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Where do I go from here with Santander?

bosseyed
bosseyed Posts: 475 Forumite
Hi all, hopefully this is the right board. Its not a loan, but a credit agreement, which I thought might be sort of the same thing.

I'll keep it brief and punchy:

1) I buy a ring for my wife through Ernest Jones Jewellers, agreeing a 9 months credit agreement with them via Santander. This is in September 2010

2) 8 months passes, me paying every month

3) I pay the final payment.

4) I receive a letter from Santander telling me a payment is outstanding and I will be in default if I don't cough up.

5) I ring Santander and query missing payment. They say no records on their system. I pay the outstanding balance over the phone, account is closed.

6) I get another letter from Santander with a ruddy great DEFAULT written on it claiming that despite repeated attempts to contact me I have refused to pay and therefore I have defaulted on my credit agreement.

7) I ring up and !!!!! and moan at them. Both payments now apparently missing on Santander's systems.

8) I send copies of bank statements to Santander showing both payments leaving my account

9) I call to confirm receipt. Santander admit their system at fault, they refund me the overpayment. They confirm that balance cleared and account closed.

10) All done and dusted, May 2011.

11) Fast forward to this weekend. I try to get credit for a guitar and am declined. I am curious, I've never been declined credit ever for anything.

12) I join Experian to see what the problem is. In amongst my perfect green credit history is a f*****g great red flag, account in default, level 8 outstanding balance £123. Thats right, with Santander cards.

13) I ring Santander to register my extreme displeasure. Issue is apparently resolved, but my credit report will not update for another month.

If you've read this far, thanks! Now to the crux of the matter. I'm slap bang in the middle of getting re-mortgage quotes, where clearly my credit history matters. So I have two questions:

- Where would you go with Santander from here? The manager at customer services I spoke to has confirmed she will open a complaint on their system and confirm by letter that this has been done. I also intend to write to Santander to push this issue as I am not happy. If this has an effect on the available mortgages (drama llama!) then what would you do? Push for Santander to compensate the difference between what you should have been able to get?

Not happy with them anyway, and any replies appreciated. Thanks :)

Comments

  • cord123
    cord123 Posts: 644 Forumite
    This wont help but we had exactly the same problem... we set up a s/o with them after buying through ernest jones. We had 6 months no pay interest free so we paid the balance by so during those 6 months to avoid paying interest. Imagine our surprise when a month after our final payment we get a statement with the whole original balance and details of the minimum payment. We called up and said we had paid it - thats fine - we have them, ignore the letter. Then we get a default! It has taken almost 3 months for them to admit we have paid and for them to remove the default. We are still fighting for confirmation!

    Dont ever expect a call back from a manager if promised!


    Good luck - i hope you have a smoother time than we did!
  • my only advice is not to mess around with santander staff go straight to the top and contact the CEO
  • jonesMUFCforever
    jonesMUFCforever Posts: 28,898 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Write a formal complaint to Santander.
    I know it will be a !!!!!! having to wait 40 days for a reply but then you can take your complaint to the ombudsman.

    Work out how much you are out of pocket by not been able to get credit due to their mistake and claim for that together with another sum for stress and inconvenience.
  • I'm a little concerned by this thread! I also bought an engagement ring in December 11 from Ernest Jones with a 6 months interest free through Santander.

    I made the last payment last month, its showing as all 6 payments and outstanding balance as £0 on my credit report, but not yet settled and I'm yet to receive confirmation from Santander that it is settled. The good thing is that the direct debit didn't come out, so it is positive that Santander seem to have ended that as expected.

    To the OP, send an email to [EMAIL="ceo@santander.co.uk"]ceo@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL] and their Executive complaints team will get on the case. They are better than the usual complaints team (who the term chocolate teapot was specifically made!!)
    Santander Loan [STRIKE]£3003[/STRIKE] £2100
    AA Credit Card [STRIKE]£3148[/STRIKE] £2676
    Natwest OD [STRIKE]£1500[/STRIKE] £1370
    Cahoot OD [STRIKE]£1000 [/STRIKE]£650
    Capital One Card [STRIKE]£641[/STRIKE] £400
    Total [STRIKE](Jan 12)[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]£9546 [/STRIKE] £7196 (Now)
  • bosseyed
    bosseyed Posts: 475 Forumite
    Thanks all, I shall send an email to the ceo address. Santander sent me a letter with their final response offering me £5 for the trouble, which is insulting (and has yet to materialise)

    I've got the Ombudsman involved now, they have all the details and will be taking this further as I now find I'm being turned down for every single remortgage deal I go for with mainstream lenders thanks entirely to this erroneous default. My credit report now shows more negative action thanks to all the lenders searching and declining. The only option now is to sit and wait until Santander remove the default like they claimed they would over a year ago and then start to apply for mortgages again.

    Luckily I started the remortgage process a few months early so I still have time to sort this issue out before it gets too critical. I shall certainly be pushing for Santander to cover the cost of goods I was unable to get and to cover any discrepancies in the monthly cost of the best mortgage deal I was quoted and what I actually end up with after this fiasco is resolved.
  • bargainbetty
    bargainbetty Posts: 3,455 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Contact Santander in the meantime and demand that a written acknowledgement of the error be provided to you. It must stipulate the error was their own and that the default was applied incorrectly and is in the process of being removed. It should also state that you are an excellent customer and had no issues whatsoever with the agreement.

    If you send a copy of that letter in with any application, you might find that an appeal with the supporting letter will get checked by a person, and therefore approved.

    Halifax did something similar to me, except I didn't actually have any credit with them - they declined me for a card (despite offering me it the previous week).
    Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps....
    LB moment - March 2006. DFD - 1 June 2012!!! DEBT FREE!



    May grocery challenge £45.61/£120
  • pvt
    pvt Posts: 1,433 Forumite
    OP,

    You can ask Experian to put a Statement of Correction on your file. This is a statement that you would write stating that Santander have incorrectly registered a default against your name, admitted their fault, and claim to be correcting it. You could also point out that you are now aware that other failed credit applications recorded on your file would appear to be a result of that error too.

    You should hold out for more compo from Santander. For your efforts and costs in registering with the CRAs, effort sorting the original mistake, and effort sorting the mess out now, I would think £150 would be a minimum.
    Optimists see a glass half full :)
    Pessimists see a glass half empty :(
    Engineers just see a glass twice the size it needed to be :D
  • I can not believe all the problems people have experienced with Santander. The company has a lot to answer for itself in the way it operates and now they are set to take on part of Natwest, god help us!

    Personally i think the system lets us all down when these matters arise and their is very little help out there. The Financial Ombudsmen i have never found that helpful either and they are extremely slow, probably due to the number of complaints they receive.

    The notice of correction in my opinion is a waste of time. Company's only see one thing when they check your credit file and that is 'default'. 95% won't entertain you beyond that.

    I had credit since i was 18 years old, always paid my credit cards, loans etc. on time and i am 42 years old now and can't even get a new bank account now and here is why. The power of the default!

    Back in 2009 Santander placed a default on my credit file. I had a Cahoot Flexible Loan which i took out in 2004 and they cancelled it in March 2009.

    I had moved home in September 2008 and seemingly they wrote to me telling me that they had 'cancelled my loan' after i was one payment late! This was after hiking up the interest rate from 6.9% to 12.9% and finally to 19.9%.

    I wasn't aware this had happened as i had a direct debit set up on my bank account to pay them and Cahoot were 'the internet banking division' of Abbey National and all correspondence up until then had mostly been through email. I only knew when i started experiencing credit problems and looked into it deeper and found they had deliberately stopped taking my payments six months on from my bank account.

    I admit i had moved house had not updated my address, but no emails, no messages nothing!

    I have asked them for proof of correspondence, default etc. but nothing, been to the Financial Ombudsmen nothing, so all this time I'm still fighting to have it removed as i believe i didn't default on the loan.

    In 2012 i still can't move bank accounts. So my advice is fight it, fight it all the way until you get what you want. A Default is a nasty thing that companies like Santander, Vodafone, Orange, and HSBC dish out tenfold and there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to fight the corner for the little consumer.
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