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

pheonixrising21

Cell wrote: »

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.

By this definition, then surely all fixed rate loans and mortgages are detrimental as the "credit limit" is always the same as the outstanding balance as the loan reduces over time?

As MHO says, this is essentially a fixed rate loan, albeit with a long repayment term and semi-flexible payment options (i.e. you can pay the minimum or you can pay more if you want). Therefore it should be treated as such and the credit limit removed (or reduced accordingly)

Personally, I still think lenders prefer lower available credit, especially if it is your decision to lower the limit and not the lender (is it noted on a file who made the decision to reduce limit - lender or customer?).

Put yourself in lenders shoes. Two people come to you asking for your fantastic long term balance transfer credit card (0% for two years). Both currently earn the same, have the same outgoings and a good credit history. Both currently have 3 credit cards which they want to BT to yours. Each of the cards has a £1k balance, making £3k total debt for each applicant. Person A has a £6k limit on each card (£18k available in total). Person B has £1.5k limit on each card (£4.5k available in total). Both ask you for a £4k limit, enough to BT the current debt and a little extra. Both say they will cancel other cards immediately, but clearly you have no way to guarentee or enforce this. In theory, Person A will have £22k available credit, person B will have £8.5k if they were to take out your card too (at least for a short while and potentially permanently). Who do you give the card to?

Cell

I don't know.

It's certainly the least of my worries in relation to this issue.

All I can say is that Mint accepted that reducing the limit as I paid was likely to affect my credit record and upheld the complaint. As a result they let me close the account at the old rate well outside the time limit normally allowed.

Renton29

Hello me again,
I recieved a letter from Santander following on my complaint, where they offered me originally £1566 as a gesture of good will, however I challenged this as the figure was no where near what I thought it would be.
I requested information about my account and an SAR form so I can get back all my statements and work out the exact Value of Interest owed, before sending the complaint through to the FOS.
The info they sent me was:
One letter from Santander advising that they have answered all my questions, but If I feel the need to go to the FOS then to do so within the next 6 months.
My original Credit agreement by Cahoot.
And a photocopy of a SAR form.

The form is slightly confusing, it asks for my personal details and my account numbers with Santander, now the account number with Santander is different to my account number i had with Cahoot (so do i put both on the form? I have done)
Also, the next questions is: Do you require manual records, yes or no?
I am guessing I tick yes on this part? Can someone advise?
Then I have also added the Cahoot Address in Coventry to the form., signed it and ready to send once I know if I tick yes to the above question.

Please advise? Has anyone received this from Santander yet?

Cheers

Mike

persianface

Hi All

I sent an original letter complaining about interest hikes back in August last year. When I eventually received a reply, they sent a standard response about PPI. I never asked anything about PPI.

I wrote to them again in January about the interest hikes and asked them for some specific information under the data protection act. No response. Then in February, I sent a reminder. I have received a letter from a manager in the complaints team which states

Thank you for contacting us to let us kknow about your concerns relating to your cahoot flexible loan and the interest rates linked to this loan wich you belive have risen unfairly over recent years. We are currently investigating your concerns and will review them inline with our product terms and conditions. Sometimes this can take time but once this has been completed we will write to you again.

This letter was dated 27th February and as yet I have had no response.

Should I wait or send the email to the CEO email address.

Thanks

Lilith4

To be honest i would just email the ceo. You sent the original enquiery last year...... 8 weeks is the standard polite waiting time. Not going to do any harm. You may not getan automated response though as some have from this email. I didn't and i noticed a few others didn't either.

Hope this helps

JoMatt165

I sent my first email to the ceo on 28th February, and have heard nothing in return - not even an automated acknowledgment email. I am going to contact them again, and see if I fair any better second time round.

pheonixrising21

persianface - thats pretty much the same letter I got after emailing the CEO, so you're probably in the same boat as everyone else!

UncleDennis

Morning all

This is my first post here but I have been watching with great interest for the last few months.

I emailed my complaint to Santander on 10th January and to be fair to them, I did recieve a few emails and a letter confirming that they were 'looking into’ my complaint. They advised me that they had 8 weeks in which resolve a complaint from the date it is received so I decided to just wait it out and see what happened.

The 8 week period ended on Tuesday 6th March so I decided to give them a bit of a nudge to see how things were progressing. Below is the email I got back from them (kiss and all!)

FW: Found the 8 week letter -is this ok to send x

Dear *********

I apologise for the delay in my response to you. As you know, we are currently looking into your complaint and it has now been eight weeks since you first contacted Santander.

I am sorry for the delay while we continue to look into your complaint. Although we have made progress, we want to make sure we fully understand the problem before writing and we are unable to give you a full response just now.

If you do not want to wait any longer, you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service now, without waiting for our response.

I do hope you will give us the opportunity to complete our work and we will continue to look into your complaint unless the Financial Ombudsman Service advise us you have referred your complaint to them.

We will write to you again when we have finished our review and if you remain unhappy, you will still have the right to contact the Ombudsman.

About half an hour after I recieved this email, I got another one attempting to re-call it. Then I recieved the same email again but minus the subject matter..........Interesting!

In my very first email from Santander they stated.......

"High quality customer service is of great importance to us at Santander and we will do everything we can to resolve your complaint in a timely and satisfactory manner. I am confident we can resolve this for you quickly and, in doing so, go some way towards restoring your faith in Santander."

Over 9 weeks and counting now! I'll keep you all posted.

persianface

Has anybody had any offers in the next couple of days. i am interested to see what people are being offered in comparison to their loans. My original loan was 12,000 and I did use the flexiblity quite a lot. I have been £250, but have always been disheartened by the fact that it only reduces the balance by just over £100 per month due to the high interest rate 16.169%

kenny_straw

I thought I may as well try another letter to the ceo this morning, before going to the FOC, staing my intentions as I have had no progress in 9weeks...much to my surprise, I received a reply soon afterwards, basically the same as Uncle Dennis's above! Not sure if anything good or bad can be taken here....

Good Morning

We apologise for the delay in responding to you. As you know, we are currently looking into your complaint and it has now been eight weeks since you first contacted Santander.

I am sorry for the delay while we continue to look into your complaint. Although we have made progress, we want to make sure we fully understand the problem before writing and we are unable to give you a full response just now.

If you do not want to wait any longer, you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service now, without waiting for our response.

I do hope you will give us the opportunity to complete our work and we will continue to look into your complaint unless the Financial Ombudsman Service advise us you have referred your complaint to them.

We will write to you again when we have finished our review and if you remain unhappy, you will still have the right to contact the Ombudsman.