I'm not above a good old fashioned rant at the banks. If it's good enough for (insert middle of the road comedian) then it's good enough for (insert me). Plus I've spent all last week pursuing a complaint made on the 21st to what seems to be a giant black hole of complete indifference.
For about the last year, until this March, I was treading ground with my account which was just within the £200 overdraft, merely paying off the interest thereon. I was then informed that, as of April, they were going to change their overdraft arrangements (as you do) which would leave me unable to pay them and thus incur charges. Wanting to avoid this I contacted them, despite their total lack of interest (because I wasn't technically in debt) I made a complaint which resulted in an arrange to pay off that amount at £3 a month with the overdraft being removed and the account being closed at the end. They even wrote to me notarising this. Great, thought I.
So everything had been going along swimmingly with this arrangement until the middle of this month whereupon I receive a letter urging me to get in touch and warning of credit default consequences and that action would be taken if I failed to contact them. Huh?
Turns out that, when they said, back in March, that they would review the situation in 6 months - which is fine - they meant that the agreement would only ever last 6 months and that I'd have to find £180 to pay back pretty sharpish or my credit rating goes tits up and they send my debt on to the Mitchell Brothers to collect instead. Well that's bollocks; why would I have agreed to that as doing so has effectively left me in a much worse position with no overdraft and a large amount of money I now actually do owe and no agreement to pay it off!
On top of that no one told me this in September, or until now - but they've been happy to accept my payments made in what seems blissful ignorance. The overdraft should have been removed (had the agreement gone as intended) in March, but was in fact removed in October - a month after the agreement supposedly ended. Again they could have warned me about this in September and a new agreement negotiated.
I've spent the entire week on the phone (god bless saynotto0870.com) to their collections department as well as their complaints department being bounced around between. To say Santander are incompetent, negligent and irresponsible would be to do those words a grotesque disservice. Their reputation for such is...well deserved.
Ever deal with the devil...?
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