---

Hi all,
I'm around 1/2 way back paying off a loan from the above. When I took it out it was set up to be repaid via direct debit. After a few months I got a phone call telling me I was in arrears turns out that they couldn't set up the direct debit due to a well known fault on their system. For months I had to phone up on pay day to make the mothly payments over the phone which was a nighmare often getting passed around depts each deniging I made the payment the pervious month with them often it would take up to 45mins of being passed from pillar to post for it to be sorted.

In the end I had a complaints handler deal with my case and was rewarded a decent 3 figure sum to compensate for the messing around.

Finally after me repeatedly requesting to set up a standing order resolve the issue they relented and for a while not had a problem until tonight.
Got a phone call from one of their outsourced compaines claiming I didnt make Dec's payment and the lass on the phone was a bit cheeky as well. Now I've checked online and the payment went out on the 28th and not the 26th as it should have I'm assuming this is due to the B/H I never had this problem last year.

I've phoned up to escalate my complaint but been told the dept I need to speak to is closed and I've asked for a manager to call me back tomorrow to discuss.

I'm not prepared to put up with their shoddy service anymore as also in the past they have put black marks on my credit file for no reason due to this which they have later had to retract.

So where do I stand and should I take it to the financial omibusman?

And the best laugh I bank with Cahoot ...who is owned by Santander!

um dont take out a loan with a spansih bank, there desperatly trying to shore up there position vis a vis there bond portfolio heavily into PIIGS holdings, things are going to take a tumble in the near future and everyone owing money ot or having money on deposit with euro banks is likely to find themselves in hot water, with lifelines being held in abayance for quite some time while things are transfered to government departments to unravel.

if i was you i would look to tkae out an account with a uk based bank that offers saftey rather than flimsy deals and transfer your loan to them as well since should things go tits up big style your not going ot be left in the lurch.

Originally Posted by brettarider

So where do I stand and should I take it to the financial omibusman?

You can't take it to the Ombudsman until Santander have had a chance to answer your complaint / attempt to put it right. The Ombudsman will just point you back to the bank until you reach impasse.

Bretta, Santander are a pigging nightmare to deal with, I went in every month for 22 months to try to get a monthly statement sorted, which I had never recieved. After taking in the relevant paperwork to confirm my address on both current and savings account every month, I was told it would take 5-10 working days to get a statement delivered. After 22 months, I still never recieved a statement, so tried closing down both accounts, went into my local branch where the financial advisor worked who set up the ISAs for me, only to be told that I had to got to another branch to see someone else as he didn't have the power to close that particular account down, wnet to the other branch only to get told that all I had to do was send/fax in a letter requesting that the account be closed. They just like giving you the run around, it took me months from start to finish to close both accounts, Santander are just a waste of time, move to another bank (I had 10 good years with Abbey, but 2 years of fuckwittery once Santander took over)

Originally Posted by Sixty

You can't take it to the Ombudsman until Santander have had a chance to answer your complaint / attempt to put it right. The Ombudsman will just point you back to the bank until you reach impasse.

45 days after receiving your written complaint, if they provide you with progress reports then they can extend the time frame by a further 28 days with each report ( this cna be things liek a note telling you there escalating hte problem and so on) the fact they offered /paid compensation means you would need to start again, the thing is a case which remains unresolved after 6 months can be refered to the ombudsman but by then if its not resolved it would automatically trigger an investigation and could take years to resolve, your far better off waiting for htem to resolve the situation and then report them for the problem including all details (copies of paperwork sent and received) so it can deceide wether the resolution from the bank was fair and just, if an investigation is required and various other things.

for future referance the problems with s/o payments and bank holidays are classed as you failing to make the payment on time because knowing it was coming up the payment should of been made early to compensate, this is not the case with direct debits.

your case whilst frustraiting is perhaps unactionable other than it was there failure to set up the direct debit from there own offshoot banking system, and that situation could be reported ot the obusdman if its not yet been resolved by the bank

Originally Posted by nanotm

45 days after receiving your written complaint, if they provide you with progress reports then they can extend the time frame by a further 28 days with each report ( this cna be things liek a note telling you there escalating hte problem and so on) the fact they offered /paid compensation means you would need to start again, the thing is a case which remains unresolved after 6 months can be refered to the ombudsman but by then if its not resolved it would automatically trigger an investigation and could take years to resolve, your far better off waiting for htem to resolve the situation and then report them for the problem including all details (copies of paperwork sent and received) so it can deceide wether the resolution from the bank was fair and just, if an investigation is required and various other things.

for future referance the problems with s/o payments and bank holidays are classed as you failing to make the payment on time because knowing it was coming up the payment should of been made early to compensate, this is not the case with direct debits.

your case whilst frustraiting is perhaps unactionable other than it was there failure to set up the direct debit from there own offshoot banking system, and that situation could be reported ot the obusdman if its not yet been resolved by the bank

Santander aea a complete mare, my account has been blocked for two weeks now. lucky my wife is with a reasonable bank or we cannot pay our bills or buy food.

Santander ARE an nightmare to deal with. A couple of years ago I wanted to pay 25 grand off the mortgage - its an interest only mortgage and the initial 3 years had elapsed so I can make additional payments without incurring charges. I called them and was told "sorry but you cant make additional payments, we don't have a system for that". Utter horsecrap.

I went into the branch and demanded to see the manager and eventually was able to pay 25 grand off the loan.

Then my poor deranged wife wanted to have her name taken off the mortgage (I have no idea why, it was something to do with another loan she had from HSBC - I am not kidding when I say she is deranged).

Take your name off the loan? "Cant do that unless you supply us with 3 years proof or earnings of the person who's name you want taking off the mortgage".

Later on I wanted to pay more money off the mortgage and since I am abroad most of the time I called them and asked them if I could do it by internet banking - a transfer from my HSBC account to the mortgage account. Lots of sucking of teeth and eventually after several phone calls I was told that it just isn't possible and if I was in difficulty with my mortgage payments maybe I better come into a branch and talk to a member of staff (WTF???). So I sneakily did a test transfer by internet banking of 5 grand and was rewarded ten days later with a letter confirming that they had received a payment and had amended the loan amount outstanding.

I aim to pay the remaining loan amount off by the end of this year and wont touch Santander with a barge pole thereafter.

Bureaucratic and barmy, that sums up Santander.