Santander Cards Complaints

robbybobson

Hi all,

Anyone had any experience of dealing with Santander Cards? My mother bought a fridge last year on a buy now pay 6months later deal at Comet.
The credit agreement was with Santander Cards.

Now she fully intended to pay the £360 owed before the deadline which was around May. She did not receive a letter from Santander stating the payment procedure or the due date or anything at all until the payment was late. The phone number they give goes to an automated line that simply asks for your payment details and nothing else. No options.

Eventually she got through to a person by taking too long to input her details. He informed her that she owed £369 and x pence. She asked where the additional £9 had come from and was informed it was interest due to late payment. She was unhappy with this as they had not sent her a letter when it was originally due but she paid the amount in full at her bank that day.

A month later she had another letter saying she owed another £15 or so and she had not paid the latest payment of £4. Another round of calls to ask where this came from and it was for "late payment". The letter implied that the debt collectors would be calling if she did not pay. She rang again and muddled her way through the awful phone system again to speak with someone. She did not understand why the payment was due but relented and paid the money in full over the phone.

I sent them a letter at this point stating that their service was terrible and they should have sent a letter before the original payment date with instructions to pay.

Their response to this, another letter saying she owed another £15 for late payment. Again she paid this over the phone. She just wants closure as this is stressing her out and she has high blood pressure. I however am livid with these borderline criminals. I would expect this sort of thing from a loan shark.

Does anyone know who to complain to this company? They seem to have very few contact numbers or ways to get any information out of them.

So basically it went.

"buy now pay later"
"you missed the payment even though we did not tell you how to pay"
"you owe us extra"
"thanks for that, now you owe us some more just because"
"thanks for that, now you owe us some more just because"

Sound a lot like a criminal to me.

chattychappy

What did the original agreement say? If that didn't give payment details, then she is was free to protect her position by sending a cheque to the address on the agreement.

I don't really buy the idea that because they didn't write to your mother just before the payment is due then she isn't liable for the interest as a result of paying late.

robbybobson

I was of the understanding that they had to send a reminder letter for these buy now pay later deals. The original agreement documents where with comet and did not seem to have payment details on them. The first thing she got from Santander was the letter a couple of weeks after it was due. Regardless of this she paid the original fee and the extra £9 and has since had two more late payment letters.

She has paid immediately at every stage she has received a letter from them so where are the late charges coming from?

robbybobson

The original agreement letter states that "we will write to you one month before this date (deadline date) advising you of your options"

This letter was never received.

robbybobson

Has anyone had a similar experience? Or has anyone any advice?

MoneyBank

robbybobson wrote: »

Has anyone had a similar experience? Or has anyone any advice?

I had an almost identical experience.

Last year I bought an item on a 6 month buy now pay later arrangement.

I did not receive any correspondence whatsoever from Santander, especially a reminder a month before payment was due. I had no idea that Santander were involved at all until I noticed a direct debit they had taken out of my bank.

With no correspondence I had no chance of making a payment, and trying to get through on their phones were a nightmare. I wonder how many more people were stung like us? :mad: