Hi, no I didn't use a lawyer, I just went via the small claims court. I drew up a list of the amounts I felt I was out of pocket due to the default EG. I've had to rent a car as I couldn't get a new loan, so I claimed the difference between the car hire and what it would have cost to buy the same car, I also claimed £100 per day to cover my costs in dealing with Sanatnder over the last 18 months (I averaged it to 1 day per month). To be honect the figure I ended up with was more than £5000 but I wanted it processed quickly so I used the small claims court and entered 'limited to £5000' in the amount claimed. I'm not savvy on the terminology here so what are the P.O.C's ? D

SETTLED !! I took the case to court, Santander had 28 days to lodge their defence, the day before the deadline they contacted me to settle !!! Compensation of £4500.00 Removal of the default on my account PLUS my costs Happy days !! D

Yes you can do that but if you do not accept the Ombudsman's final decision it is still a matter of record and a court would want to know why I chose not to accept. I have already got an adjudication from the Ombudsman in my favour, Santander initially appealed it then several weeks later came back with an offer of settlement which I declined. They then decided to let the appeal go ahead and it would have gone for the final 'legally binding' decision which could have taken several more months. I also have an adjudication from the ICO in my favour so for me the best solution is to take it to court and have them deal with BOTH complaints at the same time.

The only problem you have (and I had) is that if you accept the adjudication, you can't then take further proceedings against the bank. I had to withdraw my complaint and start court proceedings before the FINAL ombudsmans decision. Hope this helps..

Hi, after a long standing dispute over some bank charges and broken promises, I was told by Santander (Then Abbey) of their intention to issue a default on my account in May 2009, I contacted them once I had received the notification but they told me it was too late to do anything about it and they defaulted my account in June 2009, I believed they were unfair in the way they had treated me and tried desperately to have them consider the mitigating circumstances, remove the default and allow me to repay the amount I owed them (Something I have never disputed) l but they chose not to do so. I tried their complaints team, customer services etc but they all said no and told me to take it to the Ombudsman. I contacted the Ombudsmans office in July 2009, the initial assesment of my case was that Santander had done nothing wrong, I asked for the case to be reviewed and in August 2010 I received an ADJUDICATION which found in MY favour, The Adjudication stated that whilst it could not uphold all of my complaint, it DID find that Santander had treated me unfairly, that they should REMOVE the default and and come to a 'mutually acceptable arrangement' to allow me to repay the outstanding balance of my original current account. Needless to say, Santander appealed this decision, then to my total surprise I received an email from the Ombudsman stating the Bank would like to make me an 'offer' basically they agreed to remove the overdraft and asked me to repay my account over 12 months. In effect they had accepted the adjudication! I asked the ombudsman about compensation for the almost 2 years of distress this has caused me etc and Santander offered me £150 for my inconvenience! I was asked by the Ombudsman to give reasons why I thought I should recieve more compensation, I told them of the effect this has had on my health, the effect this has had on my ability to obtain credit, the costs in terms of my time in dealing with this, additional stuff like having to rent a car as I'm unable to finance a new one etc. They put this to the bank and yesterday (Friday 18th Feb) I received an email from the Ombudsmans office saying the bank have 'declined' to increase the offer and have said that the case should now go to the official Ombudsman for a final decision. I was given the following alternatives. Dear Mr *****, Further to my previous e-mails, I write to advise you that the bank has declined to increase its offer and has requested that the complaint be reviewed by an ombudsman. As I have previously explained it is my view that an ombudsman is likely to consider the bank's offer as fair and reasonable in the circumstances and a decision is likely to reflect this. You are of course free to ask for an ombudsman's decision, reject it and then take the matter to court, but the decision would of course be part of the record. Alternatively you can withdraw your complaint before a decision is issued and take legal proceedings against the bank. Perhaps you could let me know as soon as possible, but in any event by 4 March 2011 at the latest, whether or not you want an ombudsman to formally review your complaint and issue a decision, or if you wish to withdraw the complaint. I would like to know if you think I should take the case to a court for compensation, what would be my chances (considering the initial adjudication was in my favour) If I do this then I will have to withdraw my case, and considering that it has taken so long to get here I'm rather reluctant to do this. D

Hi, I'm in a very similar position to PAKMANN, I was told by Santander (Then Abbey) on their intention to issue a default on my account in May 2009, I contacted them once I had received the notification but they told me it was too late to do anything about it and they defaulted my account in June 2009, I believed they were unfair in the way they had treated me and tried desperately to have them consider the mitigating circumstances, remove the default and allow me to repay the amount I owed them (Something I have never disputed) l but they chose not to do so. I tried their complaints team, customer services etc but they all said no and told me to take it to the Ombudsman. I contacted the Ombudsmans office in July 2009, the initial assesment of my case was that Santander had done nothing wrong, I asked for the case to be reviewed and in August 2010 I received an ADJUDICATION which found in MY favour, The Adjudication stated that whilst it could not uphold all of my complaint, it DID find that Santander had treated me unfairly, that they should REMOVE the default and and come to a 'mutually acceptable arrangement' to repay allow me to repay the outstanding balance of my original current account. Needless to say, Santander appealed this decision, then to my total surprise I received an email from the Ombudsman stating the Bank would like to make me an 'offer' basically they agreed to remove the overdraft and asked me to repay my account over 12 months. In effect they had accepted the adjudication! I asked the ombudsman about compensation for the almost 2 years of distress this has caused me etc and Santander offered me £150 for my inconvenience! I was asked by the Ombudsman to give reasons why I thought I should recieve more compensation, I told them of the effect this has had on my health, the effect this has had on my ability to obtain credit, the costs in terms of my time in dealing with this, additional stuff like having to rent a car as I'm unable to finance a new one etc. They put this to the bank and yesterday (Friday 18th Feb) I received an email from the Ombudsmans office saying the bank have 'declined' to increase the offer and have said that the case should now go to the official Ombudsman for a final decision. I was given the following alternatives. Dear Mr *****, Further to my previous e-mails, I write to advise you that the bank has declined to increase its offer and has requested that the complaint be reviewed by an ombudsman. As I have previously explained it is my view that an ombudsman is likely to consider the bank's offer as fair and reasonable in the circumstances and a decision is likely to reflect this. You are of course free to ask for an ombudsman's decision, reject it and then take the matter to court, but the decision would of course be part of the record. Alternatively you can withdraw your complaint before a decision is issued and take legal proceedings against the bank. Perhaps you could let me know as soon as possible, but in any event by 4 March 2011 at the latest, whether or not you want an ombudsman to formally review your complaint and issue a decision, or if you wish to withdraw the complaint. I would like to know if you think I should take the case to a court for compensation, what would be my chances (considering the initial adjudication was in my favour) If I do this then I will have to withdraw my case, and considering that it has taken so long to get here I'm rather reluctant to do this. D

Hi BF, I have an account which Abbey have defaulted.. I may not be able to get the default removed but maybe I can get the charges refunded? I suspect in the region of £1000.00 !! I haven't yet made any claim, is it too late? D

DX, I have a similar problem with Santander... Can I ask you a question? in a previous post you said overdrafts are NOT covered by the CCA? If this is the case then why are Santander stating in the letter to this lady.. This is a Default Notice served under Section 87 (1) of the CC Act 1974. D

They did send me a default notice but as I said, I was out of the country when it arrived and regardelss of that, they claim that once it has been issued they can not stop it unless the balance is paid in full! The DCA are acting on behalf of Abbey, in fact, they have now passed the debt back to Abbey as I told them the matter was in the hands of the Ombudsman. Abbey refunded SOME of the charges late in 2008 the dispute I had with them was because they did not refund what they said they would.. Dave

Hi, I've had a long stading dispute with Abbey relating to charges on my account, the dispute started in Aug / Sept 2008 ! I had more than one account with them and stopped using the one in dispute until it was resolved. at this point they withdrew my overdraft facility and demanded payment in full (about £4000! ) . I was not in a position to repay it in full so I agreed to repay it monthly (subject to a review after 3 months), I was out of the country working when this agreement ended and by the time I returned they had started default proceedings (which they claim can't be stopped unless the balance was repaid in full!) Again, I was not in a postion to do this so in June this year they applied a default to my account, registered this with the credit reference agencies and passed the 'debt' to a collection company which has crippled me financially ! I have complained to the ombudsman, this process may take several months! but because Abbey say they have not broken any banking rules I fear the default will stand.. Any suggestions on what if anything I can do about it? Dave