Santander being unreasonable?

chrisdixon2

Hi All I hope everyone is well

First post and sorry if I sound a little bit agitated as this is annoying me somewhat.

Basically I wrote a letter back in January to Santander to close all my accounts with them with a cheque for £25.68 as that is what I owed them, unfortunately I did not send it recorded. I completely forgot about it until yesterday when their debt team stated trying to ring me constantly during my work day. I attempted to log in and sure enough guess what they have not closed the account and have slapped on £75 worth of more fees, No other transactions have been made other than these fees. So I contacted their service desk online to exaplin the problem but they wont talk to me because its with their debt team. So a couple of questions:

1: I realise I should have chased them up (especially as Ive just checked they have not cashed the cheque) but have these people not ever heard of common sense? Its fairly obvious the account is dormant so should I really have to pay the additional £75?

2: Will this have affected my credit rating?

Thanks all in advance for your opinions and any suggestions on how to proceed. Its a bit rich of these banks to be like this considering they can't manage their own money!

Chris

Buzby

Yes - sending a cheque that hasn't been cashed does not mean you have expunched the debt. Until the amount is paid into the account, any charges applied under the terms of your account, keeps you fully liable.

Will it affect your credit rating - it might, especially if you gave the bank permission to disclose your financial details to a CRA. If they didn't - then they will not.

As to youre last paragraph - the onus remains with you to ensure any debt it paid and credited, if it isn't then you have to make alternative arrangements. I cannot see any failing on the bank's part, I'm afraid.

IrishGypsy

Santander report their current accounts to the CRA agencies every month (which I know because all four of my Santander current accounts show up on my credit file).

You can ask the debt agency to refund some of the charges on goodwill, but they don't have to. Secondly, I'd be wary of additional daily unarranged fees clocking up in the background as I type. Until the collections and recovery team and yourself make an arrangement to suspend all further charges, you're likely still having an additional £5 per day added to your account (up to a maximum of 20 days per statement month).

For bank account collections, call 0845 6039035, ignore the option about charges and speak to an advisor. Best of luck.