Bank charges written off and reclaiming - Santander

justarandomposter

Hi all,

Quick background:
I defaulted in 2017 with Santander on an unplanned overdraft after spiralling charges for missed DD payments etc. I was charged each month for being charged for being charged. This got up to £500 before the account was closed and was put in default.

Now a few years later I finally wanted to get it sorted (mainly for my credit rating...) so contacted Santander so I offered £100 to settle the debt this month while arguing that the full amount was disproportionate to the crime so to speak.

Now the strange part - I was told that a week before I submitted the complaint, Santander had started clearing all debts accumulated this way due to new regulations...I now owed nothing and the default on my card will now be removed to show this, dated all the way back to the date of default. So this was already being done, and had nothing to do with my complaint, I simply found out because I complained - If I had done nothing I would have seen in it reflected in my credit score in a few months time anyway...

Now the main:
Does anyone know of what regulation they are talking about? and do you think this now means that charges made before the default could possibly be reclaimed (I probably paid a few hundred in real money over the years due to the same kind of charges that put me in default).

An example of a charge that contributed is my mortgage company trying twice each month to take out money via DD - both of these resulted in about a £12 charge for returned. This spiralled for each month I wasn't able to make the payments.

Thanks for reading.

societys_child

I really don't know, but if you defaulted, I can't see what you're hoping to achieve?

justarandomposter

societys_child wrote: »

I really don't know, but if you defaulted, I can't see what you're hoping to achieve?

Not hoping for anything. I was simply curious as to the new regulation as I cannot find anything related to it online and also curious as to reclaiming the charges actually paid, not the default charges that they put on. I got off lightly and didn't even need to pay £100 I offered, so not trying to 'achieve' anything.

It's just strange that the default debt was written off without having to do anything, can't say I've heard of it before - except in historical debt cases (written off after 7 years I think)

[Deleted User]

justarandomposter wrote: »

I was simply curious as to the new regulation

Who told you of this "new" regulation?

[Deleted User]

It's not uncommon, but it's different to statute barring which you're thinking of, and is after 6 years of no acknowledgement.

justarandomposter

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Who told you of this "new" regulation?

One of the Santander employees who called me to discuss the complaint.

The complaint itself was denied as he said that at the time the charges were valid. But as that doesn't matter now as there is now no debt, I don't need to contest the denied complaint. I am now wondering if they just wrote it off and told me that 'regulations' had compelled them to do it so it looks better for their complaints numbers...reckon that's possible?

[Deleted User]

justarandomposter wrote: »

they just wrote it off and told me that 'regulations' had compelled them to do it so it looks better for their complaints numbers...reckon that's possible?

Does it matter? The result is the same regardless ..

justarandomposter

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Does it matter? The result is the same regardless ..

So what if the result is the same? I was simply asking on this forum to see if someone had some answers as I was curious...