Santander Consumer Finance excessive charges

[RT1970]

Dear all

I have been charged £25 by Santander Consumer Finance for a bounced DD payment that was collected successfully a few days later on reapplication.

It was my fault so I am in no doubt that some sort of charge is justified but I regard £25 to be excessive for the cost of sending one letter and using an automatic reapplication procedure.

For example, my bank charges £8 for the same process which is probably about right give or take.

I wrote to Santander asking them why their charges were more than three times the cost of the same procedure at Barclays, citing COBS and saying that if they took the money they would be in breach of contract because they had a statutory duty to treat me fairly (this is not a current account, but a motor finance loan so COBS rather than BCOBS applies). I said I would be pursuing the matter further if they applied the penalty. I also mentioned section140A of the CCA in my letter.

They have written back today dismissing my letter and saying that they have satisfied the FOS that £25 is "...a reasonable pre-estimate of the additional administrative costs in relation to the related breaches..."

They have not responded to my request to provide an accurate breakdown of their costs.

So, my next step is what? Send them a LBA or just sue them and see what happens?

Grateful for any advice

[RT1970]

I decided to send a LBA giving 14 days to reverse their decision or face action with no further warning. I will let the community know if I get a response and what happens next.....

[tedney]

I decided to send a LBA giving 14 days to reverse their decision or face action with no further warning. I will let the community know if I get a response and what happens next.....

Any update on this please RT? I am about to start similar dialogue with S. consumer finance. Thanks t.

[RT1970]

Any update on this please RT? I am about to start similar dialogue with S. consumer finance. Thanks t.

 

Hi Tedney

 

They wrote back to me stating that they had reviewed my case and were not going to change their position. Then, confusingly, in the same batch of post, I received a statement from them clearly showing they had reversed all the charges and credited my account Interestingly, this included two additional £25 charges I wasn't even aware of, so I got £75 back in all.

 

The conclusion I came to is that they were unprepared to actually admit in writing that their charges were excessive (perhaps fearing this could be used as evidence elsewhere) but were also unprepared to go to court to defend said charges.

 

Since the loan is now repaid in full and I have been reimbursed all the extra fees, I have dropped it.

 

So my advice to you would be to stick to your guns, even if it means sending them an LBA, and then have a look at your statement before committing to a court case. I was expecting to have to issue a summons before they backed off, but they blinked first on this occasion!

 

Good luck!

 

RT

[tedney]

Hi Tedney

 

They wrote back to me stating that they had reviewed my case and were not going to change their position. Then, confusingly, in the same batch of post, I received a statement from them clearly showing they had reversed all the charges and credited my account Interestingly, this included two additional £25 charges I wasn't even aware of, so I got £75 back in all.

 

The conclusion I came to is that they were unprepared to actually admit in writing that their charges were excessive (perhaps fearing this could be used as evidence elsewhere) but were also unprepared to go to court to defend said charges.

 

Since the loan is now repaid in full and I have been reimbursed all the extra fees, I have dropped it.

 

So my advice to you would be to stick to your guns, even if it means sending them an LBA, and then have a look at your statement before committing to a court case. I was expecting to have to issue a summons before they backed off, but they blinked first on this occasion!

 

Good luck!

 

RT

Thanks RT, I have added to your reputation! Thanks very much indeed. I will let you know eventual outcome too. t.