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

MHO_2

Had a phone call on telling me adjudication would be with me shortly, looks like they're trying to give everybody there xmas letters!

cokey123

My husband and I both had FOS rejection letters tody. Is anyone taking it to the ombudsman now? We only have until 31st December to set that in motion.

Denza

cokey123 wrote: »

My husband and I both had FOS rejection letters tody. Is anyone taking it to the ombudsman now? We only have until 31st December to set that in motion.

Though I have every confidence that the Ombudsman will simply ratify the decision of the Adjudicator without bothering to review the key material which they have already taken the trouble to ignore whilst at the same time exhibiting the same undisguised and extreme bias in favour of Santander, there is no chance that I am accepting the Adjudication as it stands so I shall certainly be "going through the motions".

Fortunately for the FOS though they will be able to cut and paste Farmer's Ombudsman ratification... sorry, I mean review summary thereby continuing to save themselves the trouble of taking each case on it's own merits.

With respect to my own Adjudication, on the plus side, I have some wonderfully quotable extracts for future reference.

For example:

[FONT=&quot]“You signed the credit agreement acknowledging that you had read and agreed to the terms and conditions of the product. If you were not comfortable with the term you were not required to enter into the agreement.”[/FONT]

I am sure that the Office of Fair Trading, Financial Services Authority, Advice Guide, The Citizen's Advice Bureau and Legal Aid; to name but five government bodies; will be absolutely delighted to know that all their time and effort spent in the defence of the collective interests of UK consumers has been totally and utterly undermined by the stated opinions of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

A hearty "well done" to all at South Quay Plaza.

God bless them, every one!

halifax71

You're right to continue going through the motions but it is a waste of time. You'll need to show the court that you've exhausted the alternate resolution scheme so it is necessary.

You will have to take this to court though. The case i'm involved with has been through the fos process and the oft, so we're in court early next year. Good luck.

bankbasher2000

I recieved my letter in the post this morning, as expected, rejection ... opening quote:

"After careful consideration I have concluded that Cahoot was not obliged to continue to provide the flexible loan to you at a lower rate of interest"

However she seems to question the terms of the loan relating to changes to the interest rate, specifically around maintaining the competitiveness of the business, reflecting actual or expected changes in money markets and ensuring the business was run smoothly.

She goes on to say that between 2003 - 2007 the interest rates went up broadly inline with the market rates and therefore that is not unreasonable, but there were changes to the loan rate after 2007 that were not inline with changes to the money markets.

Cahoot state that the product was not profitable, mainly because of bad debts and underlying costs..one of the steps it took to address this was to increase the interest rate.

I can see that the provision that allows Cahoot to vary the interest rate in order to maintain competitiveness could be open to interpretation, one of which might be that it allows Cahoot to change the rate in order to compete with other providers. But I am not persuaded that this would be the only reason for which this particular provision could allow interest rate changes.

..... Even if the rate being charged on the flexible loan did not provide a profit for Cahoot, Santander UK was still profitable overall. But I do not consider that the entire Santander group would have to be making a loss before Cahoot could rely on the provision which allows it to vary the interest rate in order to ensure the business is run prudently ..

etc etc etc

Is this similar to what everyone has received?

Once again it seems that profit before customer is the focus of the FOS and the banks.

Denza

bankbasher2000 wrote: »

Is this similar to what everyone has received?

Once again it seems that profit before customer is the focus of the FOS and the banks.

Verbatim.

I am particularly fond of the admission that the Terms & Conditions are wide open to mis-interpretation followed swiftly by the determination that only Santander's interpretation; semantically corrupt as it is; is valid.

bankbasher2000

I just love the way they have sent all these letters out just at the time when the Christmas post is likely to slow everything down, thus minimising the impact of people getting back to them before the end of the year to take it further ... call me cynical but ....

Denza

bankbasher2000 wrote: »

I just love the way they have sent all these letters out just at the time when the Christmas post is likely to slow everything down, thus minimising the impact of people getting back to them before the end of the year to take it further ... call me cynical but ....

I'm sure it won't be an issue.

Santander missed all the deadlines set of them in the course of my case with absolute impunity and I'm sure the same courtesy will be extended to all claimants if required.

I mean it's not as if the FOS would favour Santander in any regard is it now?

Oh!

cokey123

We got an extension of the deadline to reply to the FOS of January 14th. That gives us more adequate time to compile our response. We just asked by email.

Logman63

Cynical approach by FOS - makes them as bad as Santander in my eyes now. Waiting..and waiting..and waiting, then delivering their 'verdict' on the last Friday before Christmas, giving people until January 1st to respond - what a bunch o' stunts!
Merry Christmas everyone - FOS just sh*t all over you!
I wonder if they got invited to the Santander Christmas party (that we've probably all paid for!)?