Santander - Charging to change DD date

sandiejannorman

Hi all

Wondered if anyone could help

Just rang Santander to change the date my direct debit comes out for car finance and they said that they will charge me £25 for the privilege. WHAT!!:mad:

Are they allowed to do this and is there a way I can get round it. I'm not amused at being told I have to pay them to press a button on their computer.

No one else does this. :huh:

Thanks

CH27

Is it a fee to change the date or a payment to cover the days until the next payment?

CLAPTON

well presumably you are pushing back the date so they can reasonably charge you the extra interest: i.e. between your current date and the new date

nelly12

sandiejannorman wrote: »

Hi all

Wondered if anyone could help

Just rang Santander to change the date my direct debit comes out for car finance and they said that they will charge me £25 for the privilege. WHAT!!:mad:

Are they allowed to do this and is there a way I can get round it. I'm not amused at being told I have to pay them to press a button on their computer.

No one else does this. :huh:

Thanks

Yes they do. Think about it this way. they probably have to employ people to make these specific changes to payment dates etc so there are wages to pay.

Think you would have been able to sort this out FOC at the commencement of your agreement.

PS. it's nothing to do with interest. Fixed agreement up front so can only add charges for default, missed payments etc.

Common_Sense_2

sandiejannorman wrote: »

Hi all

I'm not amused at being told I have to pay them to press a button on their computer.

No one else does this. :huh:

Thanks

think about it - they've got to pay someone to answer your call to request this change, then they've got to press the button. before the person can answer your call, they've got to be trained in the use of the computer system, phone system, passed training courses on Anti-money laundering and Data protection act. So while the actual "act" of pressing the button doesn't cost £25, the actions up to that point add up to a lot more than £25.

Also many other finance companies do charge for payment date changes.

CLAPTON

nelly12 wrote: »

Yes they do. Think about it this way. they probably have to employ people to make these specific changes to payment dates etc so there are wages to pay.

Think you would have been able to sort this out FOC at the commencement of your agreement.

PS. it's nothing to do with interest. Fixed agreement up front so can only add charges for default, missed payments etc.

curious why you say that

by delaying the payment date the OP wants to entend the loan by that number of days i.e. the final payment will be later than otherwise

why do you think the lender should not charge the interest on this extra period

notsorichandnotsofamous

it does seem a bit excessive.
I recently changed the date my mortgage came out by one day( with mortgage provider not santander) and was charged about £4.15 for the extra interest for paying a day later.They didn't charge any admin fee at all.

sandiejannorman

Thanks for the replies. :T

I'm going to have to pay it so the payment is in line with payday.

Still sucks though as I can't see many people changing the date as often as missing payments and not paying at all.

topcat9

They might be allowed to do it but it seems pretty outrageous (unless it really is just the extra interest). I changed my DD date with Egg recently - no charge, although they did say you could only change a limited number of times a year.

[Deleted User]

CLAPTON wrote: »

curious why you say that

by delaying the payment date the OP wants to entend the loan by that number of days i.e. the final payment will be later than otherwise

why do you think the lender should not charge the interest on this extra period

Nothing to do with interest, if you change it either way you still pay £25.00. It's called "admin fee". :-)

[Deleted User]

sandiejannorman wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. :T

I'm going to have to pay it so the payment is in line with payday.

Still sucks though as I can't see many people changing the date as often as missing payments and not paying at all.

I have the same problem, exactly the same, I don't think it's fair because you don't get to choose the date as the dates is generated when your credit agreement begins, which is well when the car dealership manage to get things sorted usualy! :-/