Just wanted to update you on how things have progressed. Cahoot/Santander were very difficult to deal with, ignoring letters and phonecalls, but I have perservered in these past few weeks, mentioned the Financial Ombudsman to them a few times, and I have now managed to negotiate with them that they will write off just under £3,000 worth of charges and I have arranged an affordable repayment plan to pay off the overdraft. Thank you to the people above who replied to my original post, and to everyone else keep plugging away at the banks, they can't ignore you if you don't go away and lie in a darkened room (which is what they'd wish we'd do, I'm sure!) Thank you.

Latest on this - I have today received a default notice letter from Cahoot, saying I now owe them £4K (it has shot up again!!) and I have 14 days to pay it back in full or else. They haven't acknowledged my letter dated 30/11/10 and so am not sure what I should do. Should I write back again and say I expect the breakdown of all charges and interests, or should I refer this onto the financial ombudsman? I am sorry to post and ask for advice again but I am rather worried about all of this and there is no way I can pay them £4k on trumped up charges. Thanks in advance x

If they keep it up and don't reply to my letter asking for breakdown of charges etc then yes it definitely will be!

Thank you for the reply. It was a very nasty shock when the letter came, so I did some reading around on here and found the templates section and think I'm in a good position to challenge it back to them and ask for refund of all charges. With the interest it may end up that they owe me money, so they may end up wishing they'd left me alone. In the past few days they have taken to calling me up to 5 times a day, but do not leave answer phone messages - I am assuming they have got my letter asking for breakdown of charges etc as they never bothered to call/write etc before!!

I wasn't sure I could ignore it, can you ignore a letter from a debt collection company? When I saw how much they said the account owed I didn't want it to get any worse so thought it best to confront it and try to sort it out. From memory I don't think I've used the account in about 4 or possibly 5 years. Does this make a difference please? Any advice gratefully received.

I have not received any letters, statements or phonecalls from Cahoot about any of this. The first I knew was a letter from a Debt Collection company I received a short while ago. Cahoot have my address and telephone number but haven't corresponded with me about the charges, hence the nasty shock. Since my original post I have sent Cahoot a letter asking for a breakdown of all charges to my account since its inception, and have also asked for proof of where human intervention would have been needed and all levels of interest charged. I enclosed a £10 cheque and intend to challenge this ludicrous way banks seem to be able to try and rip people off. If anyone has any helpful advice or tips I'd really appreciate it. I shall keep you all posted.

Hello, I'm hoping some of you could please give me some advice as I've had a nasty shock today. I recently received a letter from a debt collecting company saying I owed just over £3.5K on a Cahoot (now Santander current account). The account in question is one I've not used in several years, I don't have any cards/cheques etc for it and have not had so for about 4 years. I contacted Santander to ask what was going on, as I thought the account was dormant and the last I knew of it I was slightly in an authorised overdraft to the tune of about £200. Santander tell me they have been applying a monthly overdraft cost of £30 and that I now owe them just over £3.5K!! I am shocked and very upset about this as I have not received any letters, statements, telephone calls etc from the bank about this and the first I knew of these ridiculous charges was when the letter from the debt collecting company arrived in the week. Can anyone please advise what I should do? I am happy to pay back the original overdraft, I'm not looking to duck my responsibility on that, but how £200 can turn into £3.5K is sickening and I can't afford to pay all of that off. I'm not sure how best to proceed with this, so any help or advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Hello, I'm hoping some of you could please give me some advice as I've had a nasty shock today. I recently received a letter from a debt collecting company saying I owed just over £3.5K on a Cahoot (now Santander current account). The account in question is one I've not used in several years, I don't have any cards/cheques etc for it and have not had so for about 4 years. I contacted Santander to ask what was going on, as I thought the account was dormant and the last I knew of it I was slightly in an authorised overdraft to the tune of about £200. Santander tell me they have been applying a monthly overdraft cost of £30 and that I now owe them just over £3.5K!! I am shocked and very upset about this as I have not received any letters, statements, telephone calls etc from the bank about this and the first I knew of these ridiculous charges was when the letter from the debt collecting company arrived in the week. Can anyone please advise what I should do? I am happy to pay back the original overdraft, I'm not looking to duck my responsibility on that, but how £200 can turn into £3.5K is sickening and I can't afford to pay all of that off. I'm not sure how best to proceed with this, so any help or advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance.