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

kenny_straw

Nice one Cell. Its FOS for me tomorrow as well. Do you need a Santander complaint ref or anything? Or is it okay to essentially give them the same info as the original complaint with Santander.

My suspicion is that they are taking legal advice on the whole issue, and as we know whenever solicitors become involved time is no object, especially as they are no doubt being paid by the hour!

Bang on the money about the legal people going over this trying to find a way out......

Cell

They asked me for the account number, that was all.

When the form comes in I will have to enclose copies of all e-mails etc. Seems fairly simple to me.

It really does bug me that I'm going to the FOS not because of the decision (I may have anyway, of course) but because they can't even follow their own complaints procedure.

If nothing else they're in breach of the FSA 'Treating Customers Fairly' rules mentioned in an earlier post.

It's not the way I wanted to go, but their response today left me with little alternative.

happy_bunny_2

pheonixrising21 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have another question regarding these flexible loans. I've had a look at my credit report and on there it shows the credit limit and the outstanding balance. My balance is around £2800, but the limit is £4040. I believe the credit limit would have been the balance when Santander took over.

Now, as Santander very kindly removed the flexible element of the loan which allowed drawdowns, surely the credit limit should fall in line with the oustanding balance. Otherwise, other potential lenders may think I have access to this additional sum of money?

I've added this to the complaint that I sent to Santander, and have received a call today from someone looking into this particular element - he said someone else was dealing with the interest rate. He said he would get back to me tomorrow (hopefully) with an answer.

I was just wondering if any of you guys who still have an active one of these have the same issue?

Me too. Also, my experian sys te term is 999 months which can't do anyone's rating much good.

happy_bunny_2

kenny_straw wrote: »

Nice one Cell. Its FOS for me tomorrow as well. Do you need a Santander complaint ref or anything? Or is it okay to essentially give them the same info as the original complaint with Santander.


Bang on the money about the legal people going over this trying to find a way out......

Can also download a word dc from the FOS website and fill out on the computer then print and send. Saves a few days and in my case means they will be able to read it

Denza

happy_bunny wrote: »

Me too. Also, my experian sys te term is 999 months which can't do anyone's rating much good.

To be honest that is the likely repayment window for me!

lfese1

Cell wrote: »

If nothing else they're in breach of the FSA 'Treating Customers Fairly' rules mentioned in an earlier post.

Unfortunately there is no such thing as tcf rules, tcf is principles based regulation so is open to interpretation. However, there are firm dispute resolution rules which are very clear and state that complaints must be dealt with within 8 weeks.

You can check out the rule book book on the the fsa's website, specifically rule DISP 1.6.2 which covers the 8 week rule and what Santander should provide.

Hope this helps.

pheonixrising21

Cell wrote: »

It certainly showed my credit limit as unchanged throughout the repayment process. That said I'm not sure what's different between that and a credit card account where you have rejected the interest rate rise and 'closed' the account. Your credit limit on those cases is retained until it's paid off and the account closed.

Turning it on its head if they did reduce the credit limit every month then that would be reported to the CRAs and even worse might make you look as if you're constantly within a few quid of your limit, thus increasing your debt to available credit ratio.

I think that there are two sides to that particular scenario.

It would show up to potential lenders that you have more "available" credit than you actually do. Personally I would rather have lower "available" credit and a higher debt to available credit ratio. Surely most lenders will look at the total available credit more than the actual to decide if they want to lend you more. If you have 3 credit cards with a £1k balance on each, but £6k limit on each, will they look at the £3k you owe or the £18k you have access to (today, right now, to buy a car/tv/holiday/draw out cash/do what you want with no further checks)?

Plus, my equifax report shows what the limit was at the previous update, therefore lenders can see you are close to the limit because you are reducing it, which is surely a good thing?

Right now its not an issue as I don't want any further credit, but in the future, as I (slowly) pay off this loan, that gap widens and widens. My debt gets lower, but my "available" credit remains the same.

Cell

I think you'll find that lenders would rather see credit available (even if it's not) than people up to their limit.

And as credit limit changes are recorded by the CRAs every month it could well look like the lender doesn't actually want to extend credit to you any more, and firms who view the file won't be able to tell why, as you say.

I had this with Mint. They kept reducing my credit limit as I paid it off, and conceded after a complaint, that this could, in fact, be deemed as detrimental to your credit score.

MHO_2

But surely this is now a fixed loan basically the whole footprint on our credit files should be changed to reflect this, and not a revolving credit agreement which it no longer is?

Cell

That's a good point:)