How to complain


 

Tell us about a new issue

We always try to give you the best possible service, so we’re sorry if we haven’t got things right.

If something has gone wrong, or you’re unhappy about something we’ve done, please speak to us. We’ll do everything we can to put things right at the first opportunity.

Call us from your registered number

It'll be faster for you. 

Chat with us

Log on to Mobile or Online Banking and use ‘Chat with us’ and type ‘speak to complaints’

You can also get in touch by:​

  • visiting us in your local branch if you’d like to speak to one of our team in person​
  • writing to us at: Complaints, Santander UK plc, Sunderland, SR43 4GD​

Please read the ‘What we need from you’ section below to see what details to include in your letter.​

​Please see our PPI page for more information about PPI complaints.​

Helpful complaints information

  • We’ll give you a reference number for your complaint. Make sure you have the reference number with you when you contact us so we can find your record quickly.
  • We might need to talk to you to help fix the situation. So please give us your up-to-date contact number.
  • Our calls to you will usually show as an 0800 phone number, but may sometimes appear as ‘unknown’ or ‘withheld’.
  • If you miss a call from us, we'll try again later, but you can call us back on 0800 171 2171 (option 2).
  • You can find full details of our complaints process, including timescales, by expanding the sections below

I need help with an existing complaint​

​If you need an update on what's happening, or to give us more information about an existing complaint, you can contact us using one of these methods:​

  • If you have been given contact details for your dedicated complaint handler, please contact them directly.
  • Call us free of charge from a UK landline or mobile on 0800 171 2171 and choose Option 2.​
  • Chat to us through our Online Banking or Mobile Banking app. Type ‘speak to complaints’ and then select the option to talk to us about an existing complaint.​

You can speak to our complaints teams directly during the following times:

Current Accounts, Savings, Credit Cards and Personal Loans 
Monday to Friday: 8am-6pm 
Saturday: 9am-4pm
Sunday: Closed 

Business Banking
Monday to Friday: 8am-6pm
Saturday: 9am-2pm 
Sunday: Closed

Mortgages
Monday to Friday: 9am – 5pm
Saturday: Closed 
Sunday: Closed

You can also visit us in your local branch if you’d like to speak to one of our team in person.

​However you choose to contact us, please have your existing complaint reference number with you.

Please provide us with as much information as possible when making your complaint. This will help us to understand the issue and resolve it quickly. Please include:

  • your name and address
  • your account details
  • a description of your complaint and how it’s affected you
  • when the issue happened
  • a contact number (or other preferred method of contact) and a convenient time to contact you.

We want to fully understand what's gone wrong. This is to make sure we get the right person handling your complaint, so they can investigate and fix the situation as soon as possible.

Your contact details will help us get hold of you if we need to discuss your complaint, especially if we need more information. Calls from us may appear as unknown or withheld numbers.

We aim to resolve all complaints as quickly as possible and specific timescales apply to certain types of complaints:

Complaints relating to payments in or out of your account:

These include complaints about making or receiving payments on your Current Account, Credit Card or Instant Access Savings account.

  • We’ll send you our final response as soon as we’ve completed our investigation. We have 15 days to resolve these complaints.
  • If there are exceptional circumstances we may take longer than 15 days to investigate your complaint, we’ll however resolve all payment complaints within 35 days. We’ll write to you to let you know if we need longer than 15 days, we’ll also send you details about how to refer the matter the Financial Ombudsman if you would prefer not to wait for us to finish investigating your complaint.

All other complaints:

Although we have 56 days to resolve your complaint, we’ll send you our final response as soon as we’ve completed our investigation.

We’ll also keep you informed in writing along the way so you’ll know when to expect to hear from us.

If we haven’t been able to finalise our investigation by 56 days we’ll send you a letter letting you know and what steps you can take. These will include letting you know you can go to the Financial Ombudsman if you’d prefer not to wait until we’ve finalised our investigation.

We'll record your complaint and do everything we can to resolve it quickly:

  • We'll get in touch with you to discuss your complaint and agree the resolution to the problem.
  • Calls from us may appear as unknown or withheld numbers.

If we can resolve your complaint within 3 business days following the day we received it, we’ll send you confirmation of this and we’ll also let you know about the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) at this time.

For more complex issues, we may need more time to investigate your concerns. If this is the case:

  • We'll send you an acknowledgement letter outlining the next steps and when you can expect to hear from us.
  • We'll give you a reference number if you need to contact us.
  • We'll keep you updated of our progress throughout our investigation.
  • We may need to contact you for more information using your preferred method of contact.

Our final response

Once we've completed a thorough investigation, we'll give you a final response. This will outline the details of our investigation, how we reached our decision and what we’re going to do to put things right. It may also provide information about the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Business Banking Resolution Service.

If you don't agree with our resolution of your complaint and you'd like to take it further, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to look into it. This is a free, independent and impartial service that helps resolve disputes.

Although you can refer your complaint to the FOS at any time, they'll ask for our permission to investigate complaints where:

  • You haven't complained to us first, to give us the chance to put things right.
  • You have complained to us, but we haven’t given you our Final Response yet and we’re still within our timescales.

We'll send you the full details of our decision in our Final Response, including your right to refer your complaint to the FOS. If you do so, it should be within be 6 months of the date on our Final Response.

Web: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Phone: 0800 0 234 567 (free from UK landlines and mobiles)
Post: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR

If your complaint isn’t eligible for the Financial Ombudsman Service, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS).

The BBRS is an independent organisation set up voluntarily by participating banks to resolve disputes. 

The BBRS is free to use and has different eligibility considerations from the Financial Ombudsman Service. For further information, please visit the BBRS website or call them on 0345 646 8825. Alternatively, you can write to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, 100 St Paul’s Churchyard, London, EC4M 8BU.

We want to make sure all our customers have the support they need.

If you have a speech or hearing impairment, Our Next Generation Text Service lets you type to an assistant who can then speak with one of our team on your behalf. Use your text phone to call 18001 0800 171 2171 or visit the Next Generation Text Website to use the free app on your smartphone, tablet or computer.

If you’re deaf and a BSL user, you can talk to us live through a BSL interpreter online using Sign Video. Find out how you can use Sign Video in this sign language video

If you need us to write to you in a different format we offer braille and audio CD. Please let us know when submitting your complaint or query.

Please see how we can support your needs

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