Santander UK Reviews 

I opened my banking app a few days ago and discovered an unauthorised cash withdrawal. I administer my sister’s account as an lpa (also with Santander) and discovered 3 further unauthorised cash withdrawals. I reported these to their fraud team who took a very short time to get back and tell me that ,”on the facts” either I took out this money myself, or gave my card and pin to someone else to do so - both completely untrue. I have banked with Santander for over 30 years, as has my sister. We have never, to my recollection, even been overdrawn or reported any similar problem previously. There has been no financial impropriety of any kind on either of our parts. In addition, many thousands - probably hundreds of thousands - of pounds have passed through these accounts over the years. This means nothing, apparently. I had a call from their complaints department and - despite being crystal clear that my pin number was not written down nor shared with anyone - was asked whether someone “such as a home help” had been a frequent visitor and might have used the cards - presumably on the basis that I am so old and feeble as to not notice them raiding my handbag and having usefully stuck a note on them containing my pin! I am of pensionable age but was able to accurately inform him that both my mental and physical capacities were absolutely fine and I had no need if such assistance! So patronising. And a complete waste of time since all he could say was “there’s nothing we can do. I reported the matter to the police who actually have been helpful and are getting the cctv from the cashpoint in question so they can check what was going on at the exact times of these withdrawals. The officer I spoke to suggested a skimming device may have been fitted. I told this to the Santander employee who phoned today and he said “Unfortunately Santander cards cannot be cloned”- which is an odd statement taken that their online fraud prevention advice tells you how to avoid having your card skimmed! Obviously, once the police get round to examining the cctv all will, hopefully, be revealed but that may take some time taken the pressures on them.Meantime, Santander have washed their hands of the matter and intend to take no proactive steps in assisting either me or the police. Nor, of course, do they wish to refund the money. Obviously, once the police conclude this investigation, I will pull both accounts - so more fool them taken the length and value of our custom. Stressful, though. Their approach is shameful.

I have had business banking with Santander for over 20 years. Some muppet has decided that because one of our shareholders gifted her shares to her son that we need to complete a Change of Mandate form. I have tried to explain to them that the son will not be a bank signatory and therefore this can't be the correct form. Yup, they insist we need to complete that form - so we have had to cross out large sections of it as the only people to have access to bank transactions are the two directors only. Plus the genius is now requiring proof of address for ALL shareholders. Why? Sadly they don't seem to understand the question. I dread any future changes in shareholdings.

To add insult to the insanity, they have ignored my written questions.

I am taking bets now to see if they give unauthorised bank access to our shareholders and/or block our account.

Utter madness. What a way to reward >20 years of loyalty and business. I feel stuck with them and would not recommend them to anyone.

I should have looked here before switching. It has been a complete nightmare. Still no access to online banking which is more of a priority than getting a card to me. Useless help line both online and rude / useless people

Awful website - I login, then I get kicked out each time I press anything. I tried with Chrome and Edge and the same happens.

Awful service from Santander. We have been a business customer for over 5 years. We have suppliers in both the UK and Europe. Every time we pay a new international supplier they block our account, I understand the reason behind this however our account has now been blocked for 6 days. I returned the initial call from Santander's Security Team within 10 mins of them calling. I provided all the relevant information and they assured me the account would be unblocked 24/48 hours, however this has not been the case. I have called every day, explaining we have suppliers/wages to pay however we still have no access to our account. We asked to escalate to a senior manager to be told there is no option to do this. We will be reporting Santander to the Financial Ombudsman. 2 days before Christmas and we cannot make vital payments or finish for our holidays! Do not take a Santander business account.

We are a limited company and have held a Santander Business account for 8 years.

After attempting to make a transaction into my personal PayPal account (which is not illegal), our account access has been blocked for over a week, and we no longer have access to online banking.

I raised the issue with the complaints department, but so far, I have not received a single communication from Santander Business Banking. Every time I call, I am told the same thing: 'There’s nothing we can do, and we cannot tell you when you will be contacted.'

I spent 50 minutes in a queue just to make a single telephone transaction(!), and the experience has been utterly frustrating due to their shambolic customer service.

Since they have effectively blocked the account and we cannot transfer funds, we are unable to move to a business account at a different bank.

If I could give 0 stars, I would.

Been banking with them for over 10 years! They blocked my account for a transaction that I confirmed I made it myself. Now I can't pay my 10 people staff, don't give me any options how to pay them, they don't give me timescale when they will sort it out.... I am left without any money, I have a disabled child with high medical bills, I am abroad at the moment, my staff are left without any payments! This is a terrible service!

Been a Santander Business Banking Customer for over 7 years. It has got worse, and worse and worse. Their current practice is to hold incoming faster payments for 48 to 96 hours, for 'fraud checks'. Faster Payments should be processed within 24 hours maximum. When complaints are raised they simply say that they can do nothing. If they are holding a large number of Faster Payments across the business I am sure it makes their overnight banking balance far larger to lend to other institutions, and make more money!

Been with Santander Business a while but I am reaching the end of my patience with them. They are repeatedly declining card transactions to suppliers I have used before, even when they take place at the same time as previously. Nothing in these transactions should flag as a fraud but they have been turning down my card repeatedly. I am paying Santander Business for a service they are not providing and that has to stop. If you cannot access your funds when you need them then they are long past acting in the interests of customers. Their internal processes are so sloppy that they cannot determine what is a suspicious transaction and what is a normal one.

Been with them as a business customer for around 6yrs & they started out great with business relationship managers, but over time they fired those staff & now nobody looks after business accounts. Everything about the business accounting section at Santander is terrible & they break FDA laws constantly, but nobody reports them so they get away with it.
If you want to really do something, make Santander pay attention, improve & receive a monetary fine by the FDA - REPORT THEM TO THE BANKING OMBUDSMAN. You will also be entitled to compensation for their slack banking practices.
I have been unable to access my own money over the counter, instead they referred me to the post office but there was a limit on the withdrawal. Santander's website states you can withdraw large sums over the counter but the counter staff don't have an effing clue!! I'm changing banks, they can go to hell.

Atrocious service. My wife was scammed and defrauded by a site purporting to be selling a crotchet pattern but actually setting up a CPA for another company.

Rang the "fraud" team who were useless and tried to get my wife to call the scammers to cancel the subscription rather than taking action as required by the FCA.

Shocking how useless they were in terms of both action and advice.

Really bad experience banking for last 15 years with them. No one can assist you they blocked our accounts due to making a payment. You go through all the questions and still no one resolves it. We have lost a lot of business as can't see or make payments. Very stressful.

Worst business banking company.
You cannot use a person search for transactions in or out.
Login glitches, it doesn’t go straight to the app. If you are going to go overdrawn, you aren’t told by how much or what is about to come out, so you cant easily rectify it, had free lifetime banking for years an offer they did in 2008. Decided they no longer wanted to support this, so put the over draft interest up to over 20% to force the hand of those with the offer to go over to paying each month. Charlatans.

Shocking for business stay well clear. What is the point in having a business account and all payments got stopped. Even though you put your one time passcode in the payment is declined. Then 5 minutes later you get the security call. What is the point of the passcode. Because of international payments the banks blocked all banking activity for 3 weeks until we proved what payments were for.

Awful, truly awful bank and customer service.
If you are thinking of opening a Santander Business Account then don't.
My business card has been blocked for no reason, every few weeks I call the business center and am told repeatedly, we don`t know why your business debit card is blocked Mr Cunningham, be assured you use it within 24 hours.
After 24 hours the card is still blocked and unable to use. I have lost count of how many times I have called the business center. Inept beyond belief. I am moving my business account elsewhere. Andy Cunningham - Dream Maker Travel Ltd

No adequate system in place for dealing with lost or stolen business cards.

it really Is this bad.

I just thought I would check reviews after calling in again after being left hanging by a cretin from the complaints department.

Why is this so bad. Only with them because its the first back account I ever opened as a child.

I am aware that Santander as a company sometimes do not have the best reviews, however our experience in terms off my brother and myself are extremely happy with the recent experience that we had at the Santander Harlesden branch. Namely because we had the best financial advisor that we have ever met.

We have been with Santander for many years, in fact from when it was known as The Abbey National. We have had various contact with the bank over the years, but no-one have ever come close to Patricia. She was diligent, knowledgeable, understanding, kind and patient, and she went out of her way to ensure that we got the best from our money, and that it works for us!

Thank you Patricia, you were absolutely amazing, and a real credit to the company.

Jackie and Mark

Absolutely awful block my mums account for over 3 months I have power of attorney accused me of fraud she has dementia every time use the card they block and send new one 4 hours in branch call police who said no case to answer 2 months later still investigating have made my mother's dementia even worse . Latest card not been used before today still not working. Call up never speak to the security department because they can't put u through and it's like a secret department. Promise call back never do . I moved my account from them but can't mums as they refuse to do a switch

Account Ending - 9308.
Last month 24.07.2024 I went to draw some Euros out of my Zero (no charges when used abroad), unfortunately I thought that the exchange rate poor so I cancelled the transaction. Unfortunately I noticed that the account showed that the transaction went through and showed on the transactions. I spoke to a representative of the bank whilst still abroad who stated that she could see that the transaction had been cancelled, however, when we spoke to a representative in the UK who stated that the call had been logged with regards to the cancelled transaction. Today 20.08.2024 I have been informed that the issue could take up to 130 days to conclude the preliminary investigation, despite this issue is between Santander UK and Santander Banco Spain. If this company reviews the camera footage of the Santander Banco CCTV footage they will clearly see the transaction!!!! In the current climate of the Spanish rebellion and physical abuse of UK Tourists (spraying people with substances, maybe water or other substances) is this a representative to us in the UK????? My operates a business who deals with Lloyds Cardnet who resolve issues in less than four weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!