Arrangement to Pay

jamescull

I had a student loan with Santander which is now showing up on my credit record as an arrangement to pay (in lovely, big, bright red writing) as I was "arrears" with my student overdraft for a grand total of 5 weeks and 3 days.

I have taken this up with Santander however they refuse to budge on this, saying that the credit record should accurately reflect the state of a customer's account. When my time at university ended, I rang up Santander to organise a repayment of my overdraft and they signed me up to a monthly reducing overdraft, whereby I would make a commitment to pay £50 a month until the debt is cleared.

I actually paid £200 a month towards it and made an extra payment of £500 when I had financial difficulties in order to clear the debt as soon as possible. Yet this seems totally irrelevant to Santander, and they are refusing to budge.

I have scanned over the confirmation letter and there is no mention that an agreement like this would affect my credit record so negatively, plus the advisor on the phone who set this up did not advise me of any ill-effects to my credit record –!she seemed more interested in setting this up for me. If I had known that this monthly reducing overdraft would have caused such severe effects to my credit record, then I would have taken up a personal loan to cover it.

My question is, is Santander right in their stance? Or if I took it up with the Ombudsman, would they be able to get it removed from my credit record, as Santander did not advise me of the ill effects to my credit record? I have written a very snotty email back to Santander, asking them once last time to get rid of it (taking the stance of they didn't advise me as my main argument).

Thanks in advance for your help!

fermi

I would take it to the ombudsman if me. They certainly can instruct a bank to amend your credit files if what occurred was unfair, and do make such instructions in many cases.

Get the FOS to write to Santander.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

We can help by contacting the business for you, and telling them about your complaint.

May take more notice of that than a snotty letter or email.

YorkshireBoy

jamescull wrote: »

I have written a very snotty email back to Santander, asking them once last time to get rid of it

When you're asking for something it's always better to ask politely!


Why e-mail anyway? Santander have a complaints process...use it!

jamescull

I did try asking politely on the phone and I have already gone through their complaints process (I must have spoken to them several times!).

I did start off the complaint with a very nice email, explaining about making additional payments and a big one-off payment to clear the debt as quickly as possible, but they completely ignored this – hence the reason I am quite irate as it's affecting my credit rating massively, and I am now being offered credit cards with interest rates in the 30s and 40s, instead of the 11–15 range I was getting before.....

YorkshireBoy

jamescull wrote: »

I did try asking politely on the phone and I have already gone through their complaints process (I must have spoken to them several times!).

So you'll have already referred to the FOS then, being as either 8 weeks have passed or they've given you their final response? Where are you with the FOS?

fermi

To the ombudsman then if you are not already there. That is what they are there for.

jamescull

fermi wrote: »

I would take it to the ombudsman if me. They certainly can instruct a bank to amend your credit files if what occurred was unfair, and do make such instructions in many cases.

Get the FOS to write to Santander.




May take more notice of that than a snotty letter or email.

Thank you fermi. I shall await their final reply then take it up with the Ombudsman. It's completely unfair, and Santander are refusing to budge on this.

I must have spoken to them about 10 times, but I think I'm flogging a dead horse here.

jamescull

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

So you'll have already referred to the FOS then, being as either 8 weeks have passed or they've given you their final response? Where are you with the FOS?

That would be my next step. I only received written response from Santander last week, as I outlined all my complaints in an email to them.

I was asking whether I would have a case in something like this.

matttye

Did Santander ask you to pay back the overdraft or did you approach them and say you'd like to reduce it each month?

fermi

So get the FOS to write now if they will.

Or wait for Santander's final response or the 8 weeks from your initial complaint.

I recall cases where the FOS has come down on the side of consumers in similar sounding things, but it's always a case by case basis on the exact details and nothing is guaranteed.

Only this that is guaranteed is that if you don't take this onwards then the adverse info will stay there.

jamescull

matttye wrote: »

Did Santander ask you to pay back the overdraft or did you approach them and say you'd like to reduce it each month?

Yes, they asked me to pay back the overdraft. It was in their T&Cs – once you finish university, you start paying it back. Seems stupid that the paying back of an overdraft which you are naturally going to use at university is going to affect your credit record adversely...