DRN-5970574

The complaint Miss C complains Santander UK Plc wouldn’t accept change of address documents she sent in and made her complete multiple forms and submit additional documents instead. What happened Miss C had an account with Santander which was closed following this complaint. We’ve explained to Miss C that she needs to complain to Santander about the closure before she can ask us to look into it. I’m not, therefore, going to say any more about the closure in this decision. In February 2025 Miss C wrote to Santander to let it know that she’d moved abroad and that she wanted her address updating. She says she included copies of proof of residence – all translated – as well as a completed form and her new address details. Santander looked into Miss C’s complaint and said that it hadn’t updated her address as she’d not sent in proof of address. Santander accepted that it hadn’t explained to Miss C why her address hadn’t been updated, so it offered her £40 in compensation as a goodwill gesture. Miss C was unhappy with Santander’s response and so complained to our service. One of our investigators looked at Miss C’s complaint and said that they didn’t think it would be fair to make Santander liable for her higher call costs or the costs associated with updating her address. They said that because she’d incurred these costs as a result of moving abroad. Our investigator did, however, recommend that Santander pay Miss C an additional £35 as they agreed that Miss C had ended up having to contact Santander more than she needed to because Santander hadn’t explained its processes properly. Miss C was unhappy with our investigator’s recommendation saying that she was particularly upset about spending almost an hour on the phone with Santander only to be told to send the same documents again. Miss C was also upset about the fact that Santander had accepted documents she’d emailed to it and that she was the one who’d come up with the idea. In short, she wanted all the costs she’d incurred getting translations done, documents certified and calling and posting. She asked for her complaint to be referred to an ombudsman for a decision. Her complaint was, as a result, passed to me.

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What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. I can see that Santander explains what customers need to do when they move address, including when they move abroad, and what documents they need to send in. I can also see that Miss C followed that guidance and completed the relevant Santander form as well as sending in what she believed was proof of identity and proof of address. Because some of those documents weren’t in English, she had to get translations done and because she didn’t want to send originals – for obvious reasons – she also had to get some of those documents certified. That understandably took time and costed money. I agree, however, with our investigator that it wouldn’t be fair to hold Santander liable for those costs as they were costs Miss C incurred as a result of moving abroad. I can completely understand why Miss C has found this whole process frustrating. Santander has admitted that it didn’t explain to Miss C why it didn’t update her address after receiving her documents. I’m satisfied that she found out that this hadn’t happened after a long call at the end of which she was told to submit her documents all over again. Santander offered Miss C £40 as a gesture of goodwill, and our investigator recommended an additional £35 to reflect the unnecessary additional costs that Miss C incurred. Because I don’t agree that it would be fair to ask Santander to pay for the costs Miss C incurred getting translations done and documents certifying – for the reasons above – which is what Miss C has asked for, I’m going to say that Santander should pay the amount our investigator has recommended. That will then allow Miss C to make that recommendation legally binding should she wish to accept my decision. Putting things right Santander has accepted that it didn’t explain why it hadn’t updated Miss C’s address as soon as it should have done leading her to incur additional unnecessary costs. In order to put this right, I’m going to require Santander to pay Miss C £75 in compensation. My final decision My final decision is that I’m upholding this complaint and require Santander UK Plc to pay Miss C £75 in compensation. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Miss C to accept or reject my decision before 27 April 2026. Nicolas Atkinson Ombudsman

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