Santander have done it again - charged me £12 fee because THEY processed my d/d late

Roger1

The only transaction of mine in my Santander Zero statement delivered yesterday was collection of the balance of £6 by direct debit.

Santander collected it and charged me a 'Default Charge due to late monthly payment'. :mad: Their fee is £12.

Careful examination of the SIX, count them, SIX A5 pages (:eek:) sees a message on the 6th page which includes:

incompetent_bank wrote:

Due to no fault of your own your November payment has been applied to your account late.

The issue has now been resolved and may have resulted in a late payment fee being added to your account.

The late payment fee will be reversed and the adjustment will appear on your December statement.

Hello, this IS my December statement!

The message had the usual Santander weasel words apology and included an 0845 phone number for queries. At least that was a minor improvement. The last time they did this to me - on my Debenhams shareholder card - the 'help' line was an 0870 number. I wonder whether they report 'late' payments to credit monitoring agencies.

So, two Santander cards out of two have been incorrectly charged for 'late' payment due entirely to the incompetence of their work experience trainees.

The Zero card was the first non-Nationwide 0% f/x card that I had. I now have four. I've just about had it with Santander. Time to move on, I think.

bengalknights

Just ring them up and ask for refund and cost of call

agrinnall

I doubt if Santander would regard a statement received yesterday as your December statement as it won't include the majority of the month, I would expect that to be the one you receive in January and that the charge will be reversed on that statement. While it may add to the general view of Santander's services I think in this case there's little to complain about, and I wouldn't even waste your time on a phone call.

sfax

I agree that there is no point posting this as it's a nothing event that will be corrected. If they refused to refund the charge it would be worthwhile posting

callum9999

Though they are moaning over nothing. The only detrimental impact on you is that your credit limit is effectively reduced by £12 until your next statement date - is that really that much of an issue?

Paxo456

The same thing has happened to me. I rang Santander to ask why my DD had not been taken and was told it would be taken the next day...there would be no problem.

OK so it's only £12.00 it's more the "Notice of Default Sums" that came with the statement that annoys me.

Oh and there was nothing among the pages of my statement to say that this was their fault and they would resolve it in the December statement. My statement is dated 5th Dec (opened today as I was away) so maybe they have noticed this "problem" since that date but I haven't had any notification to that effect.

Yes this is a Santander "small" screw up...multiplied by how many customers.... They will be getting a call tomorrow.

Roger1

Thanks for your feedback, folks, yes, even the troll.

The first time it happened took ages to resolve with interest wrongly charged as well as as the incorrect 'default' charge. And I'm pretty sure it was an 0871 number to call rather than an 0870 number.

And for the troll and others, this wasn't the first time we had problems with Santander. Our Provincial BS mortgage became a Santander mortage (having metamorphosed through National & Provincial BS, Abbey National BS and Abbey) without any action on our part.

Guess when the problems started.

agrinnall

Then the answer is obvious and entirely in your hands - switch to another bank.

Roger1

Agreed and done. Mortgage paid off . We still have the Debenhams former shareholder card as the benefits outweigh the need to monitor the work experience trainees in charge of card services.

QueenOopsie

Roger1 wrote: »

The only transaction of mine in my Santander Zero statement delivered yesterday was collection of the balance of £6 by direct debit.

Santander collected it and charged me a 'Default Charge due to late monthly payment'. :mad: Their fee is £12.

Careful examination of the SIX, count them, SIX A5 pages (:eek:) sees a message on the 6th page which includes:Hello, this IS my December statement!

The message had the usual Santander weasel words apology and included an 0845 phone number for queries. At least that was a minor improvement. The last time they did this to me - on my Debenhams shareholder card - the 'help' line was an 0870 number. I wonder whether they report 'late' payments to credit monitoring agencies.

So, two Santander cards out of two have been incorrectly charged for 'late' payment due entirely to the incompetence of their work experience trainees.

The Zero card was the first non-Nationwide 0% f/x card that I had. I now have four. I've just about had it with Santander. Time to move on, I think.

Right! First of all.. Santander have refunded all interest and charges on your DECEMBER statement which is sent out in JANUARY as your always a month in arrears effectively! Hence 56 days interest free!
There is a free number 0800 389 9905 or try ((say no to 0800 numbers))
Debenhams are an independent credit card company who are underwritten by Santander .. So take the number issue up with them ... Yes Santander do contact credit score companies every 4 weeks but as this was a Santander error it won't be recorded.. It was simply a computer error which no human has authority over but they have refunded everything by midnight of 13th December .. Check ur next statement before u !!!!! n moan!
None of their staff are 'trainee' they are trained and professional.. It's not their fault.. Remember that when u ring in!

pompeyred

QueenOopsie wrote: »

Right! First of all.. Santander have refunded all interest and charges on your DECEMBER statement which is sent out in JANUARY as your always a month in arrears effectively! Hence 56 days interest free!
There is a free number 0800 389 9905 or try ((say no to 0800 numbers))
Debenhams are an independent credit card company who are underwritten by Santander .. So take the number issue up with them ... Yes Santander do contact credit score companies every 4 weeks but as this was a Santander error it won't be recorded.. It was simply a computer error which no human has authority over but they have refunded everything by midnight of 13th December .. Check ur next statement before u !!!!! n moan!
None of their staff are 'trainee' they are trained and professional.. It's not their fault.. Remember that when u ring in!

Simply a computer error which no human has authority.....

What absolute rubbish, no computer can do anything unless a human has told it to do so...!! Unwrap a computer and put the plug in - it doesn't start making direct debit requests unless someone has programmed it to do so.

It laughable when people call in to hear a response "oh I am sorry the computer must have got it wrong" - it's actually the IT department got it wrong and whilst you work for the company (and ultimately draw a wage from them) take some accountability and act accordingly.