Abbey National, Experian and bad credit!

mattfarrar1982

[FONT=&quot]Hi guys, I'm new to the board was hoping somebody might be able to offer guidance. Strap yourselves in as this is a big one!

I have basically had issues with my bank since September last year. I undertook independent travel to Australia and South America departing September 07 and returning May 08.

I traveled with a general Abbey visa debit card which contained around £3000 in savings (plus an authorised overdraft of £1200) as well as a newly opened Nationwide card which had a nil balance. Sadly the Nationwide card hadn’t arrived at my home before departing so it was sent to my address in Oz and arrived with me later that year.

I also opened an Australian bank account and was using that as my day to day bank card.

In October I lost my abbey national card on a night out and immediately reported it lost. As the card had previously been registered at my University address I requested it be sent to my parent's home address (a former listed address on the account). [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I was rather helpfully advised to go to my local branch and complete a change of address form, sadly branches were at a premium in Australia and my nearest branch was slightly over 10,500 miles away making their suggestion impossible. Eventually after over 2 hours on the phone it was decided that I could change the address via fax, I simply needed to provide a utility bill – in spite of the fact my driver's license was registered at the address I wanted to change my account address to. I clearly hadn't packed a bill to compensate for this eventuality, so more calls and further subjection to abbey's inane hold music, four about-turns in terms of policy from various staff members and it was accepted that my driver's license and passport would be fine.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Abbey then made three attempts to reissue my bank card - none of which arrived at the registered address, despite the pin numbers arriving. At which point, having been without access to my savings for upwards of 2 months I lodged a complaint. This took 8 weeks to resolve and the conclusion from the bank was that they couldn’t find my credit card application. Given that my complaint was about a missing current account debit card, I was not entirely pleased with the outcome.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]3 more failed attempts to reissue the card, no access to my savings for over 5 months meant I was less than pleased. Resulted in needing to telegraphically transfer sums into my nationwide account from the abbey account at £25/transaction.As march approached I had transferred all but £300 of my balance across. I called the bank to discuss whether I could use my authorised overdraft and transfer further funds out. They agreed and transferred a further £850leaving me £600 into my overdraft with £600 breathing space. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The day after they authorised this amount, they sent a letter to my UK address stating that as I had not made regular payments into my account they were reserving the right to withdraw my overdraft facility unless payment was made into the account in the next 30 days. Sadly as I was in South America at the time, a fact that the bank were made aware of on a number of occasions I did not receive said letter. The period expired and they passed the £600 debt onto their internal collections department.

Upon return to the UK I opened these letters and called to see if I could make some staged repayments. I was told unless I repaid the full amount the debt would be passed to a debt collection agency and registered on my credit report. Consequently I raised the funds and cleared the debt before that period expired.

I have now found that from the date that I went into my authorised overdraft Experian have denoted the numbers 5 then 6 against my abbey account on my credit report. These entries are supposed to represent outstanding monies owed for a period greater than 3 months. Given my account was in credit until march and the balance brought to zero early June, I cant see how such a score is warranted. It wasn't until May 13th that a letter was issued to me informing me of the need to repay the full balance and this was duly adhered to within 28 days. How then can abbey justify a mark on my credit score stating that the issue was unresolved for a period greater than 3 months? They also cancelled all direct debits on the account leading me to default on 3 payments that month.

I have since studied the T&C's and feel that abbey may have been in breach of contract by removing my overdraft facilities.

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Clause 2.1.5 of their terms and conditions expressly states that “You may also be expected to pay a minimum regular amount into your current account in order to benefit from specific account features. If this is the case, we will notify you of the minimum amount required and how often the payments must be made” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
At no point was advised in any of the correspondence the amount Abbey required from me to maintain my overdraft facility. Surely then I have suffered from a breach of contract and have a cause of action. As a result of my poor credit score (now in the early 500's) which is caused in no small part by these entries (I had not defaulted for a period of 12 months prior to this event) I am unable to get a consolidatory loan and fall foul of exorbitant MBNA (Virgin CC) interest rates.

I am about to begin a reasonable career in Commercial Law soon and have considered issuing proceedings in the small claim's court on this point. At present however trying to stem the flow of cumulative interest means I am just treading water and not chipping into the capital on my CC despite paying nearly £250/month on debt of just over £5000. Ideally I had planned to get a consolidatory loan over 3 years and pay off my cards that way, sadly with my credit rating shot to bits, no lender in the land is going to offer me a loan in the present financial climate.

[/FONT]

not_loaded

Hi Matt.

This really is a travesty of customer service isn’t it? My wife and I are long-term customers of Abbey, and it’s only when something goes wrong that you discover how bad (or possibly good) any company’s customer service attitude is.

I have been chasing them for two weeks now over my ‘guaranteed approved’ CC application and they really are taking the pi$$. My problem however is nothing compared to yours.

My suggestion is that you consult a solicitor to get all aspects of this sorted. It is not straightforward and will need dealing with in detail, breaking down each aspect in turn. Their incompetence has done you a deal of damage and they owe you for their lack of skill.

If you feel competent to proceed for a certain sum in County Court then go ahead. I’ve taken reluctant businesses to small claims and won every time. However, I don’t think you’ll get anywhere with issues like your damaged credit rating at the County Court so in all it’s probably best to see a solicitor. If needed, the Citizens Advice people can point you in the direction of free legal advice.

But, BEFORE taking any suggested action, write Abbey a letter (send it Special Delivery) saying what you intend to do, and that you will claim all associated costs, expenses and interest of course. Maybe, just maybe they will sort it out when they see you mean business.

Yes, Abbey/Santander… Customers = business! Wake up to what you are doing with your shabby service!