Santander 'Arrangement to Pay marker' on Credit record

leemrobinson

Hi guys,

Approx 2 and a half years ago I took out an unsecured personal loan with Alliance & Leicester which has since been transferred over to Santander following the merger of the two companies.

This week I have viewed an online copy of my credit file with Equifax and found that in January 2010 they recorded an 'Arrangement to Pay' marker against my account with them.

The circumstances for this are as follows;

Direct debit payment is due and collected on Dec 11th 2009

Direct debit is returned unpaid on Dec 15th 2009 ( an error on my part for not making sure there was enough money in the account)

Direct Debit collected on January 11th 2010

Telephone call received form Santander telling me I was a month behind with my payments and asking me for a payment by card over the phone there and then - I refused as this was an unexpected call. I had to check that this was in fact Santander calling and also that the payment had been returned unpaid. I agreed to check with my bank and if required to return a call with a payment.

I confirm with my bank that the payment was returned unpaid and within 24 hours have called Santander and made the payment in full over the phone.

My wife also reads a letter that has now arrived at home and realises that this payment is due and phone Santander to make a further payment of a full months payment on my behalf - this in fact means the account is a month ahead of schedule. - This is how the account remains today - a month ahead of schedule. Both payments made in January. All subsequent payments have been made on time.

I am unhappy to find that Santander consider this to be an Arrangement to Pay. I notice from previous threads and other information on the net that this is a serious blot on my credit file and is resulting in declined applications.

I also see that Santander have recorded a Late payment against my record for the month of December 2009 - it seems I am being punished twice for the same thing.

I have complained to Santander using their online complaints form and they replied basically saying they will not remove the Arrangement to Pay marker as it would not be a true reflection of the running of my account.

Does anyone have any ideas where I should go now and what I should do next. I have no other late / missed payments, no CCJ's / defaults etc on my credit file and never had any other issues but this red marker on my equifax file is resulting in declined applications.

Please help !

zppp

If you are unhappy with your the way Santander have dealt with your complaint, or the decision they came to, you should request a final response letter stating their position. You can then take this to the Financial Ombudsman if you want it to be independently reviewed.

Hax

An A2P marker seems a bit harsh considering the circumstances - if anything, I would have expected a "1" to be recorded, indicating that the account was, at that point, 1 month in arrears.

As zppp said - take it to the ombudsman - that A2P marker seems totally inappropriate here (IMHO).

leemrobinson

I would have no problem with a '1' marker as a result of my error - but for 1 month only. Santander have stuck a '1' on the record for December (which i think is fair) and also the 'A2P' marker for January.

I have completed the online FOS complaint form and will send it off today together with a copy of my annual statement from santander showing how unfair they have been.

Anyone got any experience with FOS coplaints and how long the process takes etc ?

the_insider

You need to complain to Santander first, FOS won't deal with the complaint in the first instance. Just call them and ask why they've put it on there, they might be able to remove it straight away, much quicker.

leemrobinson

the_insider wrote: »

You need to complain to Santander first, FOS won't deal with the complaint in the first instance. Just call them and ask why they've put it on there, they might be able to remove it straight away, much quicker.

Already done that and they are not interested.

leemrobinson

Just an update guys... our complaint was looked at by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and they agreed with us and ordered Santander to remove the Arrangement to Pay marker - AND pay us £50 ccompensation "for distress caused". RESULT !!

It's well worth going through the FOS...we have found them to be very efficient!