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I tried to transfer £1000 to Revolut to buy euros for upcoming travel. The Revolut app let me choose Santander from a list of banks, and launched my Santander app where I authorised the transaction. Yes, it’s me, I want to transfer £1000 to Revolut.
It didn’t complete. I found I was then locked out of my Santander account.
It took nearly an hour to get through by phone (shouldn’t be allowed), where I was told “these kind of 3rd party app transfers are often fraudulent and so we usually block them”
I explained it was in fact me. They refused to unlock my account, telling me that even if it was me they have concerns it is fraudulent activity and my account will be frozen pending investigation. “You think I’m committing fraud by spending my own money?” “That is a concern we have to investigate”
Why implement the app transfer protocols if they “usually block them”?
I asked to speak to the complaints department. They said the complaints team will no longer take calls from customers. I will have to write. That shouldn’t be allowed either.
Account frozen for who knows how long, for trying to spend my own money. What financial problems this will cause depends on how long this goes on, but it’s already got me furious and anxious, wondering what hassle I’m now going to have from the fraud team.
Please recommend the current account I should switch to if Santander ever unfreeze my account and return my money. Never mind switching bonuses or points earning etc. Which bank treats their customers well and doesn’t take an hour to answer the phone?
Put formal complaint in via resolver website. State:
– it *is* reasonable for them to block transactions for them to check it is you.
However
– they have acted unreasonably by 1) taking 1h to get through to 2) for them not to unblock the account when you confirmed it really was you
State this has caused you
– inconvenience in significant time, and lack of access you your account
– costs of calls, foreign transaction fees,
To resolve your complaint you will want:
-unblocking your account
– compensation for the above, which you value at £250.Go to ombudsman if they don’t agree with the above. You will (eventually) get it.
In the meantime move to ?Nationwide ?Starling.
Thanks, that’s very helpful. I didn’t know about resolver. That looks really useful.
_Looked_ useful, until it went down.
Must be overloaded with people complaining about having to wait for an hour to speak to a bank/insurer/utility/airline…
I think you need to call Santander again and speak to a different customer service adviser. You clearly got put through to an idiot the first time of calling.
Phone again or take yourself to a branch.
Why not just do a normal bank transfer or load with the debit card?
Santander has ridiculous anti fraud measures.
When faster payments came in, I used to transfer 5 figure sums to myself back and forth every day to take advantage of different banks’ end of day times (i.e. earn 3-5% interest from several banks on the same money because NatWest calculates interest on the account balance at 1830, Santander at 2015, nationwide at 2030 and Lloyds at midnight. Don’t do this anymore because your accounts will get closed!)
When I set up new payees on Santander I would need to train the anti fraud algorithm by starting off with low amounts then slowly increasing. But it was a trial and error process so sometimes I would get locked out, which was a hassle to get unblocked over the phone.
One day I transferred £50 to myself from Santander and my Santander account got frozen, but I was travelling and decided not to call immediately to get unblocked. The next morning at 8am I had an unknown number call which was a robot voice claiming to be Santander. It asked me to choose my correct date of birth from a list of options, enter the digits of my postcode and some sort of info from my credit report… Sounds like a phishing call doesn’t it?
However my intuition told me it was genuine, so I answered the questions correctly, then it asked me if I had really sent £50. I pressed 1 for yes and then it said my accounts had been unfrozen, which they were. From then on every time I got frozen I would just wait for this phishing-like call rather than spend an hour trying to make up a reason for my activities.
I told the above to my colleague who was also with Santander. One day she tried to transfer money to a new payee and she got frozen. When the call came, she must have forgotten my advice to answer it, because she (fairly) thought it was a fraudster and reported it to Santander. Santander agents agreed that the call sounded like a fraudster so they closed and reopened all her accounts and put some sort of cifas protection on. As it was her only account she had no debit card for 2 weeks and had to borrow cash, that month’s salary disappeared into the ether for a long time, and she can never get approved for credit cards or new accounts automatically now. I helped her write a formal complaint and they gave her £100.
Why not just do a normal bank transfer or load with the debit card?
Because Revolut guides you to the “easy transfer” mechanism, which works fine in most places and there was no reason to presume that using an app feature and protocal enabled by Santander would cause Santander to freeze my account.
Santander have told me that “A high proportion of our fraud cases involve Revolut”.
I used to transfer 5 figure sums to myself back and forth every day to take advantage of different banks’ end of day times (i.e. earn 3-5% interest from several banks on the same money because NatWest calculates interest on the account balance at 1830, Santander at 2015, nationwide at 2030 and Lloyds at midnight. Don’t do this anymore because your accounts will get closed!)
Wow HfP at its finest! Never would have known such tactic existed.
I think it is good practices to have multiple current account as all banks have fraud investigation protocols ghat allows them to freeze your account. The Money centric websites are full of reports of similar circumstances as yours.
Chase Uk would be my suggestion for any travel conscious person, as it also offers you 0 forex fee, perfect MasterCard exchange rate, and the USP of free ATM withdrawal in USA when using Chase Us ATMs.
I heard First Direct have some of the best customer service.
I heard First Direct have some of the best customer service.
Many of us would agree!
Why not just do a normal bank transfer or load with the debit card?
Santander has ridiculous anti fraud measures.
When faster payments came in, I used to transfer 5 figure sums to myself back and forth every day to take advantage of different banks’ end of day times (i.e. earn 3-5% interest from several banks on the same money because NatWest calculates interest on the account balance at 1830, Santander at 2015, nationwide at 2030 and Lloyds at midnight. Don’t do this anymore because your accounts will get closed!)
This is dedication to the cause! 🏆🥇
@John props to you. It would have been so nice to hear about this earlier.
However not too late given where inflation is heading, where the gbp might go and the likely intermediate future of interest rates…
So better late than never ! Yes using your comments purely as stated will likely get an average punter shut down (r u still there, @Ali?) but give useful food for thought
When faster payments came in, I used to transfer 5 figure sums to myself back and forth every day to take advantage of different banks’ end of day times (i.e. earn 3-5% interest from several banks on the same money because NatWest calculates interest on the account balance at 1830, Santander at 2015, nationwide at 2030 and Lloyds at midnight. Don’t do this anymore because your accounts will get closed!)
Hello, John. I would like to know. 2 years after your account was closed, did Santander try to return the additional funds? if so, did you return them? As I understand, this is a mistake by the bank, and incorrectly set rates, so like, illegal enrichment. Did they try to refund it, or were you lucky and made a lot of money?
Phone again or take yourself to a branch.
… and close the account directly at the branch over the counter.
They hate that.
For extra sweetness tell them to transfer the closing balance to Revolut immediately.
After all, it’s your money, isn’t it?
I second Nationwide or Starling same as poster above.
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