Santander UK Reviews 

Outraged beyond ,regarding the Northampton Santander branch , so just lost my life savings basically , thanks to this BANK , I SOLD my car to a couple with a small child ( what scammers), they were happy with the purchase and the FEMALE made the amount out to SANTANDER ,NORTHAMPTONSHIRE branch , checked my balance to MY HORROR ,SOME FOOL at the branch gave back the money out of MY ACCOUNT , without emailing or a phone call as the woman said the car was STOLEN , AND THE BANK without informing myself transacted the money back into the couples account are they serious ???? I had to call the police who told me its a civil matter????? Its theft actually grand theft all the police did was to tell me no the car is not stolen ,PLEASE tell me what bank has the legalities to pull up my PERSONAL acc details and TRANSACTED the sum back to the scammers who bought the car ,SANTANDER AFTER 200 emails p calls being left up to 45 minute waits 3 weeks waiting ,i decided to go to the NOTINGHAMSHIRE branch to ask WHAT THE H have they done? no manager reached out to my EMAILS no manager actually at the bank tbh and i? Was told by the bank to claim on my car insurance ? Contact this Omnibus ,with No link to contact them , and as a good WILL GESTURE gave me £50 ? Seriously am i going mad? The cusromer service is APPAULING along with the branches ATTITUDE , no freezing my cards no freezing the buyers card no help i am beyond SICK to my stomach with this bank that should be investigated by its OWN fraud team if they have one that MONEY was for travelling so not only scammed but NO large sum figure £18k and no CAR , Surley someone can advise me as i do not know omnibus ? Please be careful with this BRANCH i have list everything including deep depression as i should be at an airport with my friends there is NO WAY this is a civil matter and noeone will give me ANY INFORMATION of the bank employee who stupidly made a cery bad choice ,be aware

If I could leave a no star review I would. Santander do not seem to really care about customer service. They have this useless AI bot called Sandi, that I positively hate. Bring back proper customer service not some useless AI bot!

Great service in the WorkCafe in Triton Square. Brilliant coffee and superb co-work.
You should open more!

I get it if companies use bots to deal with simple enquiries, but if the CUSTOMER (there raison d'être you'd think) requests to talk to a person, that has to be actioned and not just sent into a loop.
would give 0 stars if I could

What can I say , I went in to deposit cash and the machine said I couldn’t deposit.
So I tried another machine and took my card . Absolutely annoying! They told they could be something wrong with the machine. Whose fault is that ! They said I have to come within 7 days to get the card . Refused my request to get the card sent . Absolute disgrace. So I had to go the counter and give the cash . Service to slow and this bank is getting worse . I will change banks . Always had my current account with them . Not anymore!

I switched current account to Santander and immediately lost access to my money.

10-15 years previously I had a savings account with Santander that I believed was closed. For whatever reason it was not closed and I was unable to log in to my new account without my old details and phone number. I was told there was nothing I could do but sit at home and wait for new log in credentials to be posted out. I suspected this would not be the case and went into the branch, but was told again to wait for the credentials.

When the credentials turned up, I was unable to log in as suspected. I rang again and was told to go into a branch.

I made a complaint as I had rang multiple times, been told I could use telephone banking by one person until my account was set up and then told by another that I could not. I had to go into a branch to pay my workmen as I had no access to anything and had no idea if the switch had gone ok. I suspect it initially did not as I was contacted by my pet insurance saying they could not pay out a claim as my latest payment had not gone through. Eventually this was resolved but it was not due to a lack of funds so it must have been some issue with the switch.

The people I spoke to also were unpleasant, the one taking my complaint said in their opinion I didn’t have any grounds to make a complaint, even though I had followed their contrasting instructions and could not access any of my money. I was even told the best way to fund my current account with Santander was to move money from my savings accounts to my old current account and hope it didn’t bounce back. They said because it had only been a few weeks any payments made to the old current account might still move through. As it happens it did, but why is this a workaround instead of just fixing the issue? I was unable to use the online transfer due to the fault/issue with the credentials.

I went into a different branch and was told I had an old account, with old address and phone number and the details needed updating and merging with the new as at the moment they were conflicting with each other. I was told this would take 24 hours and then all would be fine.

After this I was rang about the complaint, they sympathised, listened to the points I made of, if the first, second, third, fourth, fifth person I spoke to, on the phone or in the branch had any slight interest in their customer or any curiosity about the issue I could have had this resolved within a day or so. The person from the complaints team said the conflicting issue was not unheard of and when the person in the branch the second time showed me their screen you could see the two mismatched customer accounts one under the other, surely everyone I spoke to would have seen that?

I was very grateful for the help finally and very grateful that they offered me £150 which I accepted. The whole thing was very stressful particularly part paying and delaying paying my workmen who must have thought I was scamming them.

After finally resolving this all seemed to be fine and I opened a savings account so now I had two accounts showing. A further week or so later I logged in again to transfer some money and was surprised to find two more savings accounts showing. I wondered if there was some condition I had missed about interest being paid to a different account or if I made some mistake setting it up.

It turned out they were dormant records of the old account from 10-15 years ago, somehow regurgitated from the ‘fix’ that took place some weeks previously.

There were a few pennies in each of them paid recently, and I tried to transfer the pence. It wouldn’t allow me so I followed the help bot to close the account. The bot told me the two dormant/ghost records had my old address from 10-15 years ago - it had not been removed from the system. I tried to change my address in settings (it does not show your current address, only gives fields to change it) and it said my current address was not recognised!

I then checked my phone numbers (I hadn’t previously as after the ‘fix’ I had received OTP so knew they had my correct number) In the contact list I found a second number.

I rang up as online it said I need to fill out an address form and go to the branch but as I had already done that once, decided to ring. Online they found the details had not been updated at all (or maybe they had temporarily as for a week it was fine) and they had 2 other phone numbers for me on their system. The person said they had kept them all and had one as my ‘preferred’ number!! It is not a preferred number, it is the only number and the address is the only address but she asked if it had a letterbox like it might be on their system as a garage or a burrow or something.

I now have to go into the branch AGAIN to remove these stupid ghost accounts. If I hadn’t opened a savings account with Santander with a good interest rate I think I might just leave, and I still might.

Our local branch in Whitley Bay closed down in August. My first visit to the Newcastle Branch was a totally different experience and one I won't be repeating. I walked in and there were three members of staff 2 serving behind the counter and one lady helping on the ATM machines. I waited in the queue to be attended to and when a space became available I moved there - to be told abruptly I am not ready for you go, back to the queue. The lady behind me said well that's you told. When i was summoned, I explained what the problem was, and they confirmed there was a block on my card by the fraud team. The card was returned to me and i was told to ring the fraud squad, pointing to the tiny number on the back of my card. Free phone in branch she said. I approached the lady working on the ATM's for help as I couldn't read the number and didn't know where the free phone was. She pointed to the back of the bank and said I will be you shortly. 10 minutes later I came out and she was helping someone else at the ATM. A special journey into Newcastle, needing help and not getting it, I felt as miserable as the bank staff looked. I won't be repeating that experience.

If you're thinking of going with this bank ...DO NOT!.
Right now I'm experiencing all too familiar problems with my bank; Trying to buy a cheap car, we get all the way through the overly active security to the 'secure' number sent to my phone, this we must type into the box provided, AGAIN the box refuses to recognize more than a couple of digits, which means I cannot pay for the vehicle, complain then?, NOPE! I get the chat robot who feeds me lines that are of no help at all; 'call back later' no point I'll be way angrier later!. Santander offer no help at all, they are a useless appendage to me, so I'm dumping them!.

I always feel important to them when I call!!
They don't charge a stupid amount for things like overdrafts etc.

I am very happy with them.

And I am permanently ill with 2 illnesses. So I don't have a lot of money.

I asked to add my husband to my account, bearing in mind we already had two other accounts both in joint names. I received a letter 15 days after it had supposedly been posted (they blamed Royal Mail) advising me that someone whose name I had never heard of, could be added to my account! I contacted them immediately but “they could not trace the letter” and could I send them a copy! Such efficiency!

After several phone calls and speaking to at least 4 different people at Santander (including the Complaints Dept) they confirmed there had been a severe data breach, and that it had been reported to the relevant regulatory body. They offered me £30.00 compensation but if I refused to accept that it would be reduced to £15.00. I declined and am going to the Ombudsman.

Based on our experience - avoid at all costs.