Santander app was driving me crazy, so I gave up on it and moved my savings to another less intrusive bank
No, really. I've always had issues with the Santander banking app because I refuse to run any bloated or spooky Android Stock firmware (Xiaomi, Samsung, Motorola) and I've always used Replicant or LineageOS ROMs on my phones, no exception. There was one time I refused to get a newer phone because I couldn't unlock its bootloader neither was any custom ROM support for it (not even root capability at the time) so I just stick with my older one, a little beaten up and swollen battery that made me charge it almost two times per day.
Basically, Santander App for Android that's my new banking app just refuses to open on anything I try. Android 7/8/9/10/11, stock or LineageOS, rooted or not. There was one week that it randomly started working on LineageOS and it was a 2021 security patch (I was using it on 2023). I was already used to do my transactions by the banking website on my computer, since even if you can't use the app logged in for more than 5 seconds until it force closes, QR scanning and authenticator for the banking website still works (there's a button for it on the login screen of the Santander app).
I've never had so many issues like this, and I always used other banking apps on the same rooted/custom firmware phone, they just don't care if your bootloader is unlocked or not since there's no actual way to hak infinite money or something. For what I noticed, Santander basically doesn't:
- Allow the user to run/use their app with a rooted phone
- Allow the user to run/use their app with a unlocked bootloader
- Allow the user to run/use their app with a phone running a custom ROM
- Allow the user to run/use their app without Google Play Services*
- Aparently even if you use someting like microG services like I do to spoof Google SafetyNet (sometimes it works and sometimes doesn't, it's basically hit or miss rolling a 50/50 chance dice) or even using Google Apps itself, the App won't run due to Google's SafetyNet checks not passing (older Android version, custom ROM, unlocked bootloader, root).
- I recently gave this phone to my dad and he's using it with LineageOS and Google Play Services, and there's a lot of random stuff he can't use like a specific store app to check bills (that for some reason needs the SafetyNet pass check) and energy bills app.
- Don't give any support regarding the app crash, and if you don't have a burner phone or a newer phone like they recommend you're basically stuck to ATMs to see the balance and take money out.
- Allow the user do mostly any services without using the app
- If you need an allowance, change per month value, renegotiate, activate a new credit card, use PIX (Brazil's digital coin money similar to Cash App) you need to use the Santander App. Recently I tried contacting the Bank Manager personally, and I wasn't successfull on getting an allowance because there's a notification inside the app and you need to confirm it, doesn't work on the banking on computer, and I couldn't use the app because it just crashes.
I basically said a big "f**k you" to Santander and I moved my savings and my future payments to Nubank (that's a digital banking app that just works and aparently still there's no restrictions, despite being a proprietary app). I don't see myself buying a new phone in the near future, and if I could I wish that I didn't need one for anything.
Copyright 2024 Euroblitz Released under the Creative Commons Attribution Noderivatives 3.0 license