was there a follow up to this [just intrigued]

So Santader have responded to my SAR with the following letter…before you read it be assured that my request to them was very clearly set out as request for information relating to current accounts which are / were current accounts, the numbers and sort codes were given.

As per my previous post they responded just after 40 days and requested that I filled in the change of address form and provided identification by the way of a utility bill / driving license etc – I did this and sent a copy of my passport which is the one they would have on record.

Below is their response.

Dear Mr. XX XX

We refer to your recent correspondence.

Based on the information you have provided – name, address(es) and date of birth – we regret that we cannot locate any Unsecured Personal Loan account data.

In accordance with Section 7 (3) of the Data Protection Act 1988, Santander UK Plc is not obliged to comply with your request unless you have provided enough information that enables us to comply with your request unless you have provided enough information that enables us to locate the data subject and the account data you seek. [the lack of punctuation is theirs]

We would like to advise you that historical information can only be retained for legitimate reasons, therefore some personal data may no longer be held as it has been deleted in line with our retention policy.

In circumstances where our relationship ceased with the customer more than six years ago we do not retain the documentation required, therefore we are not obliged to provide this information in accordance with guidelines set be the Financial Services Authority.

Yours faithfully

Pam Speed

Director of Santander Operations.

Funny that they can’t locate my information [albeit I’ve requested account details not loans] but they can report it to my credit file every month – one as ‘default’ and one as gone away.

I’d be very interested in peoples view on what I should do next as I’ve had nothing but obstacles – call them and I can’t pass security as I don’t know my password, visited the branch and got nothing after waiting 2 hours to see someone, their response was to call which put me back to square one. Now this. I can’t win!

Still no update on this but I’ve started getting 2-4 calls per day from 0800 3698634 they don’t leave messages but if I call the number it says its Santader card services.

I’ll keep ignoring the calls until I have the information from my SAR – it’s well over the 40 days but they sent me a request for further identification after 43 days because my address differed! I’m not sure what this does to the 40 days…does it start again or should they have dealt with it sooner?

I feel its high time I sent another letter chasing this overdue information?

This is following a long long argument over disrepair – I need about 3 pages to write it all and to be honest.

They have messed her about no end – I started writing to them 18 months ago about the place being rotten after they attempted a 48% increase in rent which they wanted to take affect with 3 weeks of them asking [all done over the phone!]– they’ve said that there was a potential better property around the corner, we viewed it and agreed to move and pay the extra rent as it's a nice house - but they then decided that they wanted to sell the other property and would fix up the place she’s in now, that was around Feb this year

Last week when chasing the repairs [which I estimate at 50k+] they said that they were now willing to let her move to the other place, mums very annoyed but she’s currently in a property with no heating and windows with 10mm gaps in them…the toilet literally froze a couple of years ago. The walls ooze water all the time, and as horrible as it sounds the bathroom is always full of slugs and snails.

So you can imagine that other house looks like a pretty nice deal – we’ve had to really challenge them for a contribution towards the decoration of the new place as they just wanted her to move in with thread bare carpets and stained walls.

We've also had to negotiate the move for Jan as they wanted her to move in Christmas week!

I have responded on her behalf saying that she’d accept the 'deal' but would like a contribution to the new fence as she’d previously asked them to replace it when the old one rotted to dust – they replied and said no.

She now wants to take the fence as we can use it at the new place but I think it’s a grey area – yes they should have replaced it but there was a boundary fence when she moved in irrelevant of how we got to where we are.

For the record there is no inventory or deposit on this place.

This is also not a little landlord this is a company who's property arm made an operating profit of over 500million last year!

my mother recently [last 18months] replaced a boundary fence to her rented property as the Landlord said it was not their responsibility [this is a boundary fence not a party fence] – the previous fence was a landlord erected fence and after 26years of weather it was rotten [it was painted and maintained as best we could but a timber fence will only last so long].

Long story short the house in general is in such disrepair that after we threatened legal action the landlord is moving her to a ‘better’ property around the corner – she’s not happy about it as she's lived there 26years but she has little choice, after some negotiation they have agreed to give her £800 towards redecorating the new house as the current property was a shell when she took it on and all the fixtures, fittings and decoration are hers - but they won’t make a contribution to the fence – can she take it with her?

Well it sounds like its worth the pursuit then!

I'll spend some time this week trying to get my head around it all and keep you posted.

Thanks guys.

Well Black Horse are efficient – they received my SAR on Nov 5th and I already have the info!

So I’ve had a look through and I took out the loan on the 2nd Feb 2005.

On the 10th October 2006 I noticed when I was having a finical spring clean that there was PPI on the account which I didn’t recall asking for in fact I’m sure I made a point of saying no.

I wrote to Black Horse and said I wanted to cancel it, as I believed it was miss sold. Then they replied and said my monthly payments would be reduced from £150,68 to £135.99 once they received a copy of the signed cancelation form which I duly returned – then I forgot about it assume all was done and dusted.

In November 2008 I noticed that these payments had not reduced and so called Black Horse and asked why – they claimed never to have received my cancelation form and sent another one – I argued that I wanted a refund of the overpayment and the interest [as black horse front-load it], they said they’d sent me the 2 years of over payments to my bank and recalculate the interest and knock it off my loan which would result in the reduced monthly payments. [of 132.64 so slightly less than quoted 2 years earlier]

Eventually this all happened but the fact remains that for the first 20months of this loan I was paying PPI without realising and I’d like it back.

I’d disputed this long before the government stepped in so what I’m asking is, am I likely to be able to claim this back?

To my reckoning there is 20 payments a-miss somewhere from the start of the policy.

I have the agreement, which says the PPI was £1065.53, which was added to my loan [APR was 19.9] with a total payable over 60 months of £1569 for the PPI [if it had run to completion].

I’ve had a look at the PPI calculator and I can see its straight forward, but whats not straight forward is if the PPI had a knock on affect on the total interest I’ve paid on that loan as it was lumped in with the main loan and not an interest free separate insurance?

I think I'm confusing myself :S

J

Just a little update.

had the standard letter from Shop Direct to 'thank' me for my request and statutory payment and that they are currently 'collating' all the information and will contact me shortly.

I've not heard a peep out of Westcot but I'm sure this is the calm before the storm!

I'll update once I have more to report.

J

I recently brought a new [to me] car, and as you don’t know a car until you’ve had it for a while I took out an AA membership – which I did via Quidco so it worked out about half price.

Anyway the kind people at the AA gave me a ‘free’ 6 months trial for their Home Emergency Response – and whilst I’d never take out such cover under my own choice I thought it was a cleaver way of pushing a product.

Which brings me to yesterday we got up in the morning and noticed the toilet was blocked, also when we ran the tap in the basin the toilet filled up and when we filled used the shower the water takes ages to run away.

So we went to Wickes brought a plunger & a toilet rod and had a go at removing the blockage…long story short we couldn’t fix it…then I remembered the AA, I checked the T&Cs and it stated that if it’s the only WC then they consider it an emergency.

I called them at 8.40 last night and I explained that we’d had a go at the usual things and this was more serve than a simple plunger job. The popped me on hold for a few mins and said they would attend between 8am – 12pm today…not exactly an emergency response when its 12-15 hours after the call but I accepted this as it was cheaper than calling a plumber our of hours.

12pm came and went no one in our house has been able to shower or use the toilet for over 24 hours now so I’m getting twitchy, add this to the fact I’ve had to take the morning off at zero notice and I decide to call them – they said the guys on his way and to wait another 20 mins – I waited 40 and her turned up.

He comes in and looks at the toilet full to its brim and I can see his discomfort – he said “I know this isn’t what you want to hear but I’m actually an electrician” – amazing, I wasn’t even angry it was too funny!

So bless him he got a plunger and had a go any way – he spilled poo everywhere and made it worse – admitting defeat he cleaned up and called the office.

They’ve just called me back within 5 mins of him leaving and they’re going to subcontract this out. I’m not waiting for them to call me back with a time but no word if it will be today or not – It’s really unacceptable!

I don’t expect an solution here just wanted to sound off :S

Well 43 days since I sent my SAR and I have received a letter form Santander as follows:

Dear Mr Edwards

You have asked for copies of your bank statements, which we assume is to enable you to reconcile your bank charges.

I note that the address on your letter differs from that registered on your account. For your own security, we are only able to send this information to the registered address. I have therefore enclosed a Change of Details form for you to complete and return to us along with proof of your address such as a copy of your driving license, a recent utility bill or bank statement. We will not be able to provide your list of transitions until this information has been returned to us.

I therefore enclose your £10.00 fee for sake-keeping. Please return this with your proof of identification and a copy of this letter, so that we may proceed with your request.

If you have any questions please call us on the above number.

Jane Somers

Business Manager

You’d think that they would have asked for this within a week really wouldn’t you not wait until the 40 days had passed!

Thanks,

I'll send a SAR to Black Horse and see what I can fill in to the form.

I know they only paid me back the 10 or so months worth of PPI that I paid after asking them to cancel it...the first 2 years or so were never returned and the APR was something like 22% so it obviously adds up, especially as Black Horse pre-load their interest at the beginning.

Hi guys,

Quick question regarding PPI.

I used to have car finance with Black Horse [paid off in May 2010]…well actually it was a Personal Loan but they linked a car I brought to the HPI register and mistreated the agreement as hire purchase but that’s another story.

Basically the usual story, Carland where the car was purchased told me it would improve my chances of getting a loan if I took out the PPI – I said no I didn’t want it and a couple of years into paying the loan I discovered part of the payment was PPI which was lumped into the loan and the interest was added to this too. - this helped make a £4500 loan cost 10k to pay back!

I called Black Horse and asked for a refund then – this was well before the recent PPI claims being in the news I just knew I was in the right.

Black Horse said they would stop the PPI from then and recalculate my monthly payments – about 10 months passed and they still hadn’t so I complained again and said I wanted it stopping and a refund for all of it – they noted I had called previously so they would reduce my payments by the £24 odd that was PPI and sent me a cheque for around £500 for the PPI I’d paid in since I first complained.

They refused to give me a refund or the interest back on the payments made prior to me contacting them.

My simple question is can I now reclaim this – I formally disputed this at the time and I never accepted that I’d agreed to PPI payments – it was miss-sold from the off.

If I'm ‘allowed’ to reclaim after accepting a previous refund [albeit only what they’d continued to take after they’d allegedly stopped my PPI].

If so I’ll get a SAR off to Black Horse and fill in the relevant paperwork.

Dates and figures are approx. but I think I still have digital copies of letters I sent to them so I can probably firm up and lose details if they are deemed relevant and this stage.

Formal disputes are now in the post.

Quick one; when I first wrote to Shop Direct at the bottom of my letter I put in bold letters "In addition to this I explicitly request that you do not pass my details onto third parties without my permission".

The first thing they did was reply to me saying they'd forwarded my information to Westcot - could it be argued that Wescot are a third party here as I was addressing Shop Direct, and Shop Direct completely disregarded my wishes...or do they really have a right to do so as they've sold the debt on?

I only ask as it's really annoyed me - I'd hoped Wescot would be out of the loop until I had all the SAR information in my hand - I know they will hound me forever more now, 'formal dispute' or otherwise.

understood - if this account exists and if I made any payments then I can't believe that it took place in the last 7 years...I'll await the SAR from Shop Direct.

Is it worth writing to Westcot and saying I'm disputing with the original lender - or should I wait for them to start sending the red letters?

so we're approaching 30 days so far since I posted a SAR to Santander - they've not cashed the £10 cheque I enclosed, and today I received a letter from 'Home Collection Services Limited' relating to one of the accounts that starts off by saying:

Dear Mr E,

Balance £718.84 [100% charges]

GOOD NEWS!

We may be able to offer you a substantial discount on your outstanding balance.

it then goes on to say the usual rubbish about how I can pay them but doesn't discuss an actual reduced figure...

I don't intend to respond - is this the correct thing to do?

Also does anyone find it strange that Santander haven't acknowledged my request or cashed the cheque? [but as soon as they get wind of my current address I get Home Collections writing to me?]

Right chaps,

I've sent my SAR off to Shop Direct [maybe 5 days ago?] however as promised shop direct have obviously forwarded my correspondence to Westcot...

...and today I got an interesting letter from Westcot, this isn't there usual letter with big red abusive titles threatening action etc, but a 'proper' letter on reasonably good quality paper with the Wettest logo in raised ink, any way I digress it says:

Dear Mr E,

Client Ref; [Littlewoods Account Number]

Westcot Debt Number: XXXX

Client: Westcot - Littlewoods

Balance: £1429.26

We refer to your recent communication requesting further details of the account.

We can confirm a County Court judgement was registered against you in default on 25/10/2011 for £1439.26. This Judgement was entered at [old address]. [Old address] was the most recent address we held for you at that point.

The Littlewoods account this relates to was initially opened at the address of [an address that I've not lived at for 7/8 years]. The account was purchases by Westcot Credit Services in 2005 with your Date of Birth confirmed as XX/XX/XXXX.

Please contact us on 0844 824 1158 as soon as possible to arrange repayment of the above account.

Yours Sincerely

Westcot Credit Services

[its actually signed with a genuine blue pen and everything, although I very much doubt anyone has 'Westcot' as a first name let alone 'Services' as a last!]

So to surmise - it has to have been Statute Barred when then applied for a CCJ as it was already 6 years old? This is very frustrating as it's now causing me problems - I got refused credit for the first time yesterday for a mobile phone contract!

So I think my best course of action is to ignore Westcot, await my SAR from Littlewoods. once its back and the written confirmation that the account is and was Statute Barred at the time the CCJ was enforced I can apply to have the Judgement set-aside...

...am I on the right route here?

I still have no recollection of such an account...I'll be genuinely interested to see what Shop Direct send as a response to the SAR.

Little update:

I sent my SAR on the 25th of last month and since then every other day I get 3 calls 2 from different Santander numbers and 1 withheld, never any messages left - today I had 2 text messages off them saying:

'This is an urgent message for ME [in capital letters] please call 08456048148 This is not a sales call. the other message was 3 hours later and was the same but the number was different '08456048154'

I'm not going to call them, they know where I am if they wish to write to me.

I just wondered, I accept that I owe an overdraft to 1 of these accounts (£250), should I pay this off now? If so should I be paying interest as it was never an interest free account...?

So before I sent off £10 for a SAR I wanted to get a simple response from Littlewoods to see if an account existed...

according to their rubbish response it did so I will be sending a SAR tomorrow via recorded delivery.

their letter says: [from Shop Direct]

Dear XXX

This account was legally assigned to Westcot. Notice of the assignment was given to you by letter. As such, any further communications and payments regarding this account must now be addressed to Westcot, The March, Jarrett Street, Hull, HU2 8HF

Your letter dated 25/9/12 has been forwarded to Westcot, as the actions you described were carried out by them after they had purchased the account from Shop Direct.

Yours Sincerely

Jon Hartley

Debt Sale Team

So the they've now stirred up Westcot which really upsets me as what ever this account is they will now be chasing in a matter of days I assume!

So my SAR will be sent off tomorrow but I am now expecting a battle.

OK I've got my copy of the claim from the court which says:

Particulars of claim

The claim is £1040.00 being monies owing to the Claimant

in respect to goods provided by Littlewoods to the Defendant under account number XXXXXX.

The agreement was terminated due to the Defendant failed to maintain the agreed terms.

In accordance with the pre-action protocols the Claimant has attempted to contact the Defendant and agree a repayment plan.

The Defendant failed to respond or maintain a suitable agreement.

Littlewoods has sold and assigned all rights, title and interest, under this agreement to Westcot SPV Limited.

And the Claimant claims interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Court Act 1984

at the rate of 8% per annum from 21/02/2009 to 29/09/2011

totaling 216.33 and thereafter at a daily rate of 0.23 to date of Judgment or sooner.

and yes its word for word written that badly!

right spend another good half hour on the line to the court - copy of the paper work is on its way, cost me £5 for the privilege which really pleased me.

Will update once I know more.

Sorry to drag up an old thread of mine ... but given the recent PPI reclaims does this mean I can go back after Black Horse for the PPI I paid despite me disputing this at the time...I'm assuming so?

Damn, I guess I should have asked the courts for a copy of the paperwork - can I write to the courts and request it as spending hours on the phone is really not viable during work hours.

I'll have a look through my old paperwork and see if I can find anything about this as I normally keep things.

Do Littlewoods still exist? - I'm being lazy I'll do some research.

The CCJ is dated Nov 2011, I noticed it a couple of weeks ago when I got a copy of my credit files.

And it only shows on Call Credit file, I’ve never made any acknowledgement to Westcott nor have I received any letters off them – I only lived at the address the CCJ is against for 6 months and we didn’t really have much mail as the utilities were inc. in the rent.

With this in mind I’d say I’ve never acknowledged the account as I’m not wholly sure it exists! – if it was a Littlewoods catalogue I had years ago its almost certainly Statute Barred but as I said I really don’t know if there was an outstanding balance to pay.

Ok well after 55mins on hold and 28 places in the queue the lovely chaps at Northants Bulk Centre have informed me the CCJ is from Westcott for a Littlewoods account – they have managed to give me an account number for the alleged Littlewoods account, but they had no contact details for Westcott which is odd.

I think I had a Littlewoods account years ago but I can’t say that I remember having an outstanding balance – in fact I think it only had a limit of about £200 – it was so long ago that I don’t recall.

Can someone walk me through my next moves please.