Santander

Although rather new to the UK banking industry, Santander (part of the Spanish Santander Group founded in 1857) has a large presence and includes Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and the Bradford and Bingley savings business.

It also acquired parts of Royal Bank of Scotland's banking business in England and Wales and some Scottish NatWest branches.

The bank frequently has special offers on their credit cards such as 0% balance transfers and 0% purchase cards as well as the Zero card which has no foreign exchange fees.