The Student Room Group

Santander Blocked Everything

Hello,

So I went to check my bank account this morning as it said SFE has been paid and I have been without both money and food for a few days now. When I tried to login, it says access is blocked due to suspicious activity and when I called them they said that it's because of a large credit being applied by SFE. I said surely they can see where it's from and can check with SFE themselves? I have spent an hour stressed out on the phone to them and got nowhere. They said I need to upload proof of SFE and a load of other proof, I asked how long it will take and they said atleast 48 hours. WHAT DO I DO? I HAVE NOTHING. I even told them this and their answer pretty much was 'you'll have to wait nothing we can do'. I have a hospital appointment tomorrow back where I am from and the train is over £100. I need to attend this as I have waited YEARS on a waiting list for this appointment and I have no access to any money at all and I HAVE NO FOOD. I can't cope right now. Before anyone says "Can't your relatives send you money or you use another bank account" No, they can't. My WHOLE account is blocked so I can't receive or use or anything. I have no friends here so it's not like I could just borrow cash. I am 9 hours away from home and I need that train tomorrow for the hospital. I do NOT have any other bank accounts and have no options at all right now. Can someone please give me some advice on what to do or inform me if this has happened to anyone else?
Reply 1
Original post by elliefitz
Hello,
So I went to check my bank account this morning as it said SFE has been paid and I have been without both money and food for a few days now. When I tried to login, it says access is blocked due to suspicious activity and when I called them they said that it's because of a large credit being applied by SFE. I said surely they can see where it's from and can check with SFE themselves? I have spent an hour stressed out on the phone to them and got nowhere. They said I need to upload proof of SFE and a load of other proof, I asked how long it will take and they said atleast 48 hours. WHAT DO I DO? I HAVE NOTHING. I even told them this and their answer pretty much was 'you'll have to wait nothing we can do'. I have a hospital appointment tomorrow back where I am from and the train is over £100. I need to attend this as I have waited YEARS on a waiting list for this appointment and I have no access to any money at all and I HAVE NO FOOD. I can't cope right now. Before anyone says "Can't your relatives send you money or you use another bank account" No, they can't. My WHOLE account is blocked so I can't receive or use or anything. I have no friends here so it's not like I could just borrow cash. I am 9 hours away from home and I need that train tomorrow for the hospital. I do NOT have any other bank accounts and have no options at all right now. Can someone please give me some advice on what to do or inform me if this has happened to anyone else?

Your immediate issue is getting the train tomorrow.

Can you get a friend/relative to buy the rail tickets on your behalf? You should be able to do this online and get the tickets sent to you as a PDF file. You can print these or show them on a mobile device.

Regarding your account being blocked for receiving a large payment from SFE -- I think this is cause for a formal complaint to the bank, particularly if you have a student account. A bank like Santander ought to be able to recognise incoming maintenance loan payments! Obviously that doesn't help with the immediate issue.

Do you have any friends from whom you can borrow some cash -- perhaps £20 -- for incidental costs on your trip to hospital?

Going forward, I'd suggest (to anyone, not just you) that it's best to have two current accounts (with different banks), simply so that you don't get bitten if for whatever reason you lose access to one of them. You don't need a large amount in the "backup" account, just enough to cover immediate costs if, for example, a bank has IT issues and their cards stop working (and that seems to happen rather more frequently than you'd expect in this day and age).

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