Santander are now refunding interest payments on Cahoot flexible loan's

David1974

EKAndrew wrote: »

so let me get this straight - most folk who have had a return, have had it removed from the balance of their loan? is that correct?

the reason i am asking is that I have about £3.8k remaining on my loan...............i have tried to play about with some interest rate calculations and if my calculations are correct -then i should be due an amount which is larger than what i owe! (if my loan interest rate stayed the same the account would have been cleared about a year ago!!) would they return me the money? or would they just settle the account?

tbh - that is a fairly optimistic way of looking at things, and i would rather just accept that anything they offer me is a "bonus"

whats your thoughts?

Just called Santander, and the balance is showing in my account, but for interest purposes it is not technically applied to the account balance. Therefore you will get charged the remaining interest, at your current rate on the full 'pre-refund' balance until your payments bring the account balance to within tollerance to close the account. A bit sly this, but i'd recommend refinancing using a BT or overpaying as much as you can to clear the remaining balance.

Anyone else notice this?

wanchai_2

I have had a letter stating that I'm not entitled to anything (loan was 2003-2006) as I 'signed up to the T&Cs when I took the loan out'! Has anyone else had this?

Has anyone got the CEO's email address?

Thanks x

XXSCOTSLASSXX

The complaints and reason for refunds are pretty much due to when santander took over in 2009/10, they hiked the interest rate for everyone from approx 10% to approx 20% .... prior to santander taking over any interest increases were covered by the original t&c's. As ur loan wasnt taken over by santander with being paid of in 2006 the complaint in question wouldnt really apply hence the 'not entitled' letter. the ceo email addy is on the very 1st post of this thrread good luck x

EKAndrew

i've just recieved the following :
I am writing to let you know that we have received your complaint. Thank you for taking the time to contact us and tell us of your concerns.

Unfortunately, we were unable to process your complaint, as we could not locate your account or details with the information provided. Please would you respond to this e-mail and add in the content a full postal address that should be registered on your account, including a full postcode. Please can you also advise us if your account is held with one of our subsidiaries (Cahoot / Cater Allen / MBNA) or if you hold a Business Bank account.

Alternatively, you can give us a call on 0845 600 6014 (Open 8am to 8pm Mon - Sat and 8am to 6pm Sun) or from outside the UK on +44 1908 680123. Text Relay: 18001 0845 6006014.
What I do not understand is that I clearly stated in the opening line of my letter : Ref: Cahoot Flexible Loan account number : *** ****

So they should know that it is formerly Cahoot, they have my name from the email address I used(my work email address - not some yahoo/hotmail one) and I also said the Cahoot loan was opened in September 2001

Should I reply with the information they requested? You always received emails saying that they will not ask for this level of information via email – or should I call them, but that means I have nothing in black and white!

oscar52

David1974 wrote: »

Just called Santander, and the balance is showing in my account, but for interest purposes it is not technically applied to the account balance. Therefore you will get charged the remaining interest, at your current rate on the full 'pre-refund' balance until your payments bring the account balance to within tollerance to close the account. A bit sly this, but i'd recommend refinancing using a BT or overpaying as much as you can to clear the remaining balance.

Anyone else notice this?

To me, this makes absolutely no sense, unless I am reading it completely wrong.

Are you saying that, if I get a refund (lets assume I owe £4K and get a £4K refund) that I will continue to accrue interest on essentially a nil balance?

finley909

oscar52 wrote: »

To me, this makes absolutely no sense, unless I am reading it completely wrong.

Are you saying that, if I get a refund (lets assume I owe £4K and get a £4K refund) that I will continue to accrue interest on essentially a nil balance?

The letter they have sent me does not mention anything about paying the current interest rate on my OLD balance (-refund). Essentially, they are saying they will deduct 'X amount' from your balance once they consider your balance to be low enough?

David1974

finley909 wrote: »

The letter they have sent me does not mention anything about paying the current interest rate on my OLD balance (-refund). Essentially, they are saying they will deduct 'X amount' from your balance once they consider your balance to be low enough?

To be honest i'm confused now. But the guy at Santander C/S definately said the refund was sitting in a linked suspense account and that it would not make a difference to my interest charges. Therefore he advised refinancing (which i'm doing by actually settling he loan). I havent recieved the letter yet to confirm in writing what has actually happened, but perhaps that might make it a bit clearer?!?:o

So if you had a £8k loan with a £7k refund, your balance is £1k, but they charge interest on the £7k balance until the suspense account balance equals your settlement amount (through futher payments/overpayments).

Doesnt sound right does it? If you are credited with a refund, i can undestand that they do not change the APR, but you should get the benefit of the massively reduced capital balance...surely?

D

finley909

David1974 wrote: »

To be honest i'm confused now. But the guy at Santander C/S definately said the refund was sitting in a linked suspense account and that it would not make a difference to my interest charges. Therefore he advised refinancing (which i'm doing by actually settling he loan). I havent recieved the letter yet to confirm in writing what has actually happened, but perhaps that might make it a bit clearer?!?:o

So if you had a £8k loan with a £7k refund, your balance is £1k, but they charge interest on the £7k balance until the suspense account balance equals your settlement amount (through futher payments/overpayments).

Doesnt sound right does it? If you are credited with a refund, i can undestand that they do not change the APR, but you should get the benefit of the massively reduced capital balance...surely?

D

This makes more sense now, but sounds very unfair and they certainly have not made this clear in the letter they sent me. In fact, if this is the case, the letter they sent is misleading. It would be quite interesting to see the wording in letters other customers have received.

The complaint email I sent raised a number of issues in addition to the rates hike, none of which were addressed. The complaint response letter read very much lile a template and even went as far as to say that they have addressed ALL of my concerns!

I honestly don't see any change in Santander's poor customer service yet.

David1974

finley909 wrote: »

This makes more sense now, but sounds very unfair and they certainly have not made this clear in the letter they sent me. In fact, if this is the case, the letter they sent is misleading. It would be quite interesting to see the wording in letters other customers have received.

The complaint email I sent raised a number of issues in addition to the rates hike, none of which were addressed. The complaint response letter read very much lile a template and even went as far as to say that they have addressed ALL of my concerns!

I honestly don't see any change in Santander's poor customer service yet.

How long did you wait for your letter from Santander after the 'second' phone call advising of the value of your refund? I got called last Thursday (1 week ago) but havent had anything through yet but i have had the refund as i called Santander C/S (01908 719137 is the direct line by the way!) to confirm.

D

finley909

It was 12 days between first email and the letter. I had an email reply a few days after the first email asking me for a contact number - I told them I wanted everything in writing and got the letter about a week later.