Santander and the Ombudsman

thebirches

I have received a letter from Santander regarding an incident that happened last may.

I had completely forgotten about it so am not sure what to do about it.

I withdrew some money from a cash machine using my credit card by mistake. I contacted Santander by internal messaging from my online account to ask what to do, to which they replied with two stock messages which were of no use. I then phoned them and was told to just pay back the £20 and that would stop any other charges on my account. I did this but was obviously shocked to see the next month I had interest from the cash withdrawal.

I phoned them again, obviously annoyed but not angry, after all all I wanted to do was to clear the £20. I was then told I needed to clear the whole debt on the credit card as the £20 would be the last amount to be cleared. They apologized and offered me a £10 credit to my bank account and refunded the interest charged, which I accepted.

I received a letter today offering me another £20 as they had reviewed my complaint.

The letter also mentions I can take this to the ombudsman if this hasn't fixed my complaint.

Would anyone know if it is worth going to the ombudsman? As I said earlier I had completely forgotten about this , but I do remember feeling quite aggrieved as I had to chase them for the right answer.

dunstonh

Would anyone know if it is worth going to the ombudsman?

You get the comment about going to the FOS on successful complaints as well as rejected ones. it is a standard text requirement.

Why would you want to go the ombudsman?

[Deleted User]

thebirches wrote: »

I
I received a letter today offering me another £20 as they had reviewed my complaint.


Would anyone know if it is worth going to the ombudsman?

Not if you think the Ombudsman will simply award you more money. The Bank has acted to recompense you. Why would the Ombudsman need to now become involved?

Different if the Bank had refused to deal with your complaint or offered less than you were out of pocket.

You've received all you are ever going to get already.

Nasqueron

You'll have paid a few pence in interest and gained £30 for your own mistake of not understanding how credit cards work, leave it there, FOS are not going to give you anything

thebirches

Thanks for the replies.

onetimeatponycamp

Surely though the information was incorrect? I'm not an expert but my understanding was that legally they must take any payments off the highest interest balance first, in which case as soon as you paid off the £20 then that part of the debt should have been covered? I believe this changed a couple of years ago. Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

ERICS_MUM

Most banke & credit card companies give full details on their monthly statements about the order in which money paid in is applied to various debit transactions.

So if the person at Satander gave you information that conflicted with the statement, they were wrong. Presumably Santander have recognised this and have refunded interest and made a 'goodwill' payment. I don't see what else you require, although I do see the temptation to follow up their recent 'offer'. However I don't think the Ombudsman would apply any further penalty/compensation.