I had the recent misfortune of incurring extortionate charges levied by Banco Santander. We moved money from our Abbey National account to Banco Santander persuaded by the fact that Abbey is a subsidiary -big mistake. We were billed over 1000 euros for the privilege and then a further 500 euros for the ‘privilege’ of withdrawing it. When we queried this we were told that we should have negotiated a ‘price’ prior to sending the money. Since we were given no details when account was set up about charges and we were transferring money from UK to a branch we had only been to once before it was a bit rich for the advisor to suggest that a better rate could be achieved by negotiating over the phone. Who precisely with met with a deafening silence. Oh he did suggest that in the future other customers from the Abbey might get more favourable treatment. What I would like to know is how do businesses that transfer large sums of money survive. I am definitely looking for another bank – I simply can’t afford to stay with the Banco Santander. 😥
