Partially upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs C, who held five accounts with Santander, applied for another account to receive a £120 incentive but was declined. The decline email did not specify reasons, leading Mrs C to investigate her credit file and complain. Santander subsequently explained the decline was due to Mrs C holding the maximum number of accounts permitted. Mrs C also complained about the hard credit check, customer service, live chat issues, and account closure delays. The ombudsman found Santander was entitled to decline the application and set account limits without prior disclosure, and that customer service was reasonable. However, the ombudsman upheld the complaint regarding the hard credit check and required Santander to remove it from Mrs C's credit file.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Santander was entitled to decline the application based on its policy limiting the number of accounts per person, and was not required to disclose this limit in advance. While the initial decline email could have been more specific, Santander provided the reason when Mrs C queried it within two days. The ombudsman found Santander's customer service was reasonable and the account closure timeframe was standard. However, the ombudsman considered it fair to remove the hard credit check because the application could not have succeeded and the credit check was therefore unnecessary.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website