Santander España Reviews 

I have no clue where to start...but 1 year later having a blocked account (without telling me) and endless streams of email comms due to missing information they required (which i understand) I sent everything they required then all of a sudden they started ignoring all my chasers to unblock the account. The biggest issue now having rang Madrid for an update....they CANCELLED my account without any communication! Seriously have no clue how these people can get away with this, surely they are highly regulated in doing what is right for the customer. Raised a complaint urgently as now I realise none of my bills are getting paid and will look into Legal proceedings! STAY AWAY FROM SANTANDER ESPANA!

0 stars if that was an option. What a terrible bank/service. Endless problems, huge fees, no customer relations. Very unhelpful with everything. We will move the minute we can. TransferWise a much better option.

This bank is criminal, avoid. I was charged for house insurance that I never asked for, the effort to get it cancelled was horrendous, excuses for not cancelling were reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch. This company does not offer a good service and scams you as well.

Los que venimos del Banco Popular estamos padeciendo la incompetencia y la arrogancia total del Banco Santander. En el sucursal de El Campello (prov. Alicante) todo va mal, aun las cosas mas basicas y simples. Y el director y la subdirectora no tienen ni una idea lo que significe ‘atencíon al cliente’. Cuando cosas van mal de nuevo, ellos simplement nunca contestan los correos electronicos y solucian nada. Es indignante que te traten asi; una verguenza!! Incompetentes total!
Aun cada banco en cada país en desarollo es mucho mejor.

Those of us who come from Banco Popular are suffering from the incompetence and total arrogance of Banco Santander. At the El Campello branch (province of Alicante) everything goes wrong, even the most basic and simple things. And the director and assistant director don't have a clue what "customer service" means. When things go wrong again, they simply never answer the emails and don't fix anything. It is outrageous that they treat you like this; a shame!! Totally incompetent!
Even every bank in every developing country is much better.

My opinion is exactly the same as all who have reviewed on this site.
Ever since they took over Banco Poplar bloody nightmare.Been on the phone for 2 hrs this morning to try and unblock our account which was blocked at the end of Jan.
Every time we go to Spain we have to go to the bank to sort out internet banking new codes ,passwords etc.
They have told me the only way to sort it out is go to the branch in Mojacar which at this precise time is impossible due to this slight problem that's going on around the world.
If you cant do that then you have to go on there website to create ANOTHER.8 digit code,ring them and see if they accept it.
We have tried sending money out but it gets sent back less £40 this has happened twice.
We need to pay bill's but they just don't care.
As soon as this situation is over we are going over to change our account.

I only give one star as I can’t give zero. San Pedro Alcantara, Spain. This bank is full of completely inefficient, useless liars. They give very poor advice, do not listen to their clients and worst of all lie , knowing that they have no responsibility. Their whole ethos is flawed, they have no customer service skills, but worst is their Select Service... the advisor Alvaro, after listening to our requirements, placed all our money in an account which has lost us 2000€ despite us telling him we wanted no risk and to be able to take the money out at anytime. He has always just covered his back .... They are completely useless as a bank and unable to tell the truth at any time. Avoid them. They could not care less about clients.

Do not use this bank...rip off merchants. No manners and zero personality. They are so anti the British it's just bigotted racism. Worst bank in Spain..DO NOT BANK WITH SANTANDER!!!

Worst banking experience. There was fraudulent activities on my card which were clearly fraudulent (five transactions all happening at midnight through paypal in increasingly consecutive amounts), and they told me it will take up to three months to investigate and maybe I will get my money back and maybe not. This was just my latest complaint. I'm too angry to write everything else. Do not use this bank.

Everything worked OK until November 2019. When I came to transfer money into the account to cover our monthly bills, the transfer was returned by Santander. I phoned the Santander Spain help line and was told that transfers into my account were blocked and I would have to contact my branch to sort it. They gave me the branch telephone number and email address. I have tried to phone the branch numerous times but they never answer the phone. I emailed the branch twice but they have never replied.
We were in Spain over the Christmas holiday. My Santander branch is in Marbella whereas our house is in Torrevieja. We visited our local branch at Punta Prima Torrevieja and I asked to change branch from Marbella. I was told there was no point as anything they could do in Marbella they could do at Punta Prima.
Having explained the problem we sat with a sour faced girl who updated our personal details on the computer and scanned both of our passports. She told us that the block should be removed from our account in a couple of days, maybe a bit longer because of Xmas.
2 weeks later the block had still not been removed and we returned to the Punta Prima branch where we waited 1 hour plus before being able to see anyone. When it was our turn (the bank was in mayhem with so many people queuing, old people with nowhere to sit down) the sour faced girl was on the counter and remembered us. But when I explained that the account was still blocked she was very sharp, rude really, said there was nothing she could/would do and that we should go to Marbella branch. She then refused to speak to us further.
Well we had to return to UK, the account is still blocked, direct debits coming in, what a mess.
Have found the answer, opened a borderless Euro account with Transferwise. You get very good rate moving £s to €s. You get an IBAN number for direct debits and a debit card. Armed with this new account I no longer need Santander so they can go whistle in the wind.....

0 Stars. Worst experience I’ve ever had with any customer service let alone a bank!
My account has been blocked since November. It is now January and I am still trying to sort it out. The only reason I found out it was blocked was because the money I send for my mortgage and bills every month was returned. This I found out eventually from the Banco Santander English speaking help line was because I needed to fill in a FIOC form. What the FIOC form in my internet banking that I can’t get into as it says information needs to be updated?!!!! 🤯
The only other way to sort this out I have been told is to visit my branch. My branch where you need an appointment, my branch where the branch manager and deputy manager do not reply to the emails I have sent to ask for an appointment. The branch that has never answered the phone.
This will be the second time in 12 months I have had to go to Spain from England just to sort out internet banking basically. It’s the most expensive and stressful experience of what it boils down to - filling in a few lines to update some information. It’s madness.
So I am off to Spain to sit in a miserable bank for hours waiting to be seen by a sour face who will have no regard for my journey or reason for being there. I cannot wait to pay my mortgage and get the hell out of there. The thing is - looking at the other options of bank - they all seem the same with us brits at home with a property in Spain. I feel manipulated and without a choice. Horrible.

Firstly the only way I can write this review is to give Santander a minimum of one star when in actual fact they don't deserve any stars. They are a nightmare of a Bank. Customer service is none existent once they have your money. I have literally lost ownership of my money and when I attempt to buy something with MY MONEY I am forced to jump through so many hoops that trying to buy a cheap second hand car becomes a nightmare exercise. When I tried to pay for it at the dealers by electronic transfer it transpired that they required me to go to my branch and wait in an endless queue to attempt the payment transaction manually instead because according to Santander my NIE number, electronic password, account access number and the SMS text number sent to me at the dealership still did not comply sufficiently for them to release MY MONEY to purchase the old car. A car which is of a significantly lesser value than that of the value of MY MONEY banked in my Santander gold account and 123 account. If you want to maintain your sanity Do NOT use these impossible bandits. The reason why I have used this Trustpilot site is because I defy anybody out-there to find a customer complaints email address for Santander in Spain. You can't even contact them BUT THEY HAVE IN THEIR POSSESSION YOUR LIFE'S SAVINGS AND THEY DON'T CARE. Once they have taken possession of your money then you are treated as a necessary evil. I'm moving my account asap.

This review is for only the Real Valencia branch. I have used other branches in Spain who are far more polite. This branch had signs up saying that you can only pay bills on a Tuesday and Thursday between 9 & 10.30 unless you have an account with the bank. Now these signs don't say which country your account has to be in so I waited half an hour to pay a bill using my English Santander account card. The teller then shouted and screamed at me I couldn't pay the bill on a Monday at 12.30. despite all the signs saying I could if I had an account with Santander which I do just not a Spanish one. I'm English not deaf. The signs suggested that you could benefit from having an account with them to be able to pay your bills whenever they are open. Unfortunately this staff member didn't encourage my desire to open an account with them in Spain. I'm not sure I want them to join up their services any better either between countries if this was the attitude in England I would move my account but thankfully the majority of the staff in England are professional and polite.

Worse service for on resident accounts ... they dont use emails to send verification codes , only SMS which we can access if using spanish phones abroad or with foreign cells in Spain as no coverage. Always same problem and cant acces my account .
My cell phone number dont receive SMS in Spain (only data plan) so i cant use it while im in Spain to acces my account because they sent me SMS , so i need a spanish number . So i get a 'trajeta' sim from one local store while im there , have to go to Banco office , wait in line, change my multicanal number for a spanish nb r so they can send me SMS , recieve it and acces my account online while im in spain . ¸Back to Canada , that sim card dont receive SMS(only data) and most of the time expires (cant recharge from out of spain because amost companies ex: Orage, llamaya, etc dont accept any other credit card but spanish and i dont live in spain !!) and cant change multicanal number to my canadian number because i cant get into my account as they sent sms to number on my account whihc os the spanish not good aNYMORE NUMBER !!!! why dont they give us the choice of using our email which can be acceses all over the world instead as they do here in Canada ! i have no problem accessing my online canadian wherever i am in the world...the spanish is always a caos ....wait online on their 123 123 line when we are 7 hours difference just ot have somethinhg done with my money is not called ONLINE banking ....you guys are behindbig time !!!! wake up!!!

Absolute thieves. Consistently change their conditions to charge you more for less. They recently changed their hours so that they will only service clients between 0900 and 1030. They are absolutely useless on the phone or otherwise, they CHARGE YOU every month for having a debit card (10 euros) and on top of that they just started charging 410 EUROS A YEAR for "maintenance". I have opened an account with ING and will be moving everything over to them. You would be a fool to open an account with Santander now, AVOID THIS BANK.

Banco Santander : the service is utterly poor.
They claim to have 24 hours phone service but when you call , you get an automated service that hangs up on you when the options do not apply. I was fotunate enough to get a service officer but was cut off and the entire procedure has to start again.
The digital, telephone and online services from this band is beyond poor.

Santander strikes again: Several missed calls asking to call them and they do not pick up when you do, you cannot leave a message, and they leave you no messages. Finally today: "We need your ID with picture, we do not have it, otherwise your account will be blocked". "Why?" "Because we have no current information". "Yes, you do, you did the same in April 2019, and I gave Maria everything, including a copy of my passport and ID, NIE, proof of tax payment, and resident permit". "Oh... that colleague is not here anymore". "And what happened to my paperwork? Did she start a new life in Mexico with it?" "What do you mean?" "Where are the copies she made then and the confirmation that you had all information?" "I do not know, It is not in the system". "Why not if it was done in April?"" I do not know". "But she confirmed she received everything in April per email and that the account was unblocked. I have those emails. So why is this happening again?" "I do not know, it is not in the system". 10 years of having issues with this Santander branch, 10 years! One word of advice, do not ever open an account at the Palma university branch. Ever. Sencillo, personal, justo, do not make me laugh...

Santander Bank Part 2 - Went to see them. Same as usual. Pretends to not understand English when you tell them off. Always blame the person who has left yet again. Can they keep staff for more than 6 months?. I am feeling totally confident that this person who left may have taken my paperwork. Clearly ex Santander staff have a golden opportunities to resell IDs. After insisting, I got a stamped letter (not on headed paper) stating they have received copies of my ID and NIE. But it will make absolutely no difference for the next clerk in 6 months who wants to block my account again stating they have no ID for me nor any proof of residence. My husband who was with me asked to check his account as well although they had not asked for it. And have a guess: copies of his ID copy and NIE were missing too! What do they do with our very sensitive personal IDS? Sell them to the mob? 10 years with the same credentials at this branch, and this bull🤬👿🤬. Formal complaint will be filed.

This bank is getting worse and worse, all negative comments are correct in my opinion

our account was with bancopopular and without any warning, the website has changed to Santander and has no English translation. My electronic signature stopped working, requested new one, waited a week, then rang them, after about 40 minutes was sent new one but now the site not working, how convenient! Seems they'll do anything to hold onto your cash!
Customer service was pretty much nonexistent before , now its even worse!!!

Without doubt the worst bank not only in Spain, also Europe and probably the world. I have now closed my two UK accounts and will close my Spanish acct as soon as I have concluded my business in Spain.

This bank does not care at all about its customer service which is almost non existant, they pass you from one place to another and if you try to get direct onto your branch by telephone it is impossible. They have a so called english helpline that is a disgrace and just refer you back to your branch. DO NOT JOIN THIS BANK YOU WILL REGRET IT

Santander globally should be shut down, but the one in Mijas Costa Del Sol was a classic ! They are masters in corrupting foreigners in all forms and shape.
Asking me to pay £1500 euro to cash in a cheque and 2 minutes later another £1500 to transfer the money back in the UK was epic ! Then over a few month they grabbed EURO 3 to EURO 12 every month "fees" !!! I never paid a single bank fee in my life in the UK or elsewhere for that matter. The irony of the whole experience is that in a 20 minutes meeting with the branch manager, he must have mentioned about 50 times how they want to protect themselves from fraud ! I nearly puked my breakfast over on his table.