strange behaviour breach of data protection?

Bonusbear

hi there,

i need some advice.

i recently applied for a £20k loan for a vehicle.

i checked using the MSE soft check facility, entered all the details and was told that i had a 90 percent chance of being approved with sainsburys bank, tesco bank, zopla and santander.

i applied to sainsburys, and shortly afterwards was told id been successful and they were prepared to offer me the loan at 4.1 percent (a little more than the 3.1 percent typical apr but still..)

after considering this offer for a couple of days i decided to apply to santander to see if i could get a better rate. (sainsburys said that if i had a better offer from anyone else theyd beat it by 0.1 percent)

I applied to Santander and they offered me the loan at 3.04 percent. all good so far..

I'm registered with Clearscore and my score with them was 541/700 I'm a married homeowner with no missed payments or defaults on my record so i think im pretty credit worthy.

I decided rather than show the Santander offer to Sainsburys I'd just go with Santander, I can see from my Clearscore account that they've run a credit check on me before making the offer. nothing to worry about, or so I thought.

So with these 2 offers for the money in writing, I fill in the paperwork for Santander and send it back complete with the required identification as requested. the letter from Santander says once the forms have been returned the money will be deposited in my account after 3-4 days.

I put down a £1000 deposit on the vehicle to make sure its held for me.

so I wait.

and wait.

check my bank account every day. no sign of the money.

After 11 days (and being hassled by the vendor) i finally phone up santander to enquire as to whats happening.

The guy on the phone asks for my loan account number, I give it to him and he asks me to hold. he comes back on the line and says "sorry this loan has been declined" i'm confused as i was credit checked before they offered me the loan and id been told that after id returned the signed forms it was just a formality.

i ask for an explanation and was told they couldn't tell me the reason for this change of decision.

i asked why i hadn't been informed of this, he apologised but couldnt tell me why.

whilst waiting those 11 days, the other offer for the money from sainsburys had expired, meaning that frim having 2 agreed loans in place, i now had none and a credit search mark on my record, but more importantly i didn't have the money to complete the purchase of the vehicle that i'd put a £1000 deposit on.

i phoned santander and asked to make a complaint as in their initial offer letter to me, they'd said that in the event of anything changing they'd write to tell me. they didn't. i still haven't had any correspondence since being told over the phone that my loan had been declined.

the guy on the phone at santander told me theyd call me back when they'd looked into my case. probably later that day or by tomorrow at the latest.

i waited for their call. no one called.

i called santander and was told "i can see on your record that we tried calling you earlier today" i checked my call log, no sign of this. i asked what number they had called. the guy then read out my wifes phone number. i had not given this number to santander, they should have had the correct number for me as it was on the loan form id returned to them. the guy on the phone apologised and said he'd found the number by going back to some paperwork from when around 5 years ago we had a mortgage with santander.
this is an entirely different issue, the personal loan application is in my name not my wifes. he then made an offer of £150 compensation for "my trouble" and if i accepted he'd send me a form saying that this payment would be in full and final settlement of the issue,

i was surprised at this offer, i mean, really all i wanted was the loan, but through santanders negligence in not informing me of the withdrawal of their loan offer i'd now incurred the loss of my £1000 deposit as i was unable to complete the transaction. plus i feel they've breached the data protection act my linking two separate financial issues with a third party.

im still confused as to why i was refused the loan at this stage, surely they should have turned me down at the point of the credit check rather than offer me the loan and then refuse it after ive got the agreement and put a deposit down. the subsequent delay in finding out meant i lost the opportunity to use the alternative offer i had on the table at that point as well.

subsequently i joined experian to check if there was anything of not to explain santanders rejection (im already with clearscore and they use equifax) and after entering my details they returned a credit score of 999/999 so no problems there.

anyway i'm suitably aggrieved by santanders inability to stick to their own guidelines with regard to customer service, and wondering if anyone else has had a similar situation or has any advice on what to do now? is there any way i can find out why santander changed their mind?

As i said, i've had a mortgage for 10 years, (5 of those with santander)no late payments i have credit cards all well within their limits and paid promptly with no missed payments, clearscore and experian both have nothing listed as negatives on me, its a bit of a mystery. albeit one thats just cost me £1000:mad:

[Deleted User]

They won't give you the reason for the decline.

Take their generous offer and move on.

Comms69

First of all those numbers you're seeing 999/999 etc. - meaningless. They're made up, so really don't go around claiming anything related to those.


Re data protection, I wouldn't say it was a breach. Unless you specifically told them that number was no longer in use, they are entitled to hold on to it and use it.

Bonusbear

except its not my number, never has been, this is an entirely separate matter and they have my correct number.

BorisThomson

The advisor tried to be helpful by looking back at your previous records to get a number. Yes, this was an error as he could have found your current number, but being human these things happen. I'm guessing you're not perfect either?

No one is obliged to lend you money. On this occasion Santander have decided not to, and they have made a very generous offer because they have inconvenienced you. Let it go, and next time ensure funds are in place before committing to a purchase.

Has the dealer refused you any refund? They can only keep an amount to cover their losses and any work done, which is unlikely to be £1000.

jimbo747

Get finance through the dealer rather than lose the £1000 will cost more than £1000 in the long run but give it 6 month and you might be able to apply for anotehr smaller loan at a lower rate to offset their likely extortionate Apr.

SeanG79

Reapply to Sainsburys, who should reapprove even if at a different rate and then show them the Santander offer letter...they will beat the rate and problem solved. Unless there is a problem on your credit searches that were found at "pay out" stage and the approval will be rescinded?