Cahoot Flexiloan monthly payment before due date

hellykent

Hi, just wanted to let y'all know of a situation that doesn't seem to be hi-lighted on any forums yet.

I have recently managed to get my financial circumstances in order and have started to pay any monthly payments as early as I can after the statement date. On my Cahoot Flexiloan (hah!) I paid my monthly payment a week before the due date. I then received a letter to tell me I was behind on my payments. When I phoned them, they apologised to say they had received the payment, but because it hadn't been paid on the due due date, it had been applied to the capital of the loan, and not taken as a monthly payment, which was still due. I accepted this, and told them I would phone in a week after I had been paid to make the payment. I wasn't happy about this, as it affected my cashflow, so checked my terms and conditions. It states that I can make my monthly payments on or before the due date. So I phoned them up again, and said I wasn't going to pay it, and they needed to reallocate the payment. I was told again that because it wasn't paid on the due date, it couldn't be allocated as a monthly payment. After quoting their terms and conditions to them, they finally admitted that they have a glitch in their computer system that can't cope with payments not made on the due date. I asked them to refund it to me, and I would repay it, but the computer said 'no'. So I asked them to reallocate it, but the computer said 'no'. I did get quite angry with their representative who eventually spoke to their supervisor, and they did agree to reallocate it as a monthly payment. Then they told me that any future payments must be made on the due date or else it would be misallocated again.

Their information is incorrect, so don't accept it.

I have written a letter of complaint to them. I've also set up a dd to avoid this issue again, although am tempted to pay early every month just to annoy them, but I haven't got the time to deal with it ( or the spare cash to pay for the phone calls).

Hope that helps some of you.

skintandscared_2

Personally, if I made a payment on or after the due date, then made an additional payment during the term of the same "payment month" (i.e. before the next due date) I would fully expect it to be taken as an overpayment for THAT month, and not my next month's payment early. Why on earth would the bank assume you were paying next month's payment early? I agree they probably could have re-allocated the misdirected payment without so much of a fuss though.

arbroath_lass

skintandscared wrote: »

Why on earth would the bank assume you were paying next month's payment early? I agree they probably could have re-allocated the misdirected payment without so much of a fuss though.

Because it was AFTER the OP received their statement.

Not sure how to quote the OP but:

"pay any monthly payments as early as I can after the statement date"

skintandscared_2

arbroath_lass wrote: »

Because it was AFTER the OP received their statement.

Not sure how to quote the OP but:

"pay any monthly payments as early as I can after the statement date"

No. The OP clearly stated (in relation to this particular payment) "On my Cahoot Flexiloan (hah!) I paid my monthly payment a week before the due date."

If you make a payment BEFORE it is due, it is surely expected that the bank will allocate it as an overpayment in the CURRENT payment period, not next month's payment early?!

arbroath_lass

skintandscared wrote: »

No. The OP clearly stated (in relation to this particular payment) "On my Cahoot Flexiloan (hah!) I paid my monthly payment a week before the due date."

If you make a payment BEFORE it is due, it is surely expected that the bank will allocate it as an overpayment in the CURRENT payment period, not next month's payment early?!

A week before the due date is after the statement date, though. You don't, generally, just get a week to pay and payment is due on or BEFORE.

BTW OP have you seen this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3578349

skintandscared_2

arbroath_lass wrote: »

A week before the due date is after the statement date, though. You don't, generally, just get a week to pay and payment is due on or BEFORE.

BTW OP have you seen this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3578349

Yes, but a statement is sent, showing the minimum payment due on the DUE date, so you have warning of when to make the payment and how much it should be! The payment specified in that statement is the amount you have to pay on or after the next DUE date, and before the following DUE date. I would fully expect any payment made before the due date to be allocated as an overpayment in the current payment period, not next month's payment. It's not exactly rocket science, is it

arbroath_lass

skintandscared wrote: »

Yes, but a statement is sent, showing the minimum payment due on the DUE date, so you have warning of when to make the payment and how much it should be! The payment specified in that statement is the amount you have to pay on or after the next DUE date, and before the following DUE date. I would fully expect any payment made before the due date to be allocated as an overpayment in the current payment period, not next month's payment. It's not exactly rocket science, is it

Hehe I still disagree - I've never heard it was acceptable to pay after the due date (what would be the point of the due date). Bear in mind this is Santander we are talking about.

We could go round and round with this. Let's just wait until the OP comes back :cool:

skintandscared_2

yeah, no worries I'm obviously thinking along different lines to you as I don't see why you would make a payment before it's due. But it's entirely possible I'm missing something obvious

XXSCOTSLASSXX

I had a cahoot flexible loan with no end of problems re payments... initially they failed for 13 months to set up a dd some system error apparently... anyway i was advised by santander customer services to make manual payment each month on the DUE date which i did faithfully, however started to receive letters every month stating no monthly payment had been made account in arrears etc.... they also reported to experian and trashed credit report!!! after 9 months of explaining every single month that this is what i had been advised to do due to THEIR SYSTEM ERROR! finally they advised until the monthly payment is passed to collections which is 2 days AFTER THE DUE DATE any payment made prior to this will be a deduction of the capital and will no be registered as the monthly payment.... i then made payment 2 days after the due date to collections and no further arrears/missed payments were recorded. they did remove all detrimental from credit report and i was compensated for their error... this did take 9 months of stress and escalation to 2nd line complaints 3 times before they finally gave correct information.... so beware making payments on the due date (unless they system has changed which i doubt) isnt guaranteed to be stress free!!

tlh858

The same problem occurs if a monthly DD payment is rejected or missed for whatever reason. Making a manual payment will do nothing, other than reduce the outstanding balance. Their systems will still show you as having missed a monthly payment.

Most of the persons working at Cahoot/Santander can't reallocate payments either, and although it's possible, it was evident that it could only be done by a select few and even then was a big hassle.

hellykent

Thanks arbroath lass, yes I have seen that thread, and have received the standard 'no' reply from Santander, and have just sent off my package of forms and info to the FOS.

My original point was not completely about the date that I made my payments, but more that I had been lied to by what is supposed to be an upstanding establishment. They were ignoring their own terms and conditions.