Complain upheld but offer of £1!

[fotch]

Hello and thank you in advance for any help you are able to offer. My complaint for mis-selling of a Principles Card in 1989 was upheld by Santander, but an offer of £1 has been made as they have no records prior to 23 July 1996. Does anyone have any advice about how I should proceed? Do I refer to FOS? I doubt I can obtain evidence from Nat West as I do recall payments were made by DD. I also recall I took out a loan in 1996 from M & S to repay this credit card, but I doubt that would be of any use. Advice needed - thank you.

[BankFodder]

I think that you need to give us far more detail.

 

How much do you think that they are you?

 

Have you sent any SARs to anyone?

 

I don't believe that they don't have the records prior to 1996. They used to be Abbey and I know for a fact that Abbey kept their records all the way back to 1933. I can't imagine that they've gone ahead and destroyed them.

 

I think it simply that Santander can't be arsed to activate the systems to find your records.

 

Why do you doubt that you can obtain evidence from NatWest? Have you tried?

 

Have you send an SAR to M&S?

 

I don't think that you can help yourself very much if your approach to each possibility is simply "I doubt…"

 

I think that you need to start making a very thorough effort to get information.

 

Also I think that you need to challenge Santander and asked them for the basis upon which they have calculated a refund as £1.

[fotch]

Thank you for your quick response - I haven't made an SAR request, but intend to and hadn't thought of sending an SAR to M & S, but will also look into this, nor have I tried to access my previous NatWest Bank Account records, but will also approach them (I did a bit of "online" research and it appears they only keep records for 6 years).

 

I'm fairly sure I took the card out in 1989 and paid it off in 1996 (as per Santander's records). I think I owed approximately £2,500-3,000 and only ever paid the minimum payment until redemption.

 

They've based the award on a balance outstanding as at July 1996 being 15p.

 

I will most definitely take the attitude "I will... " rather than "I doubt..." from now on.

[BankFodder]

All of the banks use archiving services which store their records going back far longer than six years.

 

The banks have developed a culture of "six years" because they try to keep their records inaccessible to most of their customers because they realise that when they are asked for records under subject access requests, it usually means trouble.

 

You will have to try and get NatWest to agree that they do have an archiving service and that you should be entitled to receive records which are stored there as well.

 

If NatWest insist on only giving you six years of data, then you should tell them that you're going to complain to the Information Commissioner – and you should do that – although it will probably make no difference because the information Commissioner doesn't seem to do very much

[ThedaBara]

I am currently in discussions with HSBC, or HFC as they were then….I have PPI going back to 1986… but what if they just send your tenner back and deny they have any information as has happened once or twice with me, when I know I had the loan but no longer have the agreement number? TB

[fotch]

I've spoken to FOS and made a formal complaint. They have indicated that as Santander have accepted liability they should make a reasonable offer (not £1) based on average consumer spend at the time. I also spoke to Santander who said that even if I did make an SAR they would simply give the same answer, I'll then have to escalate it and ask for evidence to support the disposal of the information. They also said that they wouldn't be able to make an average award as spending on credit cards varies so much. I'll see what comes of the FOS involvement.

[ThedaBara]

Good luck! Please post back as it would be very helpful for others like us who are being given the run around by these dreadful banks… TB