help :( santander cards trying to charge me for their mistakes!

hannaaaahh

Sorry in advance if this is a little long winded, I know it wont be a major problem to some but I'm a student now and live off £26 a week.. anyway..


I used to have a topshop card whilst I worked full time, I only used it twice and was pretty sure I'd paid it off after a few months so went to check online ... your account disabled due to inactivity on card ( I called, my entire account not just online as I had 0 balance) !

great :j


so fast forward a few months and I start getting nasty debt collection letters to my mums house ( I've now moved away as an nhs student) threatening me from some topshop card which by now I'd forgot I ever owned ( the account had been closed for months!)

so I phoned up topshop cards right away and after ages and 101 security questions they re-opened my account '' no madam you dont owe us any money, ignore the letters its probably a scam ''

perfect!


fast forward 2 more months, more letters! repeat the above situation, I wrote down the entire conversation this time too, again they confirmed I owed no money and thats why my account was closed.. they wouldnt close an account that owed them money..ignore the letters.

more letters.. more phone calls ( about £40 worth now!)
and again so this time I asked them to delete me off record all together ''thats fine madam''

more letters
call them up '' we have no record of you '' ( yay theyre capable)

so I finally write to Santander

no reply

more letters another phone call
write again and finally the account goes under investigation..


I've just recieved their reply on the investigation into my account and they are very apologetic for their mistakes from all their call center workers but I do actually owe them £115 but from good will we will take the £5 off to help your situation.




So sorry for the rambling but where do I stand here? me and my mum are completely baffled, over 5 different members of staff ( all names listed to santader) confirmed I owe no money and my account was closed and they cant access it etc.

do I have to pay them the £110 ? If I dont will the debt collectors come and seize my mummys things?What do I do basically ?

help

EDIT : I also cant get a student bank account over draft etc. becusae of this which is TOTALLY screwing me over!

agrinnall

You need to get Santander to provide you with details of what the £115 is for, is it transactions only (and if so are they ones that you accept responsibility for) or does it include charges? You probably are responsible for transactions but as you have made a lot of effort to find out if you did owe anything I can't see that it would be acceptable for any charges to be levied.

Goods cannot be siezed until a court hearing has taken place and an order made against you. It doesn't sound like it's anywhere near that stage at the moment. and if the cards were all in your name your mother's property cannot be seized under any circumstances.

alox123

I am in a similar situation, with the same people.

The same thing that happened to me might have happened to you. Despite me ringing to change my address 3 times they failed to, so I was not receiving statements. Since I was not receiving statements I had no idea what the min payment was - I just kept paying the same from when I was receiving statements, but without me knowing the min went up so I ended up paying not enough (only a few pence though).

After a few months with no statements I called to find out why I had nothing in the post I called to find the request to change my address wasnt applied correct and the letters to tell me was going to the wrong house. I accrued months of under payment charges, plus interest and charges for going over my limit that had been snowballing without my knowledge to about £200. That was last September. The guy I spoke to who explained what happened agreed to put me on a 'viking' payment plan, for £23 PM. Which I have been paying since. Until last week, when I checked my credit report to see how it looked and saw this account was in the red SINCE September, despite having a plan in place. I called, after an hour (£30 phone call!) found out I should have been told £23.74 - so have been underpaying on my payment plan - incurring MORE charges - now up to £240! I was not happy. Was told I would get a call from complaints within 5 days. 6 days - still nothing. Called after 6 days (another £15 worth of calls) and was told my complaint had failed to get processed correctly so hadn't moved at all last week. Remember, I am still paying interest on this bill, have a phone bill coming up and still have an increasingly battered credit rating. I asked complaints to call my back, they did. Now waiting for their resolution.

Basically, I have experienced serious failures in their procedures - but hopefully they will rectify it full. So its no surprise you've had problems and are confused. Mine had dragged out for over a year now.

Is there a chance you missed a payment of paid late? They may have applied charges you were unaware of and just kept adding to them more and more if you didn't do anything about it. Ask to speak to someone in escalations who seem to have a wider knowledge of how things work and ask for a callback (they might say no) Also, if they have made a mistake ask for your call charges back -its only fair.

Good luck

alox123

It might be also worth doing a credit check and finding out what state your card is in. If its in arrears then its still with them, if its defaulted it might have been sold on. If so, you will also have to deal with the debt collection agency. Do a free one if you can, lots of links on this site.

hannaaaahh

agrinnall wrote: »

You need to get Santander to provide you with details of what the £115 is for, is it transactions only (and if so are they ones that you accept responsibility for) or does it include charges? You probably are responsible for transactions but as you have made a lot of effort to find out if you did owe anything I can't see that it would be acceptable for any charges to be levied.

Goods cannot be siezed until a court hearing has taken place and an order made against you. It doesn't sound like it's anywhere near that stage at the moment. and if the cards were all in your name your mother's property cannot be seized under any circumstances.

Wescot sent me a file showing this and it's all charges bar an outstanding 15p or something pathetic ( it was under a pound!) then it's all late payment charges etc.etc.

they've admitted its all their mistake for mis-informing me- so surely they should drop the charges.

I've got 8 weeks to reply to their current letter for which time my account is on hold and they can re-investigate and then after that they said they can refer me to the financial ombudsman service ( no idea what this is though)

Cell

Wescot??????????

The very name sends shivers down my spine.

They chased me for a £12.99 debt which didn't exist years ago. I found their phone manner and general conduct to be utterly disgusting.

To cut a long story short they didn't do what they said they would do, did do what they said they wouldn't, and in the end I got Trading Standards on them and they scuttled away without so much of an apology.

Not everyone would have gone to the lengths that I did - after all it's only a few quid!

Google them, and get advice from the CAB if necessary.

alox123

What did the letter say? If they have admitted to the mistakes they should rectify them financially.

Has the issue gone to Santander complaints yet? Did it get passed directly to a debt collection agency? If it is still with Santander then you should see what they say. They might get rid of it all if it is their fault, but if they can show you made a mistake then you might have to pay some.

After they write to you explaining the next course of action you can see what they say and if it seems reasonable then do that. If not, I think you can ask them to reconsider and they can offer you something else. If you are still not happy you will need to contact the financial ombudsman - the independent body charged with dealing with these kinds of disputes AFTER you have been offered a solution and whoever it is you feel you have been wronged by has had a chance to rectify the situation. They are the last option and cant help until you have been offered solutions by the financial institution in question.

I am currently waiting to see what Santander offer in terms of rectifying my situation, and hopefully considering the list of problems is big (and seems to get bigger after each phone call) they should fully compensate me. Waiting for a letter from the complaints department.

I will help if you not only list the calls you made, the departments and the people if you can - but all the problems and how much it has cost in terms of calls. So you can categorically list what has happened - these things can drag on so don't rely on memory!

hannaaaahh

alox123 wrote: »

What did the letter say? If they have admitted to the mistakes they should rectify them financially.

Has the issue gone to Santander complaints yet? Did it get passed directly to a debt collection agency? If it is still with Santander then you should see what they say. They might get rid of it all if it is their fault, but if they can show you made a mistake then you might have to pay some.

After they write to you explaining the next course of action you can see what they say and if it seems reasonable then do that. If not, I think you can ask them to reconsider and they can offer you something else. If you are still not happy you will need to contact the financial ombudsman - the independent body charged with dealing with these kinds of disputes AFTER you have been offered a solution and whoever it is you feel you have been wronged by has had a chance to rectify the situation. They are the last option and cant help until you have been offered solutions by the financial institution in question.

I am currently waiting to see what Santander offer in terms of rectifying my situation, and hopefully considering the list of problems is big (and seems to get bigger after each phone call) they should fully compensate me. Waiting for a letter from the complaints department.

I will help if you not only list the calls you made, the departments and the people if you can - but all the problems and how much it has cost in terms of calls. So you can categorically list what has happened - these things can drag on so don't rely on memory!

''please accept my apology for the information provided by my colleague on October 5th the information and advice provided were incorrect''

He's ignoring the fact I phoned a LOT of times and got told the same by a LOT of people!


''during my investigations I note you were aware of the debt on the account when the account was first opened as you had viewed the details online '' I clearly pointed out in the letter I haven't used the online service for well over a year as it locked me out due to '' zero balance and inactivity on account''


'' I can confirm previous letters were received, but do not appear to have received replies. Please accept my apology for this poor service''



Ughhhh! And the help number he's provided is 10p per minute!

So I'm writing a lovely reply now, unfortunately I only wrote down two of the phone calls made but I made hundreds... hence the £40 Ive spent! Including one to a man during which I broke down and he refused to let me speak to the manager.



Really not the position I need to be in right now!

alox123

Do you have online phone statements? If you can view those, then start listing when you called.

If you list the mistakes they made, anything you did wrong and trying and find who is accountable for what.

If it turns out due to them misinforming you about something and that caused more charges, they need to know that and refund those charges to you.

If you were told about a charge but ignored it, and they can prove that getting money knocked off might be hard.

If they have written to you, write back to them if you feel their resolution is not sufficient (as I presume you are doing) then wait to see if they take more/full responsibility or offer nothing else. If they offer nothing else or do not take responsibility contact the Financial Ombudsman and tell them what has happened, detailing what you and Topshop have tried, and failed to reach a resolution. Also, if you feel you had to make calls due to their mistakes ask for a reimbursement. At the end of the day YOU are paying for THEIR mistakes.

Good luck, as I am also involved in a complaint I will pass any info thats relevent

hannaaaahh

alox123 wrote: »

Do you have online phone statements? If you can view those, then start listing when you called.

If you list the mistakes they made, anything you did wrong and trying and find who is accountable for what.

If it turns out due to them misinforming you about something and that caused more charges, they need to know that and refund those charges to you.

If you were told about a charge but ignored it, and they can prove that getting money knocked off might be hard.

If they have written to you, write back to them if you feel their resolution is not sufficient (as I presume you are doing) then wait to see if they take more/full responsibility or offer nothing else. If they offer nothing else or do not take responsibility contact the Financial Ombudsman and tell them what has happened, detailing what you and Topshop have tried, and failed to reach a resolution. Also, if you feel you had to make calls due to their mistakes ask for a reimbursement. At the end of the day YOU are paying for THEIR mistakes.

Good luck, as I am also involved in a complaint I will pass any info thats relevent

thankyou very much
I think I've solved where it all went wrong

they decided to trace my address and changed it to some completely random address like 15 miles from my home in the second month of my card - hence why I've never received any statements / never known I was in debt until a year and a half later!


I hope they'll admit that this is their mistake, I've offered to pay anything I actually owe them for purchases but nothing for them randomly changing my address?!?

heaven knows why they did that!