Santander Bank Sovereign Bank Holding Funds for Fraudulent Transactions Boston, Massachusetts

On Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, at 3PM, I noticed 4 pending holds had been placed on my account, all from the same merchant and all at 1:30 PM that day. As these are fraudulent online transactions from a merchant I never even heard of, I called Santander Bank and cancelled my debit card. They had me call back on Monday morning to officially dispute the 4 amounts.

Today is Wednesday, December 21 and 2 of the 4 are credited to my account. I called the bank to find out why the other 2 were not credited, and they said that would happen when the investigation completes, in 7 to 30 days. As they all ocurred digitally with the same merchant and at the exact same time, it didn't make sense to me to not credit back all 4 amounts.

I spoke to a supervisor to let her know that I had oustanding checks which would bounce if they didn't credit the remainder, and she said there was nothing that could be done; the decision of the clerk in fraudulent claims was final, and was due to the large amount of the remaining 2 transactions ($145 total).

I have had this account (which I am about to close) since 1967, when the bank was Shawmut Bank, and have never had this kind of treatment. The $145.00 they are delaying means a lot more to me (living from paycheck to paycheck) than it does to a bank the size of Santander.

I will be closing my account, and advise anyone thinking of opening an account with this bank to think twice about it. There are many banks out there that will treat you with some degree of respect.