Santander’s core values of incompetence, inefficiency and unhelpfulness (current Santander Trust Pilot rating 1.4 out of 5) are followed to the letter by their Stratford branch. In November 2021 I had to travel across London to the Stratford branch of Santander to meet with a bank representative in person (first available local in person appointment was three months wait, February 2022), allowing them to check in my presence, copy and then file all the documents for my Parent’s LPA. They then lost or mislaid half of the paperwork. Caring for end of end-of-life parents while having to negotiate Santander’s incompetent bureaucracy was an unnecessary extra stress.

Obviously, without an updated phone number, you cannot login to Santander UK perosnal banking, either to update the number yourself or to answer the rigidly inflexible security question about latest transaction, which you can't answer because you can't log in to actually see the latest transaction. Catch22 in spades! Been struggling, and failing to get these blaggers to change my phone number since January 19th, more intensively over the last 2 months. Tried phone calls, feedback forms, emails, twitter, PM, DM, complaints, closure forms - NOTHING WORKS ! The closure form is only for business accounts. Santander carefully avoids having a personal account closure form (presumably, individuals are less likely to be able to afford corporate lawyers!) Tried Santander USA but they are tied up paying $300million_ fines for malpractices in loans and personal banking (allegedly). Have dragged Banking Ombudsman into this but have zero optimism (following previous miserably inept interventions in the past, including PPI admitted by santander but bizarrely excused by the ombudsman!) How this bunch survives is beyond me (and 10,000's of other distressed and harassed customers across the Western hemisphere!

On January 3rd, 2020 we transferred USD$ from Guatemala to an account at Santander Bank Polska S.A. The transfer was from the US Dollar account to Euro account so there was only one currency conversion. The Santander Bank Polska S.A. applied an incorrect exchange rate. Instead of 0.9 it used 0.83. As a result 600 USD$ was lost in the transaction. We discovered the error and asked the bank to adjust the amount. In response we were told that “complaints are dealt with as soon as possible (…) up to maximum 60 days.” The bank took nearly 7% of the total transaction value. While, the Santander Bank Polska S.A. needs one month to “investigate”, the Guatemalan bank was able to give an overview of the transaction within 15 minutes. The information proved that there were no extra charges by the Guatemalan bank or (intermediary) American Bank Wells Fargo. The missing 600 USDS$ is in the bizarre exchange rate. It is hard to believe that the Santander Bank Polska S.A. would take money needed for a surgery send by a daughter to a small personal account of elderly mother. Taking a plane and delivering this money in person would cost about the same. Meantime my mother received an anonymous SMS from Santander Bank Polska S.A. wishing happy birthday and advising to be patient.

Worst customer service I have ever received in my entire life. A bunch of incompetent losers who are for some reason unable to do as much as send me a new card after the old one expired (ordered 3 of them never arrived to my address although verified with them 3 times and its not a communal mailbox/one of them arrived to a random branch I don't have easy access to, and one of them arrived to my old branch & when I got there it wasn't there - btw still don't have the card as of this moment 3 months after expiry!!). The cherry on top was when the bank blocked my access to online banking (still don't exactly know why?) and again it seems impossible to send me the new security details via post (so far only received 1 of 2 letters as the one went missing somewhere apparently? so patiently waiting for the 2nd batch to get lost somewhere in the universe or being delivered to random places?!?! fingers crossed lol). This situation has effectively left me with no access whatsoever to my account & money and I can only retrieve £300 in cash in branch with my ID while being look down upon and really not being treated very nicely (softly spoken). So far I have only experienced a complete lack of professionalism and human, understanding approach and have been treated like dirt when really I've done nothing wrong. Nobody seem to really want to help you although they're the ones causing all the mess in the first place. So far I haven't heard one apology about all the inconvenience caused (and that it is hell of an inconvenience not having access to my main account !!! !) Being utterly appalled by this experience is an understatement. The minute I have access to my account/money (even if it means I have to go down to a branch every day to retrieve £300 in cash at a time) I am closing down the account and never looking back as I don't want to have anything to do with this caricature of a bank ever again. Please for your own sake avoid at all costs.

Unable to close checking account without incurring $35.00 overdraft fees for overdraft protection with a zero balance. If you don't disable the overdraft protection on the closed checking account will you will incur $12.00 sweep fee, to pay for the $35.00 overdraft fee.

I have had an account with Santander for a number of years which had my savings of £20,000 plus as it returned 1.5% interest as long as I fulfilled a couple of conditions. Unknown to me one of the direct debits needed had expired which meant I was receiving nothing at all in fact I was paying Santander a monthly fee of £5 use my money. I called them today and explained that the company that I had the DD with didn't know why the DD had expired and Santander also said they didn't know why it happened either. The customer service person at Santander just parroted that "it's all in the terms and conditions and that it was up to me to keep on top of my account". Is it beyond the wit of a conglomerate to identify when an account that has been receiving interest every month for a number of years suddenly stops and to contact their CUSTOMER to give them some SERVICE? Is that not the customer service that I pay for every month? On top of this issue I had a full service review of my finances earlier this year, over 2 hours with a senior banking official, and this anomaly was not identified then. It beggars belief that I am paying Santander every month to use my money to lend others, at whatever rate they see fit but when I identify a problem "it's all in the terms and conditions". Extremely poor stuff, steer clear as I will in due course.

Had to call customer service more than 3 times for the same issue. Most of the time I was put on a long hold. All I wanted to do was to change my address to my current one. I could not get that done online so they said I had to fill a change of address form and send the copy via mail. The back and forth for this simple issue was a bit more than necessary. I am still unclear as to whether or not my new address has been updated by the bank because one minute they say my address has been updated and the next, they say sorry but your address could not be updated. I am tired of the whole process for such a simple fix.

Yes, I understand that banks need to be vigilant about security. But when a bank is so poor at communicating within a department that business payments are indefinitely stalled and online access to business banking is indefinitely denied, until the customer calls up again and AGAIN and AGAIN to check what the hell is going on with access their own business bank account... to be greeted with 'the bank is always right' arrogant attitude from customer service, then it's time to take each and every customer service advisors' name and team number at the point of each and every request and provision of information. This is my resolution to myself, as a result of prolonged frustration and in the hope of limiting the time it takes to conclude any basic security protocol in the future. And of course address the arrogance of customer services when rushing through my information like they know what they are doing, only to find out that they didn't actually pass on the required information I gave them to whoever they needed to.

I have account with santander and without any reason, bank staff resetting my online details. I always enter details correctly. When I make phone call, I got abuse and receive antimuslim comments from staff members. I have to pay my bills and other direct debit using my account but all I receive is stress, tension and abuse from staff. I am disabled muslim person in UK and I am being treated like I am criminal. I was unable to make payment to a loan installment and which as result, the lender put penalties and charges for late payment. I suffered this due to santander staff members.

a couple weeks ago my car window got smashed and I had to over drawer my acct to pay for it. I have two children and didn't have any money. I been having a hard time caughting up with bill since I over drawer my acct, my check have been coming in and paying off the past due. this week my check came is and there was only 20$ left so I called the bank to see if she could refund some of the charges. the women on the phone was so nice she refunded 70$ so I could get by for the rest of the week she let we know she also had kids and was hard for her to keep up. I'm so greatful for her today. thank you again!

Having been a customer of Santander in its previous incarnations of Abbey National, then Abbey and now Santander for 32 YEARS and a 'Select' customer for 4 YEARS, I feel as if a personal crusade has been waged against me in 2018. It started with my resurrecting my 123 Credit Card activity since, for 4 months, I had taken advantage of a free credit period card with another provider. No problem in their accepting the restarted charges to my card. However, they had thoughtfully cancelled my Full Amount Direct Debit in the interim, despite my accounts and my card still being 'live' on their systems so, in January 2018, I ran into excess charges for interest and late payment. Despite a refund of charges, a £25 'apology' and the promise that this would not - could not! - occur again, the same chain of events continued into February 2018, again with charges refunded and with a further £25 in compensation. Their operator suggested that I delete my existing Full Amount Direct Debit online, wait 48 hours, during which their systems would 'refresh' twice, and that I set up a new Full Amount Direct Debit at that time, a Sunday, which I did. In fairness, she called me on Sunday afternoon to check that I had set up the new Full Payment Direct Debit, which I had. When I went online again next morning, the new Direct Debit had vanished! A week or so of back and forth conversations for something I should have easily been able to set up myself found resolution. 'Select' helpline had checked over my records since November 2017 and gave me £120 in compensation. Normal service had been resumed at last! In late April 2018, as is my usual procedure, I went online to double check that all was in order for the usual upcoming Direct Debits that would hit my account on May 01, 2018. Without any advance warning of any kind, I was met with the onscreen message that - 'Your log in details are no longer valid' and that I had 3 options to reset them - visit a branch - at 12:30am???, 'call our 24/7 helpline' - which closed at 21:00! - or reset them online. Clearly, the last option was my best chance f getting online again! WRONG! Clicking that option produced the message - 'Your new log in details will be sent to you in two separate mailings in 4/5 days'. So, without any warning of any kind, I was booted offline for what finally be 6 DAYS! 'Select' helpline advised me at 07:30 that there was nothing they could do to reset my log in details online but that I could call into a branch to manage my account or call them to check progress on transactions. The first part of my new log in details arrived 5 DAYS later, the second part next day! Responding to a secure message of complaint, their 'Select' operator called me yesterday again apologised, yet again. I was very polite to her since, in reality, she is only a front for the sheer incompetence and ineptitude that appears to have gripped Santander so DON'T shoot the messenger! Yet another £50 in compensation so £200 in just a few months, ALL of which could have been easily avoided. Apparently, had I been on the 'new' Santander platform - who knew?? - I could have rest my log in details myself! When asked why the new 'improved security' platform had not been rolled out to all Santander customers in general and perhaps their 'Select' customers in particular, it was still being assessed and tested. An offer to send out details was declined when she revealed that installation of the new software was a 'no way back' procedure and that, once installed, my existing software version would cease to work 10 days later! My suggestion that a 14-day, then 7-day, then 48 hour ADVANCE online warning that your log in details had to be changed or they would no longer be valid would be 'fed up' to research and development for consideration. Her response summed up my own view of Santander - fed up! I am now researching other current account facilities since I have totally lost confidence in Santander. A return to First Direct, which I left in 2007 to concentrate my finances on Santander's then market-leading 3% interest up to £20,000, now 1.5%, looks likely. I will probably maintain my Santander account as back up due to First Direct's somewhat limited paying-in facilities but not for the day to management of my finances. All good things must end and, in Santander's case, that time has come. It's been emotional ......!

Unless you are incredibly purile about your finances ,or rich , avoid Santander. One slight oversight could cost hundreds in charges. They will let payments go through even though they are unusual, where as other banks won’t, because it’s a means of profiteering. A lot of the charges are unlawful. And they don’t tell you about the charges until they’ve imposed them and then they stick more on top. I don’t clAss myself as poor and I’m pretty switched on but I’ve fallen foul of their tactics so goodness knows how the vulnerable cope. And what gets me ..all the charges are different and there is no consistency.

Santander seem to think they can block transactions because I have made a few purchases on my card. They have just refused a transaction even though I have more than ten times the amount in my account and I didn’t even get the chance to fill in the verification. They have done this several times now and they don’t text immediately. You are invited to call a number when the transaction fails but then you are on hold for ages and it’s really hard to find out how to contact them via ‘secure message’. They are so apparently secure conscious that they give you a card that anyone can use with contactless but when you want to spend your own money with a reputable company online, oh no let’s not allow that. Sick of this rubbish bank.

Dropped into Kilburn branch to check if a payment had come in and was presented with a statement of recent transactions. Payment was there but I noticed another transaction of £95.00 that I had not made. It turned out that a booking I made and payed for at a hotel had been duplicated or charged again to my card. Apparently done by the hotel or the website booking.com. They would not cancel my card and investigate the matter at the desk and was unable to do so over the phone because I didnt have some security banking number. At the moment they are free to access my account again and repeat the transaction as many times as they want. This is a total lack of security for the customer. The whole matter took 4 hours as well as I had to wait for people to come back from their lunch though it would have been worth it to have prevented this from happening again. Was quite happy with them until this.

Very terrible Bank. Avoid it completely. I went to a Branch in London at: 450 Bethnal Green Road, London. It was very smelly and also staff at from desk and Manager seemed very rude and horrible towards customers. The floor was very very messy too. The nails of a worker there were also very dirty serving when she gave me a Receipt. The staff didn’t show any consideration for customers.

Be careful and CHECK EVERYTHING you do with this bank. After having issues getting payments applied to a home equity loan in an timely manner (such as they receive my payment two days before the due date but it doesn't get posted until 5 days later thus causing overdrafts and insufficient fund charges), I decided I had had enough and I had the funds to completely pay off the loan. I went to branch for the payoff, presented a check for the amount I was given. The check was presented in the full amount to my account at another bank the very next day and the funds removed from that account However the full amount of that check was not applied to the SANTANDER loan. A few days later I received a letter from SANTANDER saying I still owed on the loan... the exact same amount that was missing between the check I gave them and the amount that was credited as a payment on the loan. I questioned this and was never given a satisfactory answer.  I finally went and paid the amount because I never want to have to deal with this incompetent and dishonest bank again. While all of this was going on I was flat out lied to by two branch managers. I wish I could give them zero stars but that isn't possible on these review sites. Final insult was that when I made the final payment and they knew how unhappy I was with their bank the manager had the audacity to offer me another loan.