Santander wont put me on payment plan..

abbo1

Hey all

First post on the forum but all advice read over the years has got me on the track to paying my debts 1by1.

OK here goes..... I am currently on payment arrangements with all 5 of my credit cards. All 5 have frozen interest, and are accepting reduced payment until the dept is cleared. I am self employed, work is slow and i see no sign of it improving.

I have arranged all payment arrangements myself, and done all negotiating myself also.

My final dept with Santander, it was a flexiloan taken out in 2003 with cahoot, which santander took over, with a balance of £3600.

After giving them all the figures SOA, they agree that i do not have the funds to pay £98pm which is my contractual payment with them. I asked them to freeze interest, and accept a reduced payment of £45 pm, which is inline with what my other creditors are paying based on amount owed.

The agents responce on the phone was " It is not Santander policy to put you on an arrangement (freezing interest etc) unless you have a dmp set up with a debt managent company." So all they can do is accept what i can afford until the account goes into default after six months, in which then it will be passed to collections agency.

All my other creditors have accepted my arrangements with no or minimum hasstle.

Can Santander do this?

I really do not wont to go to CAB or the likes now, as i have come so far getting this all sorted myself, now for it to be turned on its head by santander.

Like i say all other creditors have accepted my offers and frozen interest....

Much appreciate any advice on what i can do......

Thanks in advance

mogsi80

Hi Abbo1

I have the same problem with NDR Money, they will not reduce the payment (although they happily accept the reduce payment I make!!) keep adding interest and charges! So helpful!

I've spoken to their "reps" on several occassion and basically have been told I've just got to lump it until they sell it on - which from what they told me is 18mths!

I've done the same as you gone on and done it ourselves and everyone else has agreed to freeze or dramatically reduce the interest.

Guess we've just got to carry on and make the payments we can. None of the companies are obligied to stop the interest, just that some are better than others

x

skyshadow

Well by rights Santander are correct, they are under no legal obligation to to freeze your interest etc, however if the issuing defaults aside the worst they can do is send it to a DCA who will repeat the same rubbish and threaten court action.

As I imagine many others on here will explain too, the overriding objective of the court is to act fairly to all parties. The civil procedure rules dictate that all parties must act responsibly and act frivolously, vexatiously or maliciously in bringing a claim.

So if you can only afford to pay X amount, they refuse and take you to court and the judge looks and says "Yes I agree you can only afford to pay X amount" he will not look kindly on Santander for wasting the courts time to get the same result at what you offered.

Santander know this and are simply bullying you to pay more. I would advise writing a letter with you SOA. My strategy has always been with these leeches, rather than defend your position which they will disagree with, simply question theirs and make them answer question that they cannot. I.E.

Dear Santander,

Based on the attached figures please can you explain the follwing:

1) Why you are unwilling to accept my payments of X amount each month in line with my other creditors.
2) If you are unwilling to accept payments as I have offered please confirm if you in fact wish me to make zero payments each month
3) If you are still requesting I make payments at a higher percentage to yourself over my other creditors please explain why Santander should be given priority.
4) Please explain if you believe your refusal to accept a reduced payment is a policy based decision and if so please supply me with a written copy of this policy, along with a written explaination of how this is reconciled with the civil procedure rules Section 1.1 (2)b of saving expense?

Please treat this letter as a formal complaint and for the avoidance of doubt answer all questions separately using the same numbering format I have used.

Something like that should shut them up

mogsi80

Ooh thanks for that SkyShadow - I will use that against the numpties at NDR, I had just carried on and ignored them!!

skyshadow

mogsi80 wrote: »

Ooh thanks for that SkyShadow - I will use that against the numpties at NDR, I had just carried on and ignored them!!

No probs, having worked on both sides of debt recovery I know what will stuff these people up and the sort of replies you will get.

If they fail to reply or come back with an evasive answer like "you are under contract to repay XXX this is what you must pay blah blah blah"

Just copy and paste the same questions in your next letter and reiterate the question "please answer my original question clearly and directly as I asked and confirm if you are refusing my offer of payment and wish instead for me to pay zero"

mogsi80

Super will crack on with that now, thanks for the help x

JustinCredibleGillespie

They have to be the worst bank in this world to deal with.

JCG

xx

skyshadow

JustinCredibleGillespie wrote: »

They have to be the worst bank in this world to deal with.

JCG

xx

Agreed. I went £40 overdrawn with them. I thought there was a payment in my account so paid for some train tickets with my debt card which got approved and got my train to the airport and came back to find I hadn't been paid as expected due to finding a cheque on my doormat.

Santander said it was my fault for using my card without first checking the balance and £5 per day charge was valid. They couldn't accept my request to put a block on my debit card to not authorise it if there is no money in there without some kind of warning. Most banks will meet you halfway but they refuse to listen at all. Utter morons the lot of them

up2ualan

their parent company is having a horrific time in Spain, I am thinking that this may be reflected in a hard line approach in the UK