Upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Miss M opened a Santander account in December 2025 to benefit from a switching incentive but faced difficulties because she had no secure home address for receiving post. Santander's security procedures required PINs and online banking credentials to be sent only to home addresses, making the account functionally unusable for Miss M. Miss M claims she was assured branch staff could help activate online banking without a PIN, but when she attended a branch, staff were unable to assist. The ombudsman found that while Santander's security procedures were reasonable, the firm failed to provide clear, consistent and tailored information about what would and wouldn't be possible given Miss M's specific circumstances. The ombudsman upheld the complaint and found Santander's offered compensation of £150 to be fair and reasonable, but declined to award the switching incentive due to inability to confirm Miss M met all eligibility criteria.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Santander's security procedures requiring PINs and credentials to be sent only to home addresses are reasonable and not unreasonable to apply, there was a lack of clarity in how information was communicated to Miss M. Given that Miss M explained her circumstances early on, Santander ought to have provided clear, consistent and tailored information about what would and wouldn't be possible. The information she received led her into a process that ultimately could not work for her. On balance, the ombudsman found it more likely that Santander staff were explaining general possibilities rather than guaranteeing the process would work for Miss M's specific circumstances as a new customer. However, the service fell short of expected standards due to unclear communication, and better communication would likely have led Miss M to make a different decision about opening the account.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website