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

cheshiredan

Just stumbled accross this thread when actually researching PPI on a Cahoot flexible loan.
Anyway, basically I initially borrowed £12k in 2001 on 8% and have used small amounts but not for 4 years or so and am paying (according to a March statement) 20% interest now.
So anyway, thought "what the hell" and have sent a letter to CEO and complaints.
Will await with interest but not holding my breath.....I am not usually lucky with money!

emmapurple

Just had call from santander complaints department bascially telling me i dont need a SAR because they have already sent statement details and that they will refund my £10. She said that a SAR request is a request for information on all accounts that they hold on me not just the cahoot flexi loan so there is no point them sending one out, it is too complicated apparantly according to them. She also said that they wouldnt be able to send information from the original opening of the account because they only hold information for 6 years. She is sending a letter detailing all this which i await with anticipation!

Denza

emmapurple wrote: »

Just had call from santander complaints department bascially telling me i dont need a SAR because they have already sent statement details and that they will refund my £10. She said that a SAR request is a request for information on all accounts that they hold on me not just the cahoot flexi loan so there is no point them sending one out, it is too complicated apparantly according to them. She also said that they wouldnt be able to send information from the original opening of the account because they only hold information for 6 years. She is sending a letter detailing all this which i await with anticipation!

They are fobbing you off.

My account was opened in February 2002 and all transactions and interest rate changes were sent to me in the scope of my SAR.

They also managed to send a log of all contact over that time period though this did not include the actual emails but merely a description of the 'event'.

They are legally obliged to action the SAR within 40 days to the best of their ability regardless of how 'complicated' it is. However do not discount the possibility that the Santander Help Desk do not know what should and can happen with respect to your SAR and have simply mis-informed you in good faith ;-)

When I spoke with one of the Data Controllers at Santander she was actually most helpful even though she was not actively working on my SAR.

Good luck.

emmapurple

Denza, i know they are wrong as they already sent a SAR but it was in connection to my mortgage not flexi loan so i knew they were giving mis information but to be honest they have already sent the majority of my information and i figured since they have promised to state all this information in a letter form it will just be something else to send to the FOS in relation to my complaint. I also asked if they could look into possible ppi on the loan as from this forum i have picked up on the fact that some people had it added and it was opt out not in at the time. She said she had no information on this but she would check and then she stated that when she sent this letter she would include ppi reclaiming information for when they confirmed i had it, which i found strange as she was claiming she didnt know whether i had it on there or not. It was just another one of those conversations with santander staff that although was perfectly polite doesnt get you anywhere as the information they give you is just totally conflicted.

Denza

Thank you to those who have expressed an interest.

We were looking for a minimum of 10+ potential litigants from this site to make the action viable (i.e. financially viable from the point of view of the law firm) and at last count it was 30+ which bodes well for the future.

nb. Clearly should this action proceed we will be looking to 'recruit' claimants from the population at large as opposed to just those frequenting this site!

The more the merrier.

However please be advised that nothing further will happen (from my side at least) until my FOS case has concluded.

Good luck to all.

emmapurple

Rang the FOS today on the progress of my complaint, which was sent in on the 16th april, and they said that they are still in the process of dealing with the complaints sent in in march and that they are done in month order. She could give no timeline as to how long it will take to get through marchs lot then obviously mine and anyone elses from april will be dealt with.

oracleman

A word of caution here for everyone. If you request it from the FOS they will obtain for you an Excel spreadsheet showing how Santander have calculated the refund. This shows the interest recalculated. CHECK THIS CAREFULLY !!

The FOS will assume that Santander have got this correct and not check any figures. Do some simple checks, have they added all the columns up. Is the total interest you have paid correct ?

Santander appear rubbish at the recalculations in my case wrong three times now.

Do not just accept the first figure Santy give it could be wrong

Denza

oracleman wrote: »

A word of caution here for everyone. If you request it from the FOS they will obtain for you an Excel spreadsheet showing how Santander have calculated the refund. This shows the interest recalculated. CHECK THIS CAREFULLY !!

Sound advice.

I already have my own spreadsheet for reference.

To be honest though; I would be happy enough to just be in a position where I was squabbling over a refund!

GarethGray

Hi,

Hoping for some quick advice!

I had a cahoot flexible loan from May 2003 until April 2007 and whilst I can no longer access the details - I am fairly sure there were rate increases towards the end. I have called Santander to request information such as loan account number, CCA, details of interest rates over the term etc... but they have not provided info as yet.

Was my loan within the period affected by the rate increases?
Does anyone have any views on my likelihood of being awarded anything should I complain?
Does anyone have any succesful template letters I could use?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

GG

tobyt_2

Some information for Gareth Gray. According to my list of interest rate rises from Cahoot, here are the rises covering the period you require. Between 29/5/2003 to 11/01/2007 there were 10 increases ranging from 7.5700% to 14.0000%. I hope that this provides some help. Good luck!