it they will pull the rug right out from under your finances without you even knowing it and laugh about it and tell you it's your problem”
“worst bank in UK for sure who steals from customer with their hidden bits, 10k loan for 60 months 278 p/m on 25% after 5 months of paying nearly £1,400 I decide to pay of this loan, so I called in as they not connectable via website online chat or even could not log in to see my loan figures, so they tell them that settlement figure is £9,919 wow!!!!! when I break down the numbers it look like I paid around £20 of the loan and £250 was for Santander scam!!! Worst decision I have ever done was taken this loan!!!!”
“I recently had a stroke and while I was in hospital someone got into my account and emptied it down to my overdraft limit. Santander blamed me despite being totally incapacitated in a hospital bed. They were completely uninterested in any proof I was in hospital and closed my account. I am now half blind and paralysed and relying on charities and friends for food, my bills are going unpaid and it looks like I’m going to be thrown out of my rented accommodation. I have been a loyal customer for 50 years and they toss me out with the trash now I’m disabled. Totally useless, incompetent and NASTY!! AVOID!!!”
“Please avoid this bank! They are a complete nightmare!
Applied for mortgage only 40% of house asking price as we have 60% of deposit. They are giving us the complete run around. Conversation I had yesterday with them was them telling me to rent close to the area we want to buy a house, and then apply for mortgage!! Doesn’t matter that we are transferring our jobs (with our employers) apparently we have to transfer, rent and then apply!! Oh to top it off, FIND A NEW HOUSE TO BUY!!”
“Awful. Utter horrible. So my ‘spare’ account was sitting there with minimal money, just in case, for an emergency. I got an email telling me they were closing the account because i had not used the account in 3 years. I rang up on Saturday to be told i must go into branch to reactivate my card. So on the Monday i try to do just that, only the bank is closed with a piece of paper on the door telling me the back is closed for the foreseeable future…. But wait, when i opened the account just a few years ago, there were 4 branches close to me i could use, this closed branch was the last one i could use… the notice is telling me my nearest branch is a train journey away, but i do not wish to pay public transport just to activate a card, and why did i not get notified my local branch was closing? As well, currently bus and train strikes are making getting about quite hard right now… so i called the number on the card, and im waiting ages, and finally when i do get to speak with someone i can only describe her as sassy, as well as rude, as she argued that my branch was not closed, when clearly it is! She then asked me if i knew where my bank really was, and could i perhaps have got the wrong building? Really! As i tried explaining with all due respect that i did in fact know where my bank is, that i did in fact have the right building, Lady Sass hung up! I then tried for quite some time trying to access via the ‘Bot’, only to keep getting the same response of ‘please reword your answer’ to every time i wrote ‘Help’. I admitted defeat and tried calling again, waited for ages… again… this time i got a lovely bloke, but i struggled to understand his accent, and he clearly had problems understanding mine… eventually he decided he was going to escalate this as a complaint, so he put me on hold for yet another very long stretch. Eventually Mr Nice came back and told me there was no one in complaints available, so he said he would file the complaint himself, and he attempted to fill out a form on my behalf. I told him the only thing i really would want to complain about was the tone of the previous representative, as i felt she was not professional, and if they were to play back the conversation they would hear i was quite calm, i was not even challenging, but i did not deserve to be insulted as to how she made me feel… i was promised a callback, but in all honesty i had no confidence one would come. The bottom line was my account was imminent to closing, with my money still in it, that i felt i could not access, as i did not have a workable bank card, and no bank to activate the card in! So i did what anyone else would do in this situation, i simply accessed my mobile banking app and transferred all the funds over to my usual account (fortunately with a different bank). Even that was not easy, as i was bombarded with pop up responses ‘this is a scam’ ‘once this money is transferred we cannot get it back for you’ - yet the money was going to another account of the same person, with the same address, which is ME! Sometime later that day i did get a call off Customer Services, and lets just say, the representative spoke down to me, he was horrible, he would not let me get a word in, he basically called me a liar, and stated Lady Sass did not have a tone at all, and she never hung up! I believe he could not have listened to those recorded phone calls because i certainly did not imagine it. He also told me that i was never told to go to branch by the first guy, but wait, why did i make the trip anyway? I did not dream this, i had wrote down the first guys instructions in my diary during our call! As far as i was bothered, the money could have sat in that account for another 3 years, but only for the instructions given to me following the email Santander sent me in the first place, this whole fiasco played out leaving me overwhelmingly exhausted and upset! Mr Nasty reduced me to tears as he asked me what i felt i thought i would get from raising a complaint - i tried telling him it was the last representatives idea to raise a complaint, and all i wanted was to make them aware about how Lady Sass was talking to their customers, and perhaps maybe he could suggest a solution as to how i could get my money? Mr Nastys response to this was ‘what do you suggest?’ and i simply answered ‘well its your bank, i thought you would have more of an idea than me’… oh dear, that set him off again, and this time it was all too much, ranting on, not letting me speak, so this time i hung up. But Mr Nasty was not done, he only called me back to continue his tirade. I calmly said ‘there is a reason why i hung up, so please leave me alone’… but he was still ranting on when i hung up for the second time, i dont think he even heard what i said. I immediately blocked the number. So please… dont bank with these bullies, there are far better and much well known other banks on the high street!”
