Help Please - santander charges claiming

rabbit2

[FONT=&quot]Hi All.
I'm sure this has been asked a million times before, but I’d like to ask just one more time....
i am trying to reclaim charges on behalf of my son who is 19 and when it comes to life, he is a little naive.
He was banking with Santander, and back in the summer of last year, he used his debit card, key word, 'debit’ and it allowed him to go over drawn by a few pounds, incurring charges .As a result before he realised, as he was over drawn the DD for his car insurance was refused, again occurring charges. At the time he was an apprentice and only earning £100 a week, so struggled to live and pay his car insurance as it was, without charges and things not being paid. Being what he is, he didn’t say anything, just panicked quietly to himself for a few months then came to me and said he was in trouble and didn’t know what to do, as he couldn’t pay the charges and the car insurance. The first thing i told him to do, was to set up another account somewhere else, so he could keep what money he was earning, which he did with Barclays, and has banked with them since with no problems. Meanwhile the Santander account has sat unused, but incurring charges of £100 a month all because he went overdrawn and has been unable to pay the spiralling charges. The original overdrawn amount was for under £10 and as i say was when his debit card actually allowed him to overspend, when there were insufficient funds in the account.

He and i went in to the local branch and tried to ask for a schedule of charges and all we were told was that they couldn’t give one, all they could do was a mini statement. However that doesn’t show charges and as the account hasn’t been used for sometime was pointless. I pointed this out to the cashier, who said the best thing to do was to pay the overdraft then he would stop incurring charges, and did he want to do that today, he could pay it with a debit or credit card....
So on his behalf i wrote them a letter, based on the letter here in MSE forums using financial hardship asking that they refund and credit the account with the charges owed, and did include a schedule of charges, from bank statements he had and after he has stopped using the account they have put £100 every 28 days on in charges. The over drawn balance now stands at over £700.

They replied saying they didn’t feel they had done anything wrong, they hadn’t broken any banking codes, it was all in the agreement he took out with the account but as a good will gesture they would remove £150 and stop the next £100 going out, however to ring them to arrange payment of the rest. This was just before Christmas and as i have been dealing with it for him and have had a lot going on with an ill partner i haven’t got round to replying, in writing, or doing anything else about it, and he now has a letter serving a default notice asking for repayment of the full amount within 28 days and another saying they are entering a default onto the credit reference database.

So... what next? I don’t think he has the capacity to speak to them on the phone, and actually, understand and argue the toss with them, and even if he did ring and passed them to me, i don’t feel i could compose myself on the phone sufficiently either, so we are really down to writing, which i prefer as it can then be proven as to what has been said.

Help please

Alice
[/FONT]

Little_Mo_70

rabbit2 wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Hi All. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I'm sure this has been asked a million times before, but I’d like to ask just one more time....[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]i am trying to reclaim charges on behalf of my son who is 19 and when it comes to life, he is a little naive.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]He was banking with Santander, and back in the summer of last year, he used his debit card, key word, 'debit’ and it allowed him to go over drawn by a few pounds, incurring charges .As a result before he realised, as he was over drawn the DD for his car insurance was refused, again occurring charges. At the time he was an apprentice and only earning £100 a week, so struggled to live and pay his car insurance as it was, without charges and things not being paid. Being what he is, he didn’t say anything, just panicked quietly to himself for a few months then came to me and said he was in trouble and didn’t know what to do, as he couldn’t pay the charges and the car insurance. The first thing i told him to do, was to set up another account somewhere else, so he could keep what money he was earning, which he did with Barclays, and has banked with them since with no problems. Meanwhile the Santander account has sat unused, but incurring charges of £100 a month all because he went overdrawn and has been unable to pay the spiralling charges. The original overdrawn amount was for under £10 and as i say was when his debit card actually allowed him to overspend, when there were insufficient funds in the account. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]He and i went in to the local branch and tried to ask for a schedule of charges and all we were told was that they couldn’t give one, all they could do was a mini statement. However that doesn’t show charges and as the account hasn’t been used for sometime was pointless. I pointed this out to the cashier, who said the best thing to do was to pay the overdraft then he would stop incurring charges, and did he want to do that today, he could pay it with a debit or credit card....[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]So on his behalf i wrote them a letter, based on the letter here in MSE forums using financial hardship asking that they refund and credit the account with the charges owed, and did include a schedule of charges, from bank statements he had and after he has stopped using the account they have put £100 every 28 days on in charges. The over drawn balance now stands at over £700.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]They replied saying they didn’t feel they had done anything wrong, they hadn’t broken any banking codes, it was all in the agreement he took out with the account but as a good will gesture they would remove £150 and stop the next £100 going out, however to ring them to arrange payment of the rest. This was just before Christmas and as i have been dealing with it for him and have had a lot going on with an ill partner i haven’t got round to replying, in writing, or doing anything else about it, and he now has a letter serving a default notice asking for repayment of the full amount within 28 days and another saying they are entering a default onto the credit reference database.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So... what next? I don’t think he has the capacity to speak to them on the phone, and actually, understand and argue the toss with them, and even if he did ring and passed them to me, i don’t feel i could compose myself on the phone sufficiently either, so we are really down to writing, which i prefer as it can then be proven as to what has been said.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Help please [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Alice[/FONT]

Situations like this are always tricky and we mums want desperately to help but, and I really mean this in a kind way, your son is old enough to manage his account. He must have been aware that by spending money he hadn't actually got, there would be a consequence. His card didn't allow him to go overdrawn, he did that by himself. It's what is known as 'learning the hard way".

Let him make an appointment to see the manager (privately in a room not out in the open bank area). If he's not confident he shouldn't be ashamed to admit his nervousness to the manager and explain that he has got the issue written down. He can read from a sheet, it doesn't matter. Whatever he does he musn't 'argue the toss'. He has incurred charges for over limit/non payment etc and he must deal with that.

He needs to explain that the situation has got to this stage because he was confused and not sure how to handle things.
He should ask for some understanding about his mistakes and clearly state that he is now prepared to make every effort to pay off what he owes in an affordable manner and move foreward.

Ask for re-instatement of their original offer before Christmas **otherwise it's going to be almost impossible for him to settle the outstanding amount. (**You stated that the bank were prepared to compromise and remove some of the charges and arrange a payment plan before Christmas but, because of your difficulties, replying before now seems to have closed that option however I still think he should ask for it to be reviewed under the circumstances) He needs to try to get the manager on his side. He needs to be polite and show remorse, perhaps then an affordable payment plan can be worked out (he should already have decided what is affordable to him and have it written down including his budget plan in case it's asked for) It's very important that he promises not to renage on the agreement and he must mean it. I feel the manager will have more respect for your lad if he goes on his own and not with mum in tow. I say this from experience:(

The bank is not obliged to knock anything off nor waive the charges but if he appeals to the manager's better nature and apologises for the way things have turned out, hopefully they will be sympathetic.

Let him handle it himself, he will be better for it and more able to sort out any future problems he may have.

Don't take this the wrong way but I'm not sure why you advised him to use another bank, it didn't solve the charges with Santander at the end of the day!

Get him to make the appointment tomorrow. Good luck to him and I hope all your probs. get sorted soon too.

rabbit2

[FONT=&quot]Hi, and thanks for the reply,
Two points raised, firstly i always assumed a debit card would only let you spend what you had, and not overdraw, i have on occasions had my card declined due to insufficient funds, and always thought that was the case with debit cards, you can spend what you haven’t got. In the same way if i had £10 left in my account i wouldn’t expect to draw out £15... and the use of the card in his part was based on that and was an oversight. Hence my comments about Debit cards.
Secondly, whilst opening an account with Barclays didn’t help with the Santander charges it did enable him to continue living and keep the few pounds he did earn, whilst we tried to sort out Santanders charges.

Also the reason for me thinking it would be good for me to get involved was that a few years ago, just before it all went to court, i myself reclaimed over £700 form Santander, then Abby.

I do understand that as you say, he should be dealing with it himself and any meetings should be done by him.

Thanks again,
A

[/FONT]

angel_islington

To get a list of charges, if he can't view them via statements that he already has either in hard copy or online, then he needs to do a Subject Access Request. This is a legal request to the bank to provide all documentation that they hold on him. This will show any charges. Be prepared for a lot of paperwork to be sent though! There is a statutory fee of £10 for this. If you need a template letter then PM me.

You can still get the charges back, if you are prepared to keep fighting. They don't give in easily.

rabbit2

Just to update on this.
We decided to send the details to the financial ombudsman, and let them decide and sent a letter to Santander telling them.

He received a letter yesterday, from Santander, thanking him for his phone call (he hadn’t rung them) saying that they were sorry he hadn’t been happy with their services but due to the phone call they had now had the opportunity to look into his case where he had gone over drawn by under £10 and as they had recently changed their policy on overdrafts in view of this had credited his account with £670, leaving him with the small amount of £38.70 to pay.


As I say, he didn’t make any phone calls to them, and the last he heard was that they still wanted the money, so I am assuming this was either the ombudsman talking to them or the fact that we said he had gone to the ombudsman, but either way, a good result. Very happy with it.
:):)

Little_Mo_70

rabbit2 wrote: »

Just to update on this.
We decided to send the details to the financial ombudsman, and let them decide and sent a letter to Santander telling them.

He received a letter yesterday, from Santander, thanking him for his phone call (he hadn’t rung them) saying that they were sorry he hadn’t been happy with their services but due to the phone call they had now had the opportunity to look into his case where he had gone over drawn by under £10 and as they had recently changed their policy on overdrafts in view of this had credited his account with £670, leaving him with the small amount of £38.70 to pay.


As I say, he didn’t make any phone calls to them, and the last he heard was that they still wanted the money, so I am assuming this was either the ombudsman talking to them or the fact that we said he had gone to the ombudsman, but either way, a good result. Very happy with it.
:):)

Good news indeed. An excellent start to the New Year.:j

ses6jwg

One point to make all aware of - Santander have now introduced a buffer zone of £12 so you should incur no charges if you go overdrawn into an unauthorised overdraft by this amount or less.

Since November 1st last year, you are entitled to have all charges in one statement period removed/ reversed once. A note is put on your account so that once it has been done, it will not be done again.