Can't Email or Mail Banks?

[Ducked]

Why not?

Got some issues to resolve with Santander.

I really don't want to have long international telephone calls about them. That's just terminally inefficient, but they don't "do" email and they don't even publish a snailmail address.

Security issue for email maybe, but that hardly applies to snailmail.

Aargh!

 

[Andrew1972]

That bank is more an online model.

Email is absolutely terrible as it is insecure and both parties cannot be trusted. Do you have an account? If yes the typical model is using their secure site with built in messaging.

If you belive phone is inefficient not going to sway your mindset. Especially coming from someone who wants to use postal mail internationally to contact a bank.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Security issue for email maybe, but that hardly applies to snailmail.


And how would you prove your identity with either of those communication choices?

I can't imagine a bank, in this day and age, doing business via either email or postal mail. Contact them through the website, or if it's sensitive business that needs to be conducted, walk into a branch office and talk to them in person where you can show them proof of identity, or better yet they know you in person.

 

[pandus13]

With all due respect:
-You are in Taiwan
-Voip call ?

 

[E150GT]

I've never heard good things about santander

 

[Quattro Pete]

There is a "Contact Us" form on their website. Couldn't you fill it out and provide them with a contact phone number, asking them to give you a call? This way you won't have to pay for the call.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
I've never heard good things about santander


I use it. It's fine. I know all the tellers in the branch plus the branch manager so I never have any trouble or if I do, they're good at fixing it (waiving fees). Only thing I really get out of them is free bank checks. Some branches may be better than others so of course YMMV.

Now you heard something good about them.

 

[Ducked]

Some issues, especially if they are complex and involve documents, or contentious, are better dealt with in writing.

If I have a long, irritating chat with a bank employee in India, I'll have no record of it, and no audit trail.

Cf the expression "If it isn't in writing, it never happened" I have some unpleasant experience that confirms that adage.

Efficiency is not the same as speed. I'm not in any particular hurry, but I don't want to waste my time.

 

[Garak]

Do they have a secure messaging system? Some banks I deal with have a way to contact the branch right on their website, assuming you've logged into online banking. Others, oddly enough, do not.

 

[Ducked]

And then there's the dead-end multiple-choice-robotic-voice call handling menu system. How could I have forgotten about those?

 

[DBMaster]

How many automated phone systems DON'T start their spiels by saying, "Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed?". Infuriating.

 

[Ducked]

I gave in and made the call. 35 minute international phone call to be told eventually that they have no records of anything.

A bit of poking around reveals they have a certain notoriety (and post-2008 its hard for a BANK to stand-out notoriety-wise) for disappearing legacy accounts from the Abbey National takeover.

They were only legally obliged to keep records of those for six years, so that's what they did, because of course computerised record systems make it soooo expensive to keep legacy data.

I had one of those accounts. At one point they accidentally transferred it to my nephew (same surname and address) who told me about it, and I THINK I got it sorted by phone (but of course I have no record of that conversation, and if they do they'll have..er...lost it.

The current enquiry is, however, about my Abbey National mortgage account, which I gave them the account number and sort code for, which they are still receiving standing order payments for, and for which they could find no record on their systems.

I have a headache. I'm either angry or its brain damage from holding a cellphone to my head for 35 minutes.

Maybe both.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Do they have a secure messaging system? Some banks I deal with have a way to contact the branch right on their website, assuming you've logged into online banking. Others, oddly enough, do not.


I have (or had?) two accounts with Santander plus some shares, all "inherited" since they were originally Abbey National. Because these are/were legacy accounts I don't have online banking with them or with Santander, and they have now apparently disappeared.

I have it with another couple of British banks but neither of them give access to secure messaging.

Having had my "consciousness raised" on the communication problem (I was aware of it before but pain is a great reinforcer) I did a search on banks offering secure messaging and the best option with a UK presence seems to be.........

....You guessed it, SANTANDER, who are of course the very last people on the planet I would voluntarily allow to access any more of my money, except maybe Nigerians offering access to 100 million dollars worth of Nazi gold, or a Columbian cartel seeking inward investment, though they'd at least be efficient.

HSBC do secure messaging, but the protocol they use is apparently incompatible with web-based mail.

That's some catch, that Catch 22.

 

[Garak]

Oh, great! HSBC doesn't have a huge presence here, particularly brick and mortar. If you were to use HSBC, wouldn't it be okay that it's not compatible with webmail? The financial institutions I deal with don't look like they'd work with email, either, and it's really no big deal. A couple have nothing, just like the situation you're in, but that's another matter.