Santander consumer finance warning!

boomstyliemikey

I have recently got a car on finance and felt I needed to share my experience I've had with them on here. Hopefully anyone who is thinking about taking finance out with them will think twice after reading this:

The first problem I noticed with them was the only way to contact them was to call a automated phone number which cost 10p a minute. When calling this number it is like a endless maze of options which never leads to you speaking to a real person.

If you want to pay some of your finance off Santader will charge you an extra £10 to do so, however if you pay by cheque this is free.

If you want to change the direct debit date or account the direct debit is take out from Santander will charge you £25 for this privilege.

If you want to pay any money off your finance this will not lower the amount of interest paid. For example if you borrow £4000 and pay off £3995 Santander will still charge you the interest for £4000.

Feel free to and any of ur experience with them or comment.

Thanks

dzug1

Do you really need to share this information 3 times?

boomstyliemikey

kept saying it hadnt posted so pressed back and send. any info on how to delete two of them dzug1 would be greatly appreciated

Loughton_Monkey

It can be substantially the same for mortgages. When they give you a loan, and quote a rate, it takes into account what they will earn in 'high' interest over the period. They have lots of set-up costs to 'underwrite' your original application. If you go and pay it all off early, they would lose heavily. Hence they want you to stick to the payment schedule.

BlueHayes90

I also took out car finance which was through Santander Consumer Finance.

In comparison to what the OP has said here is my experience based on having to contact them just a few weeks ago.

• I didn't pay attention to the cost of the phone number, but yes it was probably one which was 10p a minute. The same will apply to many businesses, so perhaps it would be smart to find a direct number to the callcenter if possible. Surprisingly Santander Consumer Finance also give an e-mail address that you can contact them on (found on their website).
• When I rang them, there were about 3 options, only one would apply to us most likely (for example one of the other options was for the car dealerships). No confusing mazes, hit the option you would like and within 30 seconds someone greeted me in a very friendly manner (though the second guy I spoke to didn't seem so enthusiastic, he was ok though).
• If you don't want to pay £10 to pay off some of your finance, pay by cheque? This one seems a no brainer. More importantly, save the money that you want to pay off the finance with to one side and do it in one big lump sum so that the £10.00 is less of an issue (you may even be able to have it waived on the phone, they let me off with a late payment + bounced direct debit fee when I was switching bank accounts).
• I e-mailed them regarding changing my direct debit to a new bank account, I was quickly sent a form in the post to do this with no mention of a charge. In the end I did ring up and do it over the phone instead, again there was no charge or problem here at all - took a couple of minutes max.
• Why did you even take out car finance if you intended to be paying a lot in advance? The whole point of car finance is that you can pay over time in manageable amounts! You're probably best keeping your extra bits of money to one side and next them purchase your car yourself, instead of expecting the car finance company to purchase the car for you and then make little money out of it.

My experience with Santander banking - awful. My experience however with Santander Consumer Finance has been great. This isn't the kind of company I would normally need to contact, I pay them each month on time and forget about it until the end of the terms. However when I did ring them up to pay for one month by debit card a few days late plus alter my direct debit, things were fine. No fees at all either despite a bounced DD from my old account (which according to my contract they can charge for), the payment being a few days late or me wanting to move the DD to a new account.

boomstyliemikey

in regards to BlueHayes90's earlier post
:j well done you for thinking of looking for an alternative number unfortunately anyone with half a brain cell (including myself) would have also thought have this. FYI the only other number they have listed is their leeds office who are unable to help. Im glad you've had a good experience but please keep you comments helpful and not errr how can i put this...time wasting? No Offence

You came across in your message as quite inept at making your money work for you. Dont be such a walk other with these big companies and stand up for your "hard earned" money. If you ever need any help there are loads of helpful resources on this site.