Santander said bank acc closed now passed to Collections?

rubyinthesky

So, I transferred my bank account from Santander to First Direct in January this year. There was a remaining £450 o/d left on the Santander, which I had planned to try to pay off sooner, but was in bit of a finacial muddle unfortunately, which I've got a handle on this month and have sorted everything and head out of the sand. So, last weekend, I spent all day sorting stuff out - I'd called Santander to close the account, having paid in £25 to cover underfunding and o'draft fees. The woman refunded the £20, as a goodwill refund, and the bank account was showing zero following a 0% B/T that I'd used to pay off the overdraft. She closed the account for me and said it was all done. I logged on to internet banking and the account is 0 and the overdraft of £800 has also reduced to 0.

Great, I thought! Until I got a letter this morning to say my bank account was being administrated by Collections and Recovery, rather than the one I'd got to confirm the account was closed, that I got for the savings account. So I've just called up and the woman in the Collections dept looked at it - confirmed that the bank account was closed on 8 September and balance and o'draft at 0. But noted that the letter re Collections and Recovery was sent on 10 September, which I received this morning. She doesn't know why! The only thing she can suggest is that my statement is produced on 17th of the month, and she thinks there may be charges outstanding between 17 August, last statement and when I closed it on 8 September.

So, shouldn't they have been able to see this when they confirmed it was closed and settled on the phone?? Now they've removed the overdraft facility, if there are any charges to come out that no one can tell me about, I'm going to go into unauthorised overdraft aren't I?? Not sure what the consequences of this are? I'm so annoyed as I worked so hard to sort it all out last week and thought this was settled. I have no answers - she says she is not in until next Saturday and is going to leave a reminder to look at my acc then, but I'm not going to wait until then I don't think - I got cut off the phone from her towards the end of the call, and rather than her calling me back, I'm sat with unanswered questions as I'm not going to sit and wait for them to answer the phone again, which took forever!

innovate

You should definitely not wait until next Saturday. If I were you, I would raise a written complaint, so you have a record of it. List all the facts, try to stay unemotional and polite. Be firm and insist on their confirmation that you do not owe anything to them and that they have called off any Debt Collection agency.

YorkshireBoy

rubyinthesky wrote: »

having paid in £25 to cover underfunding and o'draft fees.

It's unclear from your post just when you cleared the £450 overdrawn balance, but I can't see how £25 would have covered the fees incurred anyway?

Underfunding would have kicked in back in February, so that's £35 (£7 x £5) to August, and the O/D, if authorised, would have been costing you £10-20 a month (with their cap and depending what account it was).

Agree you should make a complaint though, due to the misinformation/lack of information provided.

rubyinthesky

Sorry, I wasn't very clear - I assume you'll all know exactly what I'm talking about (my husband complains I talk to him like that too!).

It was an authorised overdraft of £800. Using it was costing me £5 underfunding fee and £20 a month for the authorised overdraft, which had obviously just been added to the outstanding balance while I wasn't paying it off from January to date. Then I paid off the overdraft in full last week, then on the Saturday I paid in a further £25, just in case there were further charges to come off that hadn't shown on the balance at the time I paid it off. I phoned to close the account and to ask if this would cover the charges, the account at this point being £25 in credit. The woman refunded £20 for the overdraft as I'd never had a goodwill refund at any point and I was just left with the £5. When I phoned to close it, they said it was £20 in credit at that point and advised me to transfer that back to my current account with FD and when it was at 0, she was able to close it for me and confirm it was all done. So I was happy until this morning and I read it was being dealt with by their Collections & Recovery Department, even though the woman I spoke to there had no idea what is happening!

Parisian

Telephone again and ask for your query to be escalated to a manager so that it is death with efficiently. They should be able to tell you fairly quickly why this has occurred. If the person you speak to initially is dismissive/unhelpful, ask to escalate and if that does't work ask to put in a complaint which will make the issue automatically escalate to someone more senior who will be able to explain what has happened. After all, you acted on what you were told. Be polite and firm. Do not be scared of putting in a complaint, you are entitled to this information without waiting a week plus. If there is anything outstanding, I am sure you can push for negotiating to settle it now in advance of going to any recovery department.

innovate

Parisian wrote: »

Telephone again and ask for your query to be escalated to a manager so that it is death with efficiently.

As I commented earlier, I would write rather than phone, just to have the written record.

However it is dealt with eventually, there's no need to kill anyone in the process, lol!

rubyinthesky

Just an update - I have looked on my account and just noticed a 'charges pending' of £20 overdraft fee. I am annoyed that they said on 8 September that the balance was 0, told me to transfer £20 back out to my FD account (having given me a goodwill refund of £20!) and now the account is passed to collections department and was never closed as they said. I need to phone them again, but would I be unreasonable to request that this £20 is refunded as goodwill too, due to the hassle? I realise it was probably owed by me, but I'd tried to clear it all off and pay underfunding/overdraft fees and they'd given me the wrong advice - the £20 is due out beginning of October, and I assume if I don't pay it into credit of £20 it will go into an unauthorised overdraft so I'll get charged for that, and I'll get another underfunding fee too for this month as nothing is being paid in. It seems like it will carry on going round in circles!!

molerat

As has been said before WRITE DON'T PHONE. Head the letter COMPLAINT and if not settled to tour satisfaction in 8 weeks contact the FOS.