I am the administrator for a Fairtrade stall run weekly by our branch of Churches Together.

We buy Fairtrade products on 30 days’ credit from Traidcraft and sell them on our stall and to other local churches.

Some months ago, we decided to transfer the bank account from Santander, which has not had a branch in Thornbury for many years, to Lloyds, which will soon be the only one in the town.

The last transactions were on 4 July and the Lloyds account was open and accepting cash payments from 10 August. But Santander has still not transferred our balance of £438 to the new account.

Traidcraft gave me extended credit and I was able to settle our July bill out of our sales. However, we have just under £200 in our new account and this will not cover our August bill of £314.

We have undergone exhaustive questioning to satisfy Santander, with some of the names dredged up of people who died 20 years ago. We have never had an annual turnover of more than £3,000.

We’ve had long phone conversations with Santander but can’t seem to make any progress.

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RP, Thornbury

Thankfully, we have been able to resolve this.

Foot-dragging Santander says that, in order to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, it had to ensure the information it holds is accurate and up-to-date.

However, it adds: “We’re sorry that, in this case, we didn’t progress the closure of the account as soon as the customer asked us to do so. We have closed the account, transferred the funds out, and will provide £250 compensation for the delay and inconvenience.”

You will donate this to Traidcraft Exchange, which directly supports the communities of fair trade producers.

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