UK FOS offers help to Santander clients affected by recent IT issues
The UK Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is offering assistance to clients of Santander effected by recent IT issues.
The bank has confirmed tech issues plagued its services on Saturday 15 May.
Santander UK has issued the following update to its clients:
“Updated at 17.00, 17 May 2021
Our banking services continue to run as normal, following the technical issue we experienced on Saturday 15 May 2021.
We’re committed to making sure no customer is out of pocket, so if you have incurred costs because of these issues you can request reimbursement by completing a simple form.
Our branches, call centres and chat service are available as usual to help with your questions, however it may take longer to get through on the phone. We appreciate your patience.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused”.
FOS says if Santander UK customers are unhappy with how Santander deals with what’s happened to them, they can contact the Ombudsman. FOS can usually get involved 15 days after you’ve raised your concerns with the bank.
- How to complain
Talk to your bank first so that they have the chance to put things right. Tell them briefly and clearly:
- what happened to you because of the IT problems
- what you want them to do to help put things right for you
- what losses you want them to cover
It will help if you can back up your complaint with any notes or paperwork you’ve got – for example, copies of:
- bank, mortgage and credit-card statements showing charges resulting from the bank’s IT problems
- phone bills, bus tickets or receipts for travel and petrol
- things like emails from the time that help show how the situation was directly affecting you
Your bank needs to give you their final response within 15 days for complaints about payment services. If you’re unhappy with their response, or if they don’t respond, let FOS know.
The Ombudsman will check whether your complaint is something it can deal with, and if it is, FOS will investigate to understand what happened and what went wrong.
If FOS thinks your bank has done something wrong or treated you unfairly, it will ask them to put things right. This will depend on the individual circumstances and how you’ve been affected – it could include telling the bank to pay you compensation.
