Thanks for the update glasmale26. Great to hear how the issue was resolved and that a degree of faith was restored.

A positive outcome - good stuff!

Graeme
Community Editor
grame.delap@moneysupermarket.com

Got a lovely phonecall from Santander, they have cleared all the charges, written to the default agencies and given me £50 in compensation. Thank you Santander. A degree of faith restored! I wrote direct to legal department of Santander.

You do not have a case as the agreement that you once had with Cahoot to suspend these charges to your account does not transfer automatically, or need to be maintained by the new owners... Santander.

Had there even been a record of this agreement with Cahoot.....Santander as the new owners are not legally obliged to honour the old agreement that you once had in place with the previous owners, therefore you would almost certainly lose if you were to issue proceedings.

glasmale26:

do I have a case? with nothing in writing will the courts believe me?

So put it in writing. Send Santander a letter explaining what has happened with as much detail as possible about the phone conversations. If Santander just say (as they probably will, unless they just ignore the letter) that they have no record of the agreement, then that is their poor record keeping that is to blame. If Santander say that there is no such agreement (they are unlikely to say this if they know that you are in the right), then you are not in a strong situation. The letter could state that you will be taking legal action if payment is not made within 30 days. It should state that the balance showing on the account, being made up of unreasonable charges, is disputed.

You should keep a copy of the letter and posting receipt (or use recorded delivery).

One option, other than taking legal action yourself, is to ask Santander to take the debt to court as soon as they can. Then you can put in a counterclaim. This course of action would be appropriate if the money that you've overpaid is small in relation to the charges that Santander are asking from you.

Hi, Just looking for any quick advice! Cahoot withdrew an overdraft facility on me about two years ago and agreed I would not incur unauthorised overdraft charges so long as I paid it back at £30 per month. Santander then took over and I was aware that I was being charged £30 monthly regardless of what I paid into the account. I queried this with them and they said they had no record of our agreement.

I got them to send me all my statements and as I remembered in the months that I ha paid in the required amount there was no charge whilst in the few months that I failed to pay in the £30 they did charge me which is fair enough.

I feel that because of this I can therefore argue that this agreement was in place and Santander who now own Cahoot owe me around £350 in charges I have paid when I shouldn't have (as I had been playing off the overdraft as agreed).

I have sent them a lba letter and called today to see if that had looked at it but the said they are passing it to debt collection as they want the final balance back of me (this balance is ofcourse made up of charges they had placed on the account illegally in my mind).

So, Im now about to complete a money claim online to recover my monies. Just looking for advice, do I have a case? with nothing in writing will the courts believe me? Will Santander bother to defend? Who can I contact at Santander to deal with it before it goes that far if possible???

Any help appreciated!

Steven