Santander want proof of unemployment- help

loopylou6

I wrote to Santander to reclaim my account cover (ppi charges) for an old evans account which was closed last year. It was originally with GE Capital but now santander. My reasons for reclaiming are 'didnt know it was optional' and i was unemployed at the time that i opened the account ( i was a full time university student)
I have received quite a long letter back saying that the cover was optional and the process they had in place was to make clear it wasnt compulsory and i signed the form for it. They also said i had plenty of time to cancel the cover which will have shown up on all statements etc etc.
They have said on the employment side of things in order for them to investigate further they need evidence to support my claim so they want a copy of my national insurance premiums for the year i took out insurance.

Has anyone else been asked to supply this proof? are they allowed to do that?

If i send the information will they not just say you illegally signed the form for the cover because you knew you werent employed.

maxdp

When you opening the account was the PPI pre ticked. If so you would have had to have opted out. This is seen as not good practice nowadays.

I think it is reasonable for you to prove to them that you were unemployed, it is not unusual for them to ask for further information.

loopylou6

There wasnt a box to be preticked it was just a section called account cover and you had to sign in that part of box and at end of form. There is a star where the signature was needed, i think the sales person just said sign here and here and i 'stupidly' just signed.

So it wont do me any harm sending them a copy of my national insurance premiums for that year to prove i was unemployed?

Or should i just pursue the side of misselling?

loopylou6

I have just realised i already have a letter with my ni contributions for that year, it shows i was 27 weeks short. It doesnt state why but it was because i was a student for a half the year and receiving Job Seekers Allowance for half the year - and while on benefits your ni contributions are paid for you so my NI contributions dont show whether i was unemployed or not.
How does that show to them i was unemployed (or am i misunderstanding something?)

would really appreciate some help

dunstonh

Has anyone else been asked to supply this proof? are they allowed to do that?

The company is allowed to ask you for evidence to support your claims.

This tends to happen on complaints that they feel are opportunistic or try-it-ons. PPI complaints are getting a lot of these at the moment. If you used a generic template letter, it's even more likely.

People used to put complaints in about endowments going past retirement in the template letters. Early ones got away with that but once it was realised that many were trying it on the providers started asking for evidence of retirement age if it was less than state pension age (as people were claiming retirement ages of under 50!).

So, there is form here and it is not uncommon to be asked for proof and it works both ways. You would expect them to have proof on things so its only fair you do as well.

di3004

Hi there

You should be able to contact the unemployment office to ask if they still hold any details of you of being unemployed.
You could contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and ask their advice on this but your entitled to request for any information that any company hold on you, where they should hold details for some years in this respect.
https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx
More info on link here:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/freedom_of_information.aspx

The ICO should be able to advise you on how to go about retrieving your information.
Good luck.;)