Santander beware punitive interests

lastofthemohicans

Warning to anyone who wants to do the right thing and pay off a santander credit card; no good deed goes unpunished. The unscrupulous corporate minds at Santander will make you pay through the nose for your honest bid to get out of debt-that's if they let you pay it off at all.

Case in point-wanted to pay off my partner's debt on Santander credit card by transferring money from my in-credit Santander current account. Seem straightforward? Not a chance-Over a nearly 2 hour call that I paid for, I was transferred to 3 different depts and repeated the same details.I quoted my partner's credit card number 10 times, had it read back to me and confirmed (This comes back to bite me in the bum). First they told me it would be impossible for such a large amount - I would have to get a bank transfer,go through security, get a phonecall back from them to authenticate my identity etc etc. Ok agreed. 24 hours later they hadn't called back.

I called them back-same process, same transfers,same credit card number-knew it off by heart by this time. But success...so I thought.

They quoted me full amount, I agreed it-it was done.The money went out of my account.

A month later...a nasty letter to my partner, in arrears, credit default, no payment that month (Paid off religiously until I settled). Credit rating in crisis and so on. I checked my account again-yes it had gone out.I wasn't dreaming.We called.. spent money/time again trying to sort this out to discover that the payment had 'rebounded' because (Get this) one digit on the credit card had been typed in wrong. Eh? Seriously...? It IS a santander credit card...They DID have all the details. I HAD repeated it and had it read back to me...
They hadn't informed us until I rang up and corrected their mistake.

Now the payment was lost in some nether world,in some shadowy holding account that had now closed. Kind of convenient-any interest that it was accruing there certainly didn't come to me. Who had it gone to, I wondered?

Instead another credit bill arrived...with added interest. The original payment bounced back to my account. I'd had enough-just pay off the interest and be done-complain after. Very simple this time-just 48 hours,small amount. What a mug. 2 weeks later,another nasty letter, more interest. More calls, same explanation, same 'mistake'.

Maybe there is a 10th circle of Hell...a kind of Sisyphean bank vault, where the more you pay,the greater your debt becomes. I fear I know its name.
Anyone else had a similar experience?
I wonder how much this really happens.

laura2481

That sounds terrible Hope you get it sorted. It's ridiculous that you can't manage to pay a Santander card from a Santander account. Do you have online banking? I successfully paid the total balance on my Santander CC from a Barclays account by just going to the 'pay a bill' section and using the sort code and account details on the statement, and Card no as reference. I would definietly get them to refunf that added interest. It's their c*ck up. Numpties!

palaran

Go through their internal complaints procedure and if still not resolved complain to the ombudsman. Likely that they will try to resolve before that as any complaint to ombudsman costs them, whether finds against them or not.