incorrect credit

carolel

Help received a letter from my bank santander stating that over 2 years ago over £600 was paid into my a/c in error, and they want me to sign to repay it. I know i have got to pay this back but cannot afford to all in one lump sum. I have spent the last 3 weeks trying to speak to someone to arrange to pay it back in installments. I have now had a letter stating that since they havent heard from me they will just take it out anyway on 6/6. I have written to them twice both by post and via fax but still received no reply. The only answer seems to be to increase overdraft as this money will be taken out. How can they take money from my a/c without my permission and this isnt covered in T&C

innovate

carolel wrote: »

Help received a letter from my bank santander stating that over 2 years ago over £600 was paid into my a/c in error, and they want me to sign to repay it. I know i have got to pay this back but cannot afford to all in one lump sum. I have spent the last 3 weeks trying to speak to someone to arrange to pay it back in installments. I have now had a letter stating that since they havent heard from me they will just take it out anyway on 6/6. I have written to them twice both by post and via fax but still received no reply. The only answer seems to be to increase overdraft as this money will be taken out. How can they take money from my a/c without my permission and this isnt covered in T&C

Can you go into a Santander Branch with copies of your letter/fax, to discuss a mutually acceptable settlement?

You seem to acknowledge that the £600 was never yours, and that you have to pay it back. If Santander taking back the £600 puts you into an overdraft, it means you spent money that you knew was never yours, and you shouldn't have spent it.

Seeing that you apparently have spent it, though, all you can hope is that the bank will agree to a repayment plan that you can afford.

Don't put your head into the sand - - - they aren't "taking your money without your permission". It's never been your money. If anything, you spent money that you knew wasn't yours - - otherwise known as theft. So don't even go there - just beg your bank to let you pay back the £600 in small chunks you can afford.

GiraffeMan

Hi
I'd explain you can't repay in one lump sum and ask to take the debt over say 12, 24 or 36 mths interest free of course.

carolel

thanks but this is the whole jist of the problem have been unable to speak to someone to arrange to pay back over time. Been into branch who stated it was nothing to do with them. and all advisors on telephone banking do is put me on hold for 10mins at atime while they speak to someone then come back and say it will all be taken out on 6/6. Even they dont know who or which dept sent letter.

agrinnall

Close the account and open one with a better bank. You'll still owe the money but they will have to come to an agreement with you about how to repay it.

ffacoffipawb

carolel wrote: »

Help received a letter from my bank santander stating that over 2 years ago over £600 was paid into my a/c in error, and they want me to sign to repay it. I know i have got to pay this back but cannot afford to all in one lump sum. I have spent the last 3 weeks trying to speak to someone to arrange to pay it back in installments. I have now had a letter stating that since they havent heard from me they will just take it out anyway on 6/6. I have written to them twice both by post and via fax but still received no reply. The only answer seems to be to increase overdraft as this money will be taken out. How can they take money from my a/c without my permission and this isnt covered in T&C

Why didn't you tell them 2 years ago about the wrongful credit? Instead you spent it. Why?

pqrdef

In my experience it's impossible to have a dialogue with Santander because of the time lags at their end. By the time they reply to your first letter, the world will have moved on.

Possibly into a new geological epoch.

Just put the whole sorry saga into a written formal complaint and send it to the complaints department. You won't get any sense out of anybody else.

pinkdalek

agrinnall wrote: »

Close the account and open one with a better bank. You'll still owe the money but they will have to come to an agreement with you about how to repay it.

Couldn't agree with you more.

If it has taken the bank two years for this "error" to come to light it hardly would install my confidence in them as an organisation to handle my financial affairs. And it seems now that you are willing to pay back the monies at an affordable amount but feel like you are wading through treacle and getting nowhere.

Gromitt

carolel wrote: »

thanks but this is the whole jist of the problem have been unable to speak to someone to arrange to pay back over time

With only 3 days left it might be a bit too late to keep on trying to talk to them. Maybe you can visit the branch and arrange an overdraft to pay for the £600 they will be taking out of your account? This will allow you to pay it back over time, although will of course incur interest, but to be fair, you had the money 2 years ago, why didn't you pay it back then? Or at least put it into a savings account for when they asked for it back?

jonesMUFCforever

pinkdalek wrote: »

Couldn't agree with you more.

If it has taken the bank two years for this "error" to come to light it hardly would install my confidence in them as an organisation to handle my financial affairs. And it seems now that you are willing to pay back the monies at an affordable amount but feel like you are wading through treacle and getting nowhere.

This will come to light ONLY because the rightful customer has found out that a credit they were expecting did not arrive in their account.
Nothing to to do with ''taking Santander two years to discover the error'' .
I do admit it is bad practise to send OP a letter with no contact details - however after saying that they are quite within their rights to deduct money from the account. They do not have to accept any repayament plan.

pinkdalek

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

This will come to light ONLY because the rightful customer has found out that a credit they were expecting did not arrive in their account.
Nothing to to do with ''taking Santander two years to discover the error'' .
I do admit it is bad practise to send OP a letter with no contact details - however after saying that they are quite within their rights to deduct money from the account. They do not have to accept any repayament plan.

So of course it would not be possible for Santander to have credited the funds incorrectly 2 years ago? My comment is how can an organisation which has admitted to funding an account in error suddenly expect to take it back in one go and not allow the OP to pay back in affordable instalments?

And just like other people have posted about the OP not saying something sooner, then here highlights the other side to the coin where not everyone checks their finances on a regular basis hence why the rightful customer has taken 2 years to discover their missing credit.

The OP hasn't admitted that they knew of the credit 2 years ago to their account either so why this common assumption to automatically have a go at them for not spotting it.

They came on for advice, mine was to close the account, go somewhere else and then Santander cannot just take it back, however due to the short time now involved it could be too late to do this.