Consumer complaint received 2018-08-26
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CT
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
Forty eighXXXX years ago, my husband and I opened a savings and checking account with XXXX XXXX   XXXX. Over the years, I opened several more accounts at the bank and the bank has changed hands three times. These accounts were my primary accounts and they grew substantially to include our household savings and checking, our children 's savings and college acoounts, and a trust account. With each change of banks, I made sure that all of my accounts would be tied together so that I did not have to pay any fees and this was the case until recently. We had as many as eight accounts at the bank and never had a problem. Over the years, I have spoken to bank representatives about my accounts and I was assured that all the accounts were linked so that our substantial balance would preclude any fees. A while ago, I received a letter from the current bank, Santander, notifying me that I would be charged {$1.00} per month on my trust accounts because they were inactive. I promptly went into the bank and spoke with the branch manager. He reversed the charge and I was not charged that fee again. 

When I retired in XXXX, I had the time to closely scrutinize my bank statements. I was very surprised to see that I was being chraged {$30.00} a month on the trust accounts. I had never received a letter informing me that this would be done. Instead, a blanket statement was printed on monthly statements. Since I had always been told that my substantial balances at the bank would preclude any fees, I did not think that this generic statement applied to me. The trust accounts were only a few XXXX dollars below the minimum required for the fee to be waived on those accounts, while the aggregate amount of all of my accounts was significantly higher than the minimum required balances. I could have easily transferred that amount into the trust accounts if I had been notified of pending fees by the bank. And, for a while I was also charged a {$3.00} monthly fee for a paper statement for the trust accounts. Since I am well over 65 years of age, this violated bank policy and was later recinded. But I had to bring it to the bank 's attention when they certainly had the information in their records. 
Once I became aware of the charges, I went to the bank and spoke with a representative. He assured me that he would handle the situation At one point, he told me that my accounts should have been " grandfathered ''. While he was doing this, Santander continued to charge my account. The branch manager did credit my account for those charges but she has a limit of {$100.00} and these charges had gone on for 5 years. So, there is a significant amount that was not returned to my account. 

The local bank representatives referred me to the district executive. After speaking with her several times, she told me that she would refund {$500.00} as a courtesy because of my longstanding relationship with the bank. When I once again told her that I had been assured by a number of bank employees that I would not be charged any fees because of my substantial bank balances, she told me that none of the people with whom I had spoken were still with the bank so she was not going to honor what they had assured me about my accounts! I was told by my branch representative that I needed to keep the accounts in question open so that the {$500.00} would be deposited. The bank continued to charge me the monthly fees which the local branch credited back to my account. Finally, after 2 months, I closed the trust accounts. I am presently in the process of moving all of my accounts out of Santander Bank. This has been a major inconvenience for me. The bank should refund the {$30.00} monthly charge that has been deducted from my account since XXXX, XXXX.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation