**Warning** Santander taking double payments

gravitas

Hi

Just a quick word of warning Santander are experiencing technical issues with taking payments online resulting in payments being taken twice.

I made my payment a couple of days ago and was told it had failed, made the payment again which went through and sure enough both lots of money have been taken.

I have a credit card for my office expenses due to travelling a lot and this has resulted in me heading into the weekend an extra £1000.00 down.

I've called to explain this leaves me in a pretty vulnerable position, overdrawn, mortgage payment bouncing, people relying on me etc and I was genuinely shocked at the lack of empathy they had, one actually tried to comfort me by saying they'd done it to 'loads' of customers.

They couldn't give me any time frame as to when this would be resolved and generally sought to get me off the phone as quickly as possible.

Just thought I would post on here in case people had, had the same experience and now will need to check their bank statement / don't be paying online and use another method if their payment is due.

Thanks
G

Scrounger

They've done the same to me - in exactly the way you described. Supposed to be refunding early next week.

Usual poor Santander CS attitude when trying to get it resolved (couldn't care less etc).

Scrounger

gravitas

I just couldn't believe the nonchalant attitude as to how it was not a big deal as far as they were concerned.

Finally last night got a tweet back from their user account claiming it would be refunded yesterday, of course that hasn't happened!

Horseunderwater

Should you get defaults for rent/mortgage etc, then you can claim any charges back from them as it was their fault.

THX

So is this why the "Pay Santander Credit Card" option is "Temporarily Unavailable" on the website?

Scrounger

gravitas wrote: »

I just couldn't believe the nonchalant attitude..

Yes, I agree. As it was Santander I was half expecting it and sure enough they surpassed their pi$$-poor reputation. I'm a Select customer as well!

I had a call from them today as I had escalated the matter; Mohamed said he didn't know how long it would take to refund my money (well over £2000!). When pushed for compensation he said I would need to raise a complaint so I've done that too.

He said loads of customers had been double charged - so at least we're not alone.

Scrounger

Kebab2212

Hi guys. You are not alone. I paid my santander credit card off in full on 20th June by faster payment and then closed my credit card account, and received confirmation of my closed account. Only to log onto my online current account Monday 23rd to see the very same value of £4558.12 taken again but showing as a debit card payment to the credit card account. My heart sank. I immediately phoned them at 7am Monday soon as the call centre opened. They tried making out that it was me that must have done it twice. I was furious as why would I pay my full balance twice when I had confirmation that they had closed my account. 50mins being passed between banking services and credit card services got me nowhere and I had to hang up and leave for work. I called again that evening, now to be told that it should bounce back to my account due to the card account being closed the Friday previous. I waited another day. Called again, this time I complained about the amount of money I am spending on phone calls too. They agreed to pay me £10 for the calls. Another day passed, no £4558.12 and no £10. Called again, they had gone and paid the £10 courtesy fee into an unused account that had been dormant for 8 years. They transferred it to my current account for me. Saturday arrived (28th, yesterday) still missing my money. Payed a visit to local branch in halifax centre. A member of staff got on the phone for me, he was then told of the errors that had happened and that I wasn't only one. Now why didn't they tell me this early in the week I wonder. Anyway he was told to tell me that it should take 5 working days to come back to me, that being tomorrow, one whole week later! As the duplicate was trying to be sent to a closed account I have no idea if this will happen. I am told that if it doesn't then I need to request a missing payment search. I have asked for compo, to be told I have to wait for the error to be refunded then start a complaint. Apparently santander have 3 periods throughout the day when moneys are transferred, last being just before closing, so I might not know till Tuesday if it's come back or not. In the meantime, this money is owed towards the bathroom I ordered prior to this error and now I can't pay for it until I get it back.

gravitas

Still no money back, bit of a comedy of errors really, the employees handling the twitter account claimed it would be back friday, the employees in the call centre said it would be back when it suited them and the employees handling email complaints denied they've taken it twice!

They have no lawful basis for holding onto money which is not theirs and my real frustration is that whatever they offer me in recompense will not in anyway match their own charges and fee structure if I withhold money from them, just seems very unbalanced.

G

sheff71

I'm a little relieved to see there are others with double payment issues with Santander at the moment. I took out a credit card with them in early June, and paid for a family holiday to Butlins with it online... the only thing i've ever used the card for.

So I was a little surprised to get a letter on 20th June from Mr Rymer, Head of Collections for Santander Cards, claiming I was over £2000 over my credit limit and I would need to look into paying it back soon.

Obviously worried i'd been robbed, I called the number on his letter - it rang a little then went dead... so I called Customer Services, who said that while only the amount I said had been collected, there was an identical amount on the same date authorised for payment. Now I couldn't have done this, as you would have to enter the security code separately each time you submit the payment. She said that I should check with Butlins what they had and would collect, and that if the payment wasn't collected, it should soon be released from the authorisation... so I called Butlins, they confirmed the correct payment, and said they would never take anything else without contacting me first (as they had the money they requested) - and put a note on my account about this.

On the Monday I phoned Santander for an update, and heard the balance was the correct amount... i also set up the online banking, and again in there, only the correct amount has been taken... so I thought it had corrected itself.

Today, I have another threatening letter from Mr Rymer, saying that I need to make a payment (for his fantasy amount) now, and that I cannot use my card until it's sorted out - and that I may incur charges for this until it is paid.... now I only took this card out for the 18 month interest free period in the first place, or else I would've used a different supplier.

I have just sent via the secure email on the online site quite a strongly worded letter to them - particularly about the threatening tone of their letters to me... I still am showing as only having the correct payment having gone out, it is frustrating, but I don't want some bailiff type person threatening to take stuff from my home, or putting a bad mark on my credit record.

Scrounger

Update: Overpayment refunded today.

Now to see what compensation is available.

Scrounger

Scrounger

Update: Got £50 goodwill - so all's well that ends well. :eek:

Scrounger