I applied for the Santander Rewards card and two things happened immediately: the login was instant, the app was good to go – but the card won’t arrive for 5–7 working days. And unlike most fintechs, and even some legacy banks now, you can’t use the account until you activate the physical card.
New app. Old bank underneath.
Once the account was open, I messaged two banks:
- Chase — can I set up a Direct Debit from the Saver account?
- Santander — can I activate the card before it arrives?
As a long‑time Chase customer, I knew exactly what would happen next: a reply within a minute or two. No bots. No copy paste. Honestly? My own mother doesn’t reply that quickly. Customer service heaven.
Santander… was different. Sandy the bot tried and failed to understand me, then promised a human would be in touch. Fair enough.
The human reply arrived 5 hours and 4 minutes later.
Emojis, apologies, “higher than usual volume”. You know how it goes.
And here’s the issue: my question wasn’t urgent. But your bank needs to be there when something is. Chase was. Santander wasn’t. And the irony writes itself. Right at the front of the Santander app it proudly declares: “Simple. Personal. Fair.” Personal it is not.
In the end, the fintech gave the most human response. The bank that brands itself as “personal” didn’t.
