The rules changed, and my pension fund was suddenly no longer bound by their legal obligations (which they had voluntarily entered into with me - see what happens when you hand control of the economy to Tories!), and so I had to liquidate it. It was a Whitbread pension, since you ask.
I transferred the money to my mother's UK bank account while I found a suitable account for my daughter, as I had decided to give the money to her, as she will be going to university soon.
And so, I found myself in Liskeard in Cornwall trying to open a savings account for my daughter.
Santander, since you ask.
I don't know if this is a special needs project, but the advice I received was less than useless, and after an hour we walked out none the wiser. We were given a website address where we could open an account online, but the link didn't work. Apparently, I might be a terrorist, and so it is really hard to open an account in the UK now. Or perhaps it is just hard to open an account in Santander. You never met such inept people in all your life. They tried to be helpful, they really did, they were nice people but they clearly had no training, they had no interest in the 'products' they were offering (which is understandable), and most importantly they had absolutely no discretionary powers, which made them less than useless to me and my family. I suspect that they were possibly bussed in from a job agency that morning.
I subsequently returned to Belgium and opened an account for my daughter at KBC in Brussels. It was so easy, it took 10 minutes, and the service was great. I told them what I wanted, and they tailored the account for me. I am thrilled, and my daughter is thrilled. I am one happy customer.
Now I want to transfer the money from Santander to KBC. It appears that Santander want to charge my mother £25 just to make a transfer.
Are they crooks? £25 just to make a transfer? Fuck me, at least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a fucking mask! I have to pay these shites 25 fucking Sovs just to get my own money back?
My mum is a pensioner in her 70s - I can afford £25, and actually so can she (quite easily, in fact, thanks to the provisions of my late father) - but is it right to levy a charge like that on a pensioner who wants to transfer money from her own account to that of her 16 year old grandaughter? Put that - £25 - in the context of a state pension. When she questioned this she asked if she would have to pay this charge if she transferred, for example, £20. The answer was "Yes", apparently that is what it costs to get your own money back from these people.. Now this is just speculation, but if I do a transfer at this end it is in the recipients account instantly - do you reckon that will happen with the £25 transfer from the UK bank account? No freaking way. They will sit on it for days, I would guess.
Useless, incompetent, assholes, and in my opinion crooks to boot. I never had such awful customer service before, but I will tell you now that I will never expose myself to such useless service again.
Santander, Liskeard, Cornwall, and yes I will send this link to their customer services department, where they may (or may not - given what I have seen) know the alphabet, and if so there may be a staff member who gives a fuck and who might answer my complaints. But I am not holding my breath.
In my opinion, Santander are useless, I would question their ethics, and I would strongly advise you not to trust them with your money. I do not consider them to be honest businessmen.
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