Santander considers UK exit amid frustrations with high street banking
https://www.ft.com/content/52f65106-6def-4855-b7a0-ae2b7f3200f6
Posted by PerformerOk3600
Santander considers UK exit amid frustrations with high street banking
https://www.ft.com/content/52f65106-6def-4855-b7a0-ae2b7f3200f6
Posted by PerformerOk3600
27 Comments
SS: Santander is reviewing its UK operations, including a potential exit, due to lower returns, high costs, and challenges like a court ruling on car loan mis-selling, for which it set aside £295mn. Frustrations with its UK ringfenced bank, which hasn’t benefitted from rising interest rates as much as other markets, are driving this reassessment. Santander UK, formed after acquiring Abbey National in 2004 and merging with other entities, employs 21,000 staff and serves 14 million customers. Despite exploring strategic options, no decision is imminent, and the bank may retain its corporate and investment banking presence in London while focusing on growth regions like the US.
Great, they can settle up my mortgage for me on their way out /s
I’ve been a customer of Santander since the days of Abbey National, and what I can say is the reason I don’t use them anymore, is theres upside:
1. Crap app
2. Crap website
3. No incentives
4. Poor interest rates on savings
5. Highly corporate/bureaucratic customer service process
What do they even want to stand for, because it feels like a nothing brand with nothing to attract people to stay or join.
Legit q, do I need to tell the wife (Santander customer) to switch to another account?
Going back a while, I had a bank and mortgage account with santander.
I went in one day and asked for an overdraft to prevent unauthorised overdraft fees. I was refused as they said because I have been overdrawn, I could not have an over draft.
That pissed me off so i moved my mortgage and account to another bank. It made me feel better.
I have no sympathy for companies that whine about not being able to exploit people as hard here as they do in America
Santander are a really shit bank though? So please, leave!
Santander can get so far to fuck.
Completely changed the terms on my student overdraft repayment after I’d had to use it. From being interest free until 3 years to having to repay half by one and all by 2.
In any other world that’s just a scam.
Same with all the high street banks. NatWest is rubbish, app if crap, no one to talk to in banks if you walk in, phoning takes forever etc.
That’s why Starling, Monzo and the rest are more popular
If it means I don’t have to see another one of those bloody Ant and Dec ads I’m all for it
Every time I have had to deal with them, whether through having an account or loan with them, they have been nothing but awful. Crap website and worse customer service. Their nearest branch to me is 60 miles away.
And they are leaving because of what, they aren’t making ENOUGH money? Have they tried not being awful?
Always hated them and was with Alliance & Leicester who they purchased in the mid 2000’s, I was just too lazy to move. Changed banks about a year ago but kept it due to large overdraft, which they recently stopped. Thinking of closing it down.
Im only still with them for one of my two current accounts becuase they’re the only bank to still have a branch in my town and sometimes there is stuff you need to do in person. If they close that branch then I will likely move to another bank as I’d have to travel the same amount to visit branch.
Santander was my first bank as a teenager, I overdrew ONCE and they completely locked down my account, so I switched to TSB.
All these shitty traditional banks with their terrible 1990s looking apps, bad website and poor customer service wondering why customers going to Monzo etc.. for high street banking.
Wonder if they’ve been thinking about this for a while? Feels like they’ve invested nothing into the business for years.
Monzo is the way forwards. I swapped from Natwest years ago and never looked back
This is all because they saw Virgin Money get bought by Nationwide last year
Somehow for me they were they only mortgage lender not to mess me around.
Nationwide, Halifax (who I bank with), HSBC (who I also bank with) and other places made it weirdly difficult.
Santander were initially not competitive with their rates but the remortgage took so long that I eventually went with them as their rates lowered.
As a simple app to check my mortgage I can’t complain about that either.
Santander are useless. I had a savings account that my Grandad set up. Took us six months to close it because the branches always closed at ridiculous hours, the app was unusable and the website was very unhelpful. The letters also contained no information about a sort code so I spent ages just getting that alone.
App has been rock solid for me.
Had good service.
No issues with banking with them.
In the event that this does actually happen? What happens to all current accounts, loans and mortgages?
A bank is trying to blackmail the Government over a rule change!
Asked to open an account after entering
UK, the response was do it online. Unfortunately to get a phone or internet I needed a bank account. HSBC came to the rescue
My wife works here and 3 or so months ago was offered money to leave (around 8k, she’s on an entry level, part time role).
Her business manager told her she wasn’t allowed to speak to her manager or any other employee about this. They also said it had been discussed with the union.
She turned it down as it would not be a redundancy and she would have to pay ni, tax etc. and it would not be worth the stress of looking for another job.
Email then came through from the union a few weeks later saying other people had been offered similar packages and these were all people with protected characteristics. The union also said they had not signed off on anything and advised people not to take the “deal” if offered.
Radio silence ever since. God knows what’s going on there.
Mention banks and two adages springs to mind. Ones about an umbrella, the other is about whose the most worried.
There’s no reason to even have high street banks anymore except to safely deposit cash. Just have some kind of small, safe unit I can walk into and instantly deposit cash or a cheque, someone on a screen you can speak to if needed etc etc. Just do everything a bank does, but remotely.
It’s dystopian as fuck, but it’s the only way. Walking into a Santander branch now, within their limited opening hours, it’s like a morgue with 00’s decor.