Santander

Banks have been ordered to stop harassing consumers with heavy handed threats for the non-payment of relatively small debts.

Santander has once again been ranked the worst bank for service by an overwhelming margin, according to a poll of over 9,000 MoneySavingExpert.com users.

Lloyds Banking Group has been joined by many of its rivals in freezing payment protection insurance (PPI) claims.

Santander has broken ranks and become an unlikely consumer champion by refusing to take part in controversial legal plans by banks to block mass compensation to payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling victims.

Barclays is top of the bank complaints league table with more complaints per customer than any of its major rivals.

Santander has apologised for its abysmal service over recent months and has pledged to improve the customer experience for its 25 million account holders.

Nearly two million Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest customers must act to avoid having their current account transferred to Santander, or to get a £100 bonus if they want to switch to the Spanish giant.

Barclays has been named and shamed as the high street bank that wrongly rejects the highest proportion of complaints from angry customers.

A major credit card shake-up starts tomorrow with MBNA set to end a long-standing stealth charge that penalises those who spend on their card after making a cheap balance transfer.

Lloyds TSB upheld just 12% of banking complaints from its customers during the first half of the year, figures show today.