Fed up with Santander re default notices and DCA

Triggles

DH's credit card with Santander is not a horrific debt, it's just under £2k. But this is the most recent tally of nonsense from Santander:

- FIFTEEN letters from Santander in the space of 2 weeks, over the last week of March through first week of April of 2010. SEVEN of those letters were actually default notices, with slightly differing amounts.
- another default notice on 22 April, followed by ANOTHER default notice date 23rd April and yet another on 26 April. All for the same account.
- statement dated 7 May from Santander, requesting payment to Santander
- letter from Viking Collection Services (which I believe is Santander in-house collections) saying they now have the debt and all communication should be through them, however payment should be made to Santander.
- letter from 1st credit dated 27 May saying THEY have the debt and that we should be paying THEM and communicating with THEM.
- our standing order payment sent to Santander for the past 6 months, was rejected and refunded to us this month, as I just found out when checking my bank account.

I've sent a letter to Santander, with a copy to 1st credit, requesting confirmation as to who actually owns the debt, so that we know who to communicate with and pay for this. We're just awaiting a response now. I made it clear in the letter that I would continue to make payment to Santander until I received clarification on this, but obviously if they are rejecting my payment that makes it rather difficult. :mad:

If I don't get a clear response from Santander, I'm assuming I can make some sort of complaint somewhere regarding this? The post we've received from them as been misleading, confusing, OTT, and I have to say I am not impressed with getting demands from what appears to be 3 entities over the course of 20 days in one month, and no notice from Santander that they have sold the debt to 1st credit (which I presume they have or else how would they have this info??).

Triggles

Anyone with ideas regarding the reason for all the different default notices? We've had default notices from other creditors - nobody else has seen fit to send 10 of them on the same account.....

bargainbetty

I would be tempted to take the entire bundle into a branch, and ask that it be copied and sent with your letter to the relevant department. Get the name of the person you deal with, and ask for the most senior customer services person available. Once you have done it, tell them that unless you receive a reasonable response within 5 days, you will open a complaint with the banking ombudsman, naming them specifically. Sometimes you get a faster response when individuals realise they have to do their job properly to cover their bottoms.

I just got £250 compensation from Barclays after threatening this. The person had failed to close a business account for nine months, and had told the complaints department it was sorted. I named him and his manager in the complaint - sorted in three days.

Good luck x

Triggles

At this point, I've sent them the letter requesting clarification on the account as to who actually "owns" it and where payment should be sent and to whom. If they don't respond, then I'll probably send another registered letter stating that if they don't respond within a certain time limit with the requested information that I will make a complaint at that point. I will most likely put in copies of the letters received, so they can see what a mishmash it is. I suspect 1st credit actually have the account now, based on them refusing to take my payment, but I want this information in writing (and Santander should have advised me of this!) from Santander. Then I guess my next step is requesting the CCA and going from there.