Santander - Where from here?

se0303

I am wondering whether anyone else has experienced anything remotely comparable to my experience with Santander, and might be able to suggest how to proceed.

In early 2010, my income was drastically cut due to a ban on overtime earnings at work. This almost immediately threw me into serious financial difficulties, but I was able to negotiate reduced repayments to all my unsecured creditors and have kept to those arrangements. There has been no harassment or further difficulties with them. I gave honest information about my circumstances and arrangements were put in place without hassle.

Santander, however, is another matter entirely. They took no notice of any correspondence sent to them; we are talking now more than 20 letters, mostly with I&E forms and payment offers. Instead, they began a campaign of simply relentless harassment, including at one stage daily letters and phone calls *all* day, sometimes minutes apart. Several complain letters went off, and were ignored, as were three requests to start CCJ proceedings against me. Two loan accounts and a current account continued (and continue) to accrue charges, now amounting to many hundreds of pounds.

In December 2010, I referred the matter to the FOS. I received a considered reply (February 2011), which stated that the FOS has no means of forcing a creditor to accept lowered repayments, but advised me to stop making any payments and wait until the debts were sold to a third party. In their submission to the FOS, Santander stated in black and white that they would not accept any sort of part-payment, and that they would only accept immediate and full repayment of the arrears and then full and timely payment of the monthly instalments.

In March 2011, I was made redundant, and made Santander aware of this. I offered a partial settlement of 45% of the total debt outstanding, in two separate written offers, but did not receive a reply. However, the letters and phone calls did stop - until March this year.

I have had just one, short-term period of employment since redundancy and my situation is now near-catastrophic. I can no longer pay my mortgage, and have put my home on the market for sale, and hope it will actually sell - no positive signs as yet. My sole source of income now is state benefits at a subsistence level.

The harassment from Santander since March has become totally unbearable. They apparently refuse to put anything in writing, so I am receiving up to 20 calls a day, mobile and home number, from Santander collections, Wescot and another outfit called F2, which I believe is another in-house team at Santander. Sometimes the calls are literally minutes apart. Plus voicemails and SMS messages. They have again ignored written requests to communicate in writing, or to desist from harassing me in this way. They simply ignore descriptions of my personal circumstances.

I feel so drowned by this situation, but essentially see two options. I have another, ready letter to send to Santander, which again invites them to sue me in the hope that the CCJ would put an end to their harassment. Or I throw in the towel and make myself bankrupt, with all the consequences that entails, especially the loss of my home (and the potential £25K equity I would receive after a normal sale). After two years of genuine and honest effort to find a compromise with them, I've gotten nowhere. That said, the situation cannot possibly continue as it is at the moment.

What would others do in my position? I would value any experiences or advice from others who've been unable to negotiate with Santander.

DS4215

How about getting new phone numbers? - its not ideal but it would soon stop the phone calls. There is someone that you can complain to about the harassment but I can't remember who they are offhand.

Have you spoken to CCCS or National Debtline for advice - it might help to have their backing with your dealings with Santander.

I am having similar problems (on a smaller scale) - I've just increased my payments on my Santander OD by £10 and they've increased the interest by £12.50! It should soon be cleared though (fingers crossed).

Hatecreditors.com

Wow! I haven’t dealt with Santander before but they sound like a bunch of *#”!s!!

You’ve been upfront, honest and have requested all correspondence in writing. Any credible company would be happy with this and try and work with you to resolve the matter!

At the end of the day, banks wouldn’t exist these days if it wasn’t for people in financial difficulty.

Can I suggest posting a SOA to see the feasibility of bankruptcy? A CCJ may get the monkeys off your back but the debt will still remain a weight on your shoulders.

se0303

I have unsecured debts of £31,000; of that, c.£22,000 is to Santander. I have a mortgage of £165,000 on a property worth £195,000. This is up for sale, in the hope that the equity would allow me to re-establish myself financially. My savings and redundancy funds are now exhausted. My monthly income is £260 JSA. It is a drastic turn-around of fate in less than two years, and one I never foresaw. Against this picture, the obvious course of action is bankruptcy, but I am aware that the house sale funds will go to the OR and leave me with nothing, if I take that course of action.

As an illustration, on 1st May, on my mobile alone, Santander and the other two in-house collections teams called me at 0830, 0955, 1246, 1248, 1249, 1251, 1907, 1911 and 2031. And this repeats in a similar fashion, 7 days a week.

awayinchina

se0303 wrote: »

As an illustration, on 1st May, on my mobile alone, Santander and the other two in-house collections teams called me at 0830, 0955, 1246, 1248, 1249, 1251, 1907, 1911 and 2031. And this repeats in a similar fashion, 7 days a week.

ok there are template letter on here in regards harrassment calls which this is obvious. Send it recorded delivery and they sign for it. the letter instructs them to stop calling if they do not then you start a new complaint against santander with FOS and yo can sue their butts. plus you have the proof in that they sign for the letter.
just play hard ball with them...they know this is stressing you and they hope that the stress makes you pay. some people would then go to a doctor "stress" people have done this and claimed a chunk of money! not saying you should do that mind.

se0303

In their response to the FOS, Santander stated that they "cannot stop collections calls, which are to see whether we can help" (!!!). They obviously can, since they stopped for over a year. They have taken no notice of my references to the OFT etc., stating that these are guidelines and not rules. I do not have the funds to take legal action against Santander for harassment; the OFT does not deal with individual complaints. The FOS in its ruling stated that they also cannot stop collections activities - hence their recommendation I simply pay nothing and wait for the debts to be sold or get CCJ'd. I am baffled as to why neither has happened.

Equally, when I have spoken to the collections teams, I get the same robot-like quotes "you must pay the arrears immediately...blah blah blah... what's your debit card number?". These people know nothing of the correspondence - none of it - which they then claim has never been received. They are lying through their teeth: full copies of everything, with date stamps, were produced when I did an SAR and when the FOS requested them.

I would have changed my numbers by now - again - but am waiting on a fairly large number of job applications. It would look bad if the numbers in my CVs and applications were to become unavailable.

As I write, Wescot are on the phone again. Only the 7th call today - I'm lucky..!!

nottoolate

you could always turn the tables on them and have a bit of fun at their expense?

like this person https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/741653

se0303

Their persistence on the phone is really something else. If I let the call go through to voicemail, they merely hang up and re-dial, as the timings of the calls I gave on 1/5 show. These clearly aren't automated.

It just seems an impossible situation. I've done my best, in an open and responsible way, to reach a negotiated outcome. I don't want to make myself bankrupt because I need the funds from the house sale. Plus, as humiliating as it is, I don't actually have the funds for the Court fee.

I just don't understand why they apparently prefer this total impasse to what could have been a relatively easy process of agreeing new repayments. All the others accepted, with no questions and no unpleasantness.

pure_dead_dopey

get your phone number changed, tell your provider you are being unlawfully harassed, you can give them the numbers that are harassing you.
don't give the new one to anyone
complain to the FOS in the strongest terms
email the CEO of Santander and ask if this is the way he does business

eyeopener2

Do what Dopey says.

And do it today.

FireWyrm

And when youre done with the letter, ring your local paper and then ring the national papers...all of them. Write to your local MP and keep writing until you get a result. This is harassment, plain and simple. It is entirely illegal and you have every right to expose their disreputable activities. I would threaten all of the above in a written letter to them and explain that unless they cease immediately, you'll make it your mission to expose them to the public. You've made one convert already...I was very tempted to take up their current account, but having seen rather more complaints abut them than I'd like, I think I'll give them a miss.