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

Denza

kenny_straw wrote: »

Quite right.......MSE were happy to shout from the rooftops when Santander were paying out hand over fist.
They have been contacted several times about this and to my knowledge have offered damn all to help. This is exactly the sort of story you would expect would be of interest. Maybe its not the voice of the consumers after all.

Too true.

While I don't wish to appear ungrateful for the facilities and opportunities that this site provides it should be remembered that Santander shut-up shop at the exact point that MSE broke the story to a wider audience.

Sour grapes? You had better believe it!

Good luck to all.

pheonixrising21

byebyedebt wrote: »

In these days of e banking, I'm pretty sure your little payments cost nothing to process.

Given the fact that they have increased my interest rate to cover increases in both admin and IT costs, hopefully it will cost them something, even if it only means an extra sheet of paper in my statement to include all the payments!

BTW, I've just had a response from Santander about the missing information on statements and they say that they only have to abide by the regulation 2 of the Consumer Credit (Running-AccountCredit Information) Regulations 1983, SI 1983/1570 (CC(RACI)R 1983).

I also complained about the fact that they didn't send me a statement at all for about 9 months following a change of address and that they were supposed to send on each month and therefore interest for that period was unenforcable. Apparently, its not unenforcable as only breaches of section 78(1) of the CCA means unenforcable interest, not section 78(4). 78(1) relates to written requests for a statement, 78(4) relates to periodic statements.

FOS for me on that case too now.

However, during this, I did notice that interest and default charges for arrears are unenforceable (section 86 of the CCA) if written notice is not provided. The mess-up Santy made with my change of address led to arrears on my account, which I didn't receive any notification for due to the same error which meant I didn't receive statements, so I'll be complaining about that as well. That will be three separate complaints, one now with FOS, one on the way and one to be sent to Santander.

On a side note, I think that my claim may be under the £5k limit for small claims, so once the FOS finalise their position, I may investiagte that avenue. Of course, the longer the FOS take to get back to me the more my claim will be for... Would I have to wait for FOS to complete their work before going to small claims? Would I need to send a letter before action to Santander as well, stating the amount I will be claiming in court and giving tham one last chance to settle?

Cell

Also agree that MSE haven't done what they could have here.

Too much to hope for I guess, but the breaking of the story, which got them hits, no doubt, was the end of the road for refunds.

Money Saving Expert - but only when we can be arsed...

Denza

Unless Santander reverse policy and re-institute fair and reasonable interest rate adjustments - which I think we can safely assume will not happen - this protracted process will conclude via one of two outcomes.

1. Office of Fair Trading or Courts rule T&Cs are fair
2. Office of Fair Trading or Courts rule T&Cs are unfair

There maybe room for some appeals in either of the above though this is not something I would bother with personally in the case of [1].

Until [1] or [2] play out I, for one, will continue to pursue my interest in the complaint(s).

I hope you will all find the time to join me.

DJTASK

Received my FOS final decision and not surprisingly it has not upheld my complaint. The only positive I can see is that it did not take 6 months to reach this point as advised by FOS previous.

I've also calc'd my interest paid since the removal of the flex feature and it exceeds the £5k limit for small claims court. I would willingly join a combined action if people felt it worthwhile.

In other news, today I phoned up and paid in full my outstanding balance. It was very easy and I did it via a debt card. So now I am free of Santander and hope never to have further business with them. :T

MCSAVE

I've just had an email from a company representing the FOS asking if I would complete a customer satisfactory survey...............of course I completed it and needless to say felt much better afterwards. My favourite response was the one I wrote to the question "what improvements can the FOS make to improve?", my response "Disband and allow a truely independent service to be set up!" I even made myself laugh at that one.

Flyboy757

I have just fired off a rather curt email response to the FOS. It asks them why they haven't answered any of the specific points I put in my original complaint so lets wait and see what comes off it from the Ombudsman.

One of the points I raised was that the T&C's they have used ( forwarded to me) was a copy of T&C's with a hand written date on the first page ( which also looked like it had been altered) they have based their response from this document which may not even be the correct one. And if it is can they really use a hand dated set of T&C's?

The proof that we have been informed of all the changes is an electronic print out of dates and times certain emails were sent, none of the content of the emails is shown... They accept that as proof but don't accept that I didn't receive them!

Finally, can anyone actually answer this? ... Can a bank offer a variable rate loan and then hike the interest and THEN turn it into a FIXED loan when they feel the interest is high enough??? I can't find that option anywhere in the T&C's.
It's strange as I pointed out to the FOS. Santander define a flexiloan in 2 parts,
1. A variable rate loan with no term
2. The ability to draw down further funds.

So although the FOS ruled that they could take the option of drawing down funds was ok surely the first cant be allowed?..

Denza

Flyboy757 wrote: »

I have just fired off a rather curt email response to the FOS. It asks them why they haven't answered any of the specific points I put in my original complaint so lets wait and see what comes off it from the Ombudsman.

Having trodden a similar road since December I can tell you that nothing will come of it unfortunately.

This is because the FOS are simply recycling what I believe to be Farmer's original adjudication which is also re-used as the Ombudsman review.

Hence if Farmer did not cover any points which you raise those points will be ignored or if you are very lucky a non-committal reference to them may be inserted. Certainly any merits of material not in the template response will be totally and utterly discarded (with extreme prejudice).

Flyboy757 wrote: »

One of the points I raised was that the T&C's they have used ( forwarded to me) was a copy of T&C's with a hand written date on the first page ( which also looked like it had been altered) they have based their response from this document which may not even be the correct one. And if it is can they really use a hand dated set of T&C's?

Santander can use and claim whatever they like in the eyes of the FOS it seems however in this example I might suggest that the date of the T&Cs is not the core issue.

Flyboy757 wrote: »

The proof that we have been informed of all the changes is an electronic print out of dates and times certain emails were sent, none of the content of the emails is shown... They accept that as proof but don't accept that I didn't receive them!

Santander's word is gospel!

Flyboy757 wrote: »

Finally, can anyone actually answer this? ... Can a bank offer a variable rate loan and then hike the interest and THEN turn it into a FIXED loan when they feel the interest is high enough??? I can't find that option anywhere in the T&C's.
It's strange as I pointed out to the FOS. Santander define a flexiloan in 2 parts,
1. A variable rate loan with no term
2. The ability to draw down further funds.

So although the FOS ruled that they could take the option of drawing down funds was ok surely the first cant be allowed?..

As a consumer on the other side of the credit agreement which was signed on a mutual understanding of the credit agreement itself and its underlying terms and conditions you might think that they are not entitled to do so, as would I in fact from a similar starting point.

The FOS however, in their assessment of what is fair and reasonable and without any bias whatsoever, do not have any issues with this.

I also quite like the fact that there are no clauses in the T&Cs which allow Santander to amend the product features, i.e. removal the variable nature of the product credit line.

For example a clause saying any of the following would appear to be entirely appropriate for such measures had they had the foresight to include one in the T&Cs

We might alter the drawdown facility for:

- a reason that is valid
- a reason that is comical
- a reason that is ambiguous
- a reason that is unreasonable
- etc....

However Santander have got round this annoyance by simply using the amendment of the T&C caveat to removal all references of that feature from the terms themselves.

Thinking outside the box on that one though very much inside the FOS box labeled "fair and reasonable".

I'm just off to accept my own invitation to complete the FOS Customer Satisfaction Survey which should prove temporarily cathartic if nothing else.

gibbskr

Hi all,
Another rejection letter after my appeal against FOS.
Same old story I'm affraid they did not even answer my complaints properly and many the points raised in the rejection letter not really valid or correct and have nothing to do with my complaint seems like a botch job all round by FOS.

Next steps office of fair trading but guess that they are same as many of these type of organisations and not worth having them. save tax and get rid of them use the money for legal aid to take the banks on.....lol

I'm happy to give some funds to take them on or join in a protest rally at santander head office.,,,trip from Wales to mk would be worth it.....like many people on here thanks for MSE intial support but they have backed off since the start of this thread, are you running scared MSE? Strange how you not given any support of late.:D

Sabbydancer

Denza wrote: »

Yes and these are the two most prominent reasons why:

- It adds to the volume of complaints to the OFT which increases the chance the overarching case will get prioritised
- It demonstrates that you have explored all available options for consumer resolution (should you proceed to the courts in advance of any OFT ruling)

As a bonus it also adds to the workload of Santander assuming you notify them of your action which I would also strongly advocate]

Thanks Denza, Do you know if there is a template letter on here somewhere that might help me put a strong argument to them on this basis. I will defintely get something sent out to them asap and will post on here any updates.

Thanks