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

SMARTY31

Hey all i received my rejection letter also today after a 11 week wait for Santander to get back to me with my complaint about unfair rate hikes. Really disappointed at this response but expected considering the posts over the last few days.

My loan interest rate is at an unbelievable 29%. The amount i have paid in interest alone at this rate clears the loan. I too had no correspondence regarding switching and therefore was never offered another product. So confused that others got refunds and recalculated payment/ refunds and ours are rejected. Dont get me wrong fair play to those have been sucessful i only hope this is rolled out to all who have been rejected.

Out of interest has anyone else been receiving statments with the wrong intrest rate stated on it. Surely thats misleading. Complinat going to FOS tomorrow. We cant give up, i know Im not

kenny_straw

Smarty my last few statements (which I have only started to get) state my interest is 0%!! I phoned about this and was passed round 3 different departments who said they didnt know why it was showing as 0 - as on their system is was 18% or thereabouts...a guy added this onto my original complaint to have it explained - but all I got was the standard letter!

Denza

Found a cut and paste of an original rate increase email from the following thread:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?50792-Cahoot-doubling-interest-rate

As follows...

"We have decided to make changes to the rates we charge on the cahoot Flexible Loan, following a review of competitor rates and increases in the cost of lending. The interest rate will rise in two steps, a small change on 6 December and the main change on 19 December.

From 6 December your rate will change to 9.4% APR and on 19 December your rate will change to 14.9% APR variable.

Abbey has a
fixed rate loan only and this is available to cahoot customers at a typical rate of 5.8% APR*."

Presumably stating that Abbey has a fixed rate product constitutes the mythical offer that they have referenced. I could have a pretty good guess what that asterisk will indicate also; representative rate, dependant on circumstances, etc...

As for the increased cost of lending the Fixed v Variable rate loan comparison make a complete mockery of this statement and the competitor rates are irrelevant with particular reference to the T&C's which mention that rates may change to 'maintain competitiveness' which is not the same as 'in line with competitors', i.e. a lower rate is more competitive.

Interestingly though they have stated that 'the interest rate rises were made in accordance with the Clause 13 of the T&Cs' they have conveniently neglected to point out which aspect of this Clause they feel is applicable.

Basically Santy are having a laugh but we all knew that at the outset.

Good luck to all.

Hollielujah

Hi all

Same story here - rejection letter received yesterday but dated 31 March (same wording as everyone elses). It seems their right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing in this case - firstly they spelt my name wrong (grrr!) and then thanked me for my original email complaint addressed to the CEO, Ana Botin - I emailed to the standard complaints dept email address!

As mentioned above by many I was never offered any alternative product to switch to and what was the liklihood of being accepted for a fixed rate loan with them anyway? I don't have any recollection of these so-called emails they have purported to have sent advising of interest hikes, etc. but with the online facility withdrawn eons ago how can we check? Also as other folk have pointed out above the increase in the rates on the Cahoot flexi-loan were to ensure the "flexibility" of the product - which no longer exists!! Surely they are contradicting themselves here?

Basicly Santander waited for us all to have a nice big balance on our loans and then slapped us all with any rate they liked and knew that any chance of being offered credit elsewhere was nye on impossible! Greed was the reason (!!!!!! Turpin would have been proud!)

All I want is to repay the monies borrowed at the rate I took the loan out at (which incidentally would have been paid off ages ago if it had remained at 7%). I'm not asking for anything free... just fair!

I have banked with Santander (formerly Abbey) since 1988 and have never had any problems with them until now. As soon as this farcical situation is concluded (whichever way it goes) I will be moving my current account and credit card that I have with them to a bank that, hopefully, won't rip me off (is there such a place? LOL)

Good luck to the masses....!

FOS here I come.....

UncleDennis

Same for me sadly....

I waited over 12 weeks and then got the standard cut and paste rejection letter last Friday. My complaint has now gone to the FOS and we'll see where that leads.

Good luck everybody!

oracleman

I also think Santy have shot themself in the foot with this. When I phoned FOS and raised my complaint I pointed out that I received what appeared to be a standard 'knock-back' letter and I considered they hadn't investigated my complaint just simply sent a standard letter. The nice lady at FOS was appalled with Santy and said they haven’t done themselves any favours. Apparently the FOS are not happy with this sort of action as they have to attempt to resolve what santy should have done in the first place.

Santy’s letters are so full of errors and inaccuracies that not worth the paper they are written on. Like others I am willing to pay the rate I signed up for, and accept that the rate was variable and might have increased by a few %, but triple the original rate is unfair .

Good luck to everyone, might be a long slow road, but we WILL get our money back from this corporate monster who cares nothing for service or customer relations.

Cell

Denza wrote: »

Found a cut and paste of an original rate increase email from the following thread:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?50792-Cahoot-doubling-interest-rate

As follows...

"We have decided to make changes to the rates we charge on the cahoot Flexible Loan, following a review of competitor rates and increases in the cost of lending. The interest rate will rise in two steps, a small change on 6 December and the main change on 19 December.

From 6 December your rate will change to 9.4% APR and on 19 December your rate will change to 14.9% APR variable.

Abbey has a
fixed rate loan only and this is available to cahoot customers at a typical rate of 5.8% APR*."

Presumably stating that Abbey has a fixed rate product constitutes the mythical offer that they have referenced. I could have a pretty good guess what that asterisk will indicate also; representative rate, dependant on circumstances, etc...

As for the increased cost of lending the Fixed v Variable rate loan comparison make a complete mockery of this statement and the competitor rates are irrelevant with particular reference to the T&C's which mention that rates may change to 'maintain competitiveness' which is not the same as 'in line with competitors', i.e. a lower rate is more competitive.

Interestingly though they have stated that 'the interest rate rises were made in accordance with the Clause 13 of the T&Cs' they have conveniently neglected to point out which aspect of this Clause they feel is applicable.

Basically Santy are having a laugh but we all knew that at the outset.

Good luck to all.

I can certainly say that I did not receive an e-mail in those terms, and as my online facility has been shut down I can no longer access them. It would be for them to prove that such communications were made rather than for us to disprove it.

I would CERTAINLY have remembered the 'double stage' increase because it's a very strange one, the like of which I've never seen.

I was never offered a loan. And like many in reality wouldn't have been approved in any event. What logical reason could there be to hike rates and then let everyone convert them to VERY low rate loans? Window dressing.

They have tied themselves up here. Every 'fact' undermines andother 'fact'.

And I agree with an earlier poster about someone at MSE following this up. The moment they posted the article I had a terrible feeling that they actually forced Santander to re-assess what had been a pretty quiet revolution until then.

I'm all for MSE and its aims, but it struck me as obvious that the article would in fact act to the detriment of those who had unresolved claims.

A follow up is required. It would be wrong to leave it as it is.

Ali_UK

Sent my email 23 Feb and got the standard knock back letter yesterday. Question is, should I write back and thank them for my standard letter but ask them to address the various points I raised about my personal situation, including actually being unable to obtain alternative credit (from Abbey or anyone else!) to remove myself from their loan product and it's rising rates.

Or do I go straight to FOS?

Would it be fair to assume that as it was a rolling loan there were periodical searches on our credit scores by Cahoot/Abbey? As surely this would have been flagged up in their files, I'm still convinced they knew that most people would be trapped.

Either way I'm so not giving up....

oracleman

Ali_UK wrote: »

Question is, should I write back and thank them for my standard letter but ask them to address the various points I raised about my personal situation...

No point in asking Santy to clarify the point they are useless. Put it all in writing off to FOS. Don't waste any more time with Santy.

happy_bunny_2

Ali_UK wrote: »

Sent my email 23 Feb and got the standard knock back letter yesterday. Question is, should I write back and thank them for my standard letter but ask them to address the various points I raised about my personal situation, including actually being unable to obtain alternative credit (from Abbey or anyone else!) to remove myself from their loan product and it's rising rates.

Or do I go straight to FOS?

Would it be fair to assume that as it was a rolling loan there were periodical searches on our credit scores by Cahoot/Abbey? As surely this would have been flagged up in their files, I'm still convinced they knew that most people would be trapped.

Either way I'm so not giving up....

As oracleman says, FOS.

As you say, I suspect it was based on CRA feeds they get as well as greed so they will know if you were unlikely to get a loan before the hikes.