Student bank account Santander

jcjazzy

Our 19 year old daughter opened up a student bank account with Santander over 2 years ago, and was immediately given a £1000 overdraft. She is a full-time student who works part-time now 12 hours per week, was 4 hours a week, and the minimum student loan.
Despite our misgivings and advice she maxed out the overdraft very soon. We also strongly suspected she was not managing her account very well, but she wasn't honest about it. To cut a long story short she received a letter in July stating her authorisedd overdraft was being withdrawn. She did not tell us about it, and did not make contact with Santander.
When we beacme aware we helped her draft a letter to Santander offering to pay a set amount towards the remaining overdraft. In the meantime she has secured a basic bank account elsewhere, and cancelled the direct debits for this account. Her last salary and student loan have paid some of the unauthorised overdraft.
Santander have responded and advised that they view this as a complaint, and in their view the charges were justified. They have also advised her to contact the Collection Centre
1 Does anyone know the address of Santander Collection Centre?
2 Are they reasonable to deal with, and are they likely to accept this offer? (previous personal experience is not good!!)
3. Our mortgage is with them. Can we be financially penalised as we share the same address and name?
Any help would be appreciated. We are extremely stressed by this. Thanks x

sanderson1985

I had a simular issue with Santander but in the end involved the financial Ombudsman. The number I used to set up a payment plan of £80 a month and they suspended the charges for 3 months. The number I used was 08456033009 but they are closed at weekends. This is the collections centre number. You have to be firm with them btw. I wont ever bank with Santander again after my experiences with them over the last 3 years.

Hope this helps

jcjazzy

Thanks
Do you happen to have an address for the Collection Centre? My daughter is not keen on phoning them unfortunately. I might actually copy the letters to the financial ombudsman. Would you recommend that?
JC x

sanderson1985

The address I used to write to them was:

9 Nelson Street
Bradford,
West Yorkshire.
BD1 5AN

But not sure if this is the collection centre but all my letters got answered. I recommend you keep all copies of the letters sent and received. and send them with a letter to the financial ombudsman (being free service I recommend this). Because Santander took the overdraft off my account then started charging me over £100 a month in unauthorised overdraft fee's and by using the financial ombudsman I received £300 back off Santander.
Btw I also received a letter to say that the charges justified. This is a standard letter that they send to put you off complaining. Just ignore it and keep complaining.

jcjazzy

Thank you. This exactly what they are doing the charges are £100 per month. It is an appalling way to treat young people even if they have been foolish. x