Removing bank default due to wrong address held-hit a brick wall!

sturgeon

I had a bank account with Santander up until about three years ago. I was a student and it wasn't my main account. I used the overdraft facility and was about £300 in the red. As the account was used infrequently, the bank did contact me by post about making a payment to keep the account active. At some point, I agreed to pay £50 a month to pay the overdraft off.

I moved address around September 2008 and informed my bank in branch. I then moved in May 2009 when I purchased a property. At this point I thought to contact Santander again to update my records.

It was at this point I discovered they were still chasing the £50 payments and had actually handed my account over to a recovery company to chase me. I wasn't fully aware it was a formal payment plan and still don't understand why they did this for a few hundred quid for a student, hence I wasn't paying every month.

I discovered they had written to me, to my supposed address that changed September 08, yet they had an unfathomably wrong address so I had received no letters. At this stage I paid the balance immediately and when asking if would affect my credit, the recovery agency said no.

Around 8 months ago I found out that they had put a default on my credit record in April 2009. There were also a number of late payment markers and then a 'settled' in May 2009.

My issue with this is I had no idea the default would be placed, had no warning and no way of preventing it. If I knew about this, considering how concerned I am about keeping my credit report in order, I would have paid immediately. The issue was due to them having incorrectly updated my details and therefore writing to a made up address. I presume the default notice also has the wrong address.

After a number of letters to the bank, they made a decision that they would not remove the default, although they admitted having the wrong address for me. They said the main issue was that I wasn't making payments. I felt this was grossly unfair as mentioned above, as I had no idea this was going on and wondered if it was legally enforceable.

I contacted the Financial Ombudsman with every scrap of detail and they told me a few days ago that the bank acted properly in accordance with the details they had for me. My point about the wrong address details and their self-admitted error I was told was a legal issue.

Basically, I'm now told to go to Citizens Advice (which seems to only be able to help if I'm a particularly low earner) or get private legal help. This could obviously be very expensive, however I am dealing with a further 3 years of a black mark on my record-it's likely I will want to extend my mortgage within 3 years as my home is shared ownership. This makes it very unlikely to be allowed.

I still don't see how they can get away with warning me of a default at a wrong address, not having the correct personal information for me and consequently making a big impact on my personal finances and credit file. I've basically hit a brick wall and not sure where to go now.

Any advice please?

sturgeon

Can anyone offer some advice on this please?

agrinnall

Yes, if you make an agreement to pay £50 a month then pay it - had you done so none of this would have happened. The bank are right to say that is the underlying cause of the issue. However, their failure to maintain a correct address is a contributory factor as you were unaware that there had been an escalation of the problem.

While ultimately you may have to consider legal action if you want to pursue this, there are two things you could think about doing before that.

1) Submit a Subject Access Request to the bank to ensure you have all information that they hold on you, including correspondence (whether you received it or not) and a record of when and what updates they made to your address.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/subject_access_requests.aspx

2) Complain to the Information Commisioner's Office that the bank did not maintain correct records for you - the Data Protection Principles include:

4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/the_principles.aspx

chanz4

But an ico complaint wouldnt help the op about the default.

innovate

sturgeon wrote: »

I wasn't fully aware it was a formal payment plan and still don't understand why they did this for a few hundred quid for a student, hence I wasn't paying every month.

Are you serious? Who did you think should have settled your debts, if not yourself?

I am surprised that you are surprised about a marker on your credit file.

thatsean

My concern here is that while you appear to have gone to a lot of effort to ensure that an address change was made with the bank, you've gone to less effort to repay a debt to them.

A lack of correspondence would surely highlight to you that the bank did not have the correct address for you?

Why did you not know that the £50 per month arrangement was formal? Did the bank not tell you?

I don't see how you can get out of this, had you been making payments as agreed then you would not be in this position, regardless of the address that the bank were holding for you.

I understand that you are making the point that had the bank actioned the address change as advised, then you would have been alerted to the fact that you were not making payments. The problem there is that it's not the job of the bank to do this. YOU owed the money, YOU offered to repay over a set period of time, unfortunately, YOU failed to do this.

You need to take advice before taking this to court.

Best of luck.

sturgeon

innovate wrote: »

Are you serious? Who did you think should have settled your debts, if not yourself?

I am surprised that you are surprised about a marker on your credit file.

As I'm sure many people here can empathise with, a student isn't the best example of a particularly financially astute individual. Whilst I like to think I was, clearly I was under the false impression that a miniscule overdraft would have no impact. I could not afford to pay £50 monthly, didn't really know why they were acting so bullish over an overdraft on my student account and clearly these seemed to be the main reasons I didn't finish the payments.

Either way, I am not arguing with the fact they placed the default. They acted correctly.

Thatsean, regarding your points, no the lack of correspondence doesn't highlight the fact they didn't have the wrong address. I was very busy with a full-time job and in the process of buying a home as a first time buyer, wondering why some statements weren't turning up for an account that wasn't even my primary account was not top of my priority list. I only get one letter a year about my mortgage, which is about 300 times the size of that overdraft.

They did not tell me the payment plan was formal.

The reason I thought I could 'get out of this' is due to the fact they acted incorrectly in the storage and administration of my personal details. And the default notice would have the wrong, made up address on. The FOS said they acted correctly as best as they could. But what if they wrote to me saying the account was closing immediately and I needed to pay my overdraft within 7 days? What if my bank had the wrong address for my mortgage and hiked the rate to 20% and I didn't have a clue, and therefore no chance to act in time?

The fact they made an error with my personal details has had a very detrimental effect. Surely it is the job of the bank to alert me to the fact they were going to place a default on my account. Surely this is legal practice, they can't just do it without prior warning...or even telling me afterwards. They made no effort to phone or email me when I didn't respond to these letters they sent to the incorrect address.

innovate

Given that the FOS already decreed that the bank did not act improperly, it's hard to see how you would succeed anywhere else with your case.

It is even harder to see what you are trying to achieve when you are repeatedly saying you spent money that wasn't yours (i.e. the overdraft) but you did not repay it because you "couldn't afford £50 monthly".

You say you could afford a mortgage "about 300 times the size of that overdraft" - - - why did it never occur to you to settle your "miniscule" overdraft first?

But hey, if you do think you have a case, pay a lawyer to help you get the justice that you believe you have deserved.