| 5 star: | (4) | |
| 4 star: | (2) | |
| 3 star: | (0) | |
| 2 star: | (1) | |
| 1 star: | (12) |
Customer from 1965 doing business in millions. Extremely satisfy with my personal and business accounts until it became SANTANDER which brought Chaos and and lack of personal service. Lack of procedural knowledge, policies and decision making power for the simplest decision lacked at the Branch level. Bait and switch policies do exist and customers must be careful and check their accounts to be sure their are given what was originally agreed. Outdated ways of doing business. Every decision seems to be made at their headquarters which is time consuming and very, very impersonal.
My last disappointing adventure (several months ago) with Santander convince me to withdraw all my money. Closed my accounts and went to another Bank. Shame.
Recieved Mailer Notice dated 4.18.2016 - We are discontinuing extra20® checking and extra20® savings accounts. On July 1, 2016, your extra20® checking account will automatically change to a Simply Right Checking account and your extra20® savings account will automatically change to a Santander Savings account.
I have enjoyed this account and give Santander high marks for their bill pay service.
I wanted to let readers, who have a Santander Extra20® account, know that these changes are scheduled. For some reason I could not write a post under bank deals/rates.
When I mentioned to our banker that we were thinking of moving our savings to Ally (1.00% APR), we were talked into opening a Money Market account at 0.9% APR. It was explained that we needed to maintain a minimum balance to keep the high 0.9% APR, and that wouldn't be a problem. For the first few months, all was going smoothly. Then (despite us continuing to deposit more money), the interest rate inexplicably dropped to 0.5%. Then 0.3%. I figured it must be some error, so I called my banker. Turns out - NOT an error. They are able to adjust it down as low as they want, EVEN IF THEY ARE STILL ADVERTISING THE HIGHER RATE. It does not say this anywhere in the paperwork, online advertising, and I know of no other bank that can deceptively and arbitrarily change the rate to anything besides the advertised rate. So frustrating. I've been with Santander since 1999 and just transferred every last dime out of there.
Getting rid of them They have made multiple errors and charged me fees which have only been partially repaid. I complain, call and request the fees but they ignore me until I let it go. The manager tells me he has lost any power as the higher ups make everything go through them. They hold all our checks for 2 to 3 days.I have a daycare and get paid eight different checks Wednesday through Friday which they hold all of unless I go to a certain teller who cashes them for me. I was going to refinance through them but the hoops to jump through are ridiculous. The manager used to work at Citizens Bank and loved it. Says this bank is horrible to get loans processed through compared to Citizens. They are so understaffed...making more money by hiring less but slow to process. Sound familiar? Multiple errors when I opened a second checking account...they RUSH to charge you fees! Again I have to call customer service and they act as though they find me guilty of the error and are super reluctant to make it right. They are definitely looking to charge us as much as possible. I deposited cash which got stuck in the ATM and could not be returned. I called and was told they would release it in ten to fourteen days!! CASH! It could be immediately verified.They charged me fees for insufficient funds since the money was never deposited. I hate them. I called about the fees they charged for "unavailable funds" as they were holding $2200 of deposits. I was told they can only reverse fees for "insufficient funds" Does that make sense? Greedy, horrible bank. DON'T use them. Going with a new bank which is a major pain as I have all my autopays through them. They close at 4:00 three times a week. If I could give them less than one star I would. Their ratio is improving as they readily charge so many fees. Use someone else.
My partner and I have a joint checking and savings account with Santander. We are also enrolled in their "Free 20" program which means that as long as we pay at least 2 bills online and use direct deposit, Santander will deposit an extra 20 bucks into our account each month. It's awesome! We get very personal service every time we are in a branch. The customer service representatives are always friendly, and the bank manager even remember me by name - we always talk about how the Dallas Cowboys are planning, or talk about the Texas Rangers. The only slight complaint I have is that while the bank does have an App where you can check your account balances, etc, there is no way to do a mobile deposit on your smartphone. This is a bit frustrating, but at least they make the process of depositing money in a branch location quick and painless. All in all, I really like this bank and enjoy supporting a smaller, locally owned bank.
If you want to be stranded in India by all means open an account at SANTANDER. Call for help any other time than US, forget it. Wait until someone wakes up or shows up. Strange that a Spanish bank does not have international hours.
But wait, if you want to use your ATM for a purchase in in other US city other than the one you live in and you HAVE called and told them you would be traveling to "x", one system does not tell the other system that is the case. So you find yourself at a client dinner on the phone with a customer agent telling them about the last 12 transactions you did.
When you return you discuss with the branch manager and they first have to have some folks do an audit of the situation and find after 4 plus months there is no issue. Then you go up to the district manager and they never return your call.
Call US headquarters and you are sent back to the same poor agent you started with.
No one up the food chain has a name, phone number or address.
So after after a year , you decide " I'm an idiot", and go to another bank.
I wish I could give rating of minus stars.
I been using Santander for 3 years and they are a great bank and I have a few accounts with this bank. They have always taken care of any issue i have had. When i needed to open up a business checking account witch was my 2nd account i needed a tax id number so they went online and helped me get the id number. To me that's great cause some banks will tell you do it yourself. They have never charge me any hidden fee's.
The bank uses the practice of clearing first the larger amount checks and then the smaller amount checks. For example, if you have $500.00 available in the account and you have 3 checks coming in, one check in the amount of $480.00 and the other two checks in the amount of 450.00, They will clear first the larger check and then the account availability will be only $20.00, which means you will be charged unavailable fee for two checks. If they would of first clear the two smaller amount checks and then the larger amount cheek, they would have charge unavailable fee only once for. They are the only bank who uses this practice in order to generate more income from the poor people who live from payroll to payroll Its unfair and it’s about time to stop.
Read the fine print before you take out an IRA CD. They will charge your account $ 25.00 for a trustee to trustee transfer. I know of no other bank that charges for this service. Bank elsewhere!
SALES REP LIED. WEBSITE IS UNUSABLE The bank's sales rep, Jessica Davis, said she knew us from our old bank, PNC. I told her that my biggest problem is that PNC charges $3 for each check viewed on the bank statement. She promised that Sovereign never charges for viewing checks. I just found out why! You are not able to view copies of any deposited checks whatsoever.
The website itself shows recent activity without balances. I need to go to 3 different websites, all with different logins, to deposit checks, look at my current accounts, or view my statements. It took 3 months to get my first bank statement. If you use the edit function to change a payment, it automatically creates a 2nd payment and the first payment never shows up in "HIstory" until after the payment is made.
I was told by Jessica that there was a $5,000 minimum balance to avoid fees. She said that if we used our debit card from one account that the fees would be waived. It turns out that there is a $10k minimum and you must use a debit card 3 times a month from every account you have...like payroll accounts. When I confronted Jessica, she said I should have read the paperwork she sent after we signed the accounts.
If you manage your accounts with online banking -- don't use Sovereign bank.
They will not stop calling for non account issues. I recommend that you before you think about doing business with them. They have to listen to the customers!!!
I have been banking with Sovereign Bank on the East Coast, (NJ, PA) for a very long time, but since this bank added Santander Group I have noticed the rude customer service via their 1-800#. This bank also has dishonest bank practices since the name change to Santander Group especially toward the poor. I keep a running total of all my banking yet they continue to charge me $35.00 fees stating my account had insufficient funds. The dispute is they say that all my checks came in the same day my direct deposit came in, but the twist here is that they always say the check came in last, how am to believe them when this happens continually. There is a very tricky game they are playing with customers accounts especially when it relate to the very poor who live from paycheck to paycheck. When you call the customer service representatives they don't even try to understand what is going on they just see what is before them on the computer. Sovereign Bank seems desperate and they would rather steal from the poor and justify why they their not giving your money back. My husband closed his account 1 year ago because of this, but I tried to stay with them because I felt I could be very careful watching my account, but I find that they have a secret way to bounce your account anyway. I closed my account with them today and the woman at the bank fought with me toe and nail because I wanted to close it. Tell me what is their problem? If you have not had a problem with them yet, keep on banking it is in the making.
Sovereign Bank this year made everyone switch their Visa debit cards to Master Cards. Since this time they have messed up my accounts. Sovereign sent several new cards and mixed up the accounts. Sovereign Bank is taking one checking account I have had for almost 10 years, and with out my knowing switched the cards to withdraw money out of a different checking account. The reason for this that I got from CS, and the 800 # on the back of the card, was that the older account was not a Primer account. NO ONE NOTIFIED ME OF THE SWITCH. And they linked two separate cards to one account, which they say they don't do (like two cards with the same name to one account, But they did). Now I have spent endless hours on the phone being bounced around for their incompetence.The last conversation I had was today with a Louis Rodrigus X 106519. He was going to get back to me. I will be following with the banking commission if I do not get a call back. Customer Service needs major improvement and will be looking into banking with a new bank after this is all over.
Unfortunetly 0 stars is not an option. I have had nothing but problems with them. They don't care about their customers once they have hustled you into opening with them in the first place. They are not helpful at all and have no problem saying the customer is wrong. They can not take credit if one of their employees makes a mistake. I am now in the process of switching banks and can not wait to actually like where I bank!
I've always had a good experience with my Sovereign. They've "stretched" the rules for me on more than one occasion when I've had overdrafts. And they're always friendly, which is the main reason I don't go anywhere else.