Daughter's A&L account was upgraded without consent - now £170+ overdrawn in charges!

[Prudence]

Hi All

 

My daughter is a university student and a couple of years ago she took up an offer by A&L to open an account & introduce others for a £25 reward. She never used the account and out the blue had a letter from them a few months ago saying she was £95 overdrawn! She phoned up to enquire, thinking there must be some mistake, and was told that when she reached the age of 22 they upgraded her to this type of account. (When she opened her initial account she told them specifically she could not open the account where you need £500 p.m. coming in).

 

Now this amount has magically increased to £173. Her complaint was referred to head office and they have written to say they have looked at it and as a gesture of goodwill will deduct £25.

 

I have just spoken to A&L and they are adamant that these charges are correct and that my daughter agreed to them in initial the terms & conditions. I said that these conditions would have to be verbally explained to her (& she told me that they did not have to do so, that they were in writing). They refused to put me through to a Manager, or anyone else, saying the only people I could speak to was the Complaints team and they would not be there until Monday. I am absolutely furious. Please help!!!

[maroondevo52]

Thread moved.

[debbbbsy]

that my daughter agreed to them in initial the terms & conditions.

 

You need to request a copy of these T&C's, and proof that your daughter was fully aware of the implications and agreed to them when opening this account. The "Burden Of Proof" is on them to prove there case.

 

Do not speak to these people on the phone. From now on all correspondence must be in writing, and all post sent recorded delivery.

 

Search the internet, have other students experienced the same problem. Send an email to the OFT.

[Prudence]

Thankyou very much for your advice. We will do that. Is it sufficient to include these terms in writing to her when she opened the account? As I understood it, these days they have to make sure verbally that the account is suitable for you? Also, they will not allow her to close the account until the amount is paid! Therefore their charge is going to escalate!

[Bookworm]

So don't close the account! Let them do what they want with it, add as many fictional charges as they like, and let her tell them that when they get bored with that, they can write it all off, because they're never going to see a penny off her unless they can convince a judge that she owes money for an account she didn't ask for and charges she didn't create.

[Prudence]

Thanks very much. She has been so worried about this. It's enough that she's starting out with £10,000 worth of debt from Uni without these thieves starting on her.

Can anyone clarify tho, if it is stated in the terms and conditions, is that enough to convince a judge that it is lawful? Or do they need to explain these conditions. She was told about this type of account at the time but said categorically that she did not want it as she could not pay the £500 p.m. in.

[Bookworm]

No. They will have to show that she consented to this "upgrade", and they would then have to explain why they did it when they knew she didn't actually fulfill the criteria.

 

They won't go to court, don't worry. They may well sell the alleged debt to a DCA, which you can then send packing too.

 

Don't let them worry you, it's simply not worth it. Once you refuse to let them scare you, it's amazing how little you realise they can actually DO.

[Prudence]

Thankyou very much, she feels a lot better now. It is absolutely scandalous what these banks get away with. Legalised robbers.

[debbbbsy]

Can anyone clarify tho, if it is stated in the terms and conditions, is that enough to convince a judge that it is lawful?

 

No. Even if they produced an agreement, with these Terms & Conditions, signed by your daughter. They can be challenged under the New 2006 Consumer Credit act ammendments as "Unfair". Just because they include it, it does not make it legal.

I would strongly recommend making the OFT aware of this. They are wrongly offering accounts to students who are not eligable. It is totally unacceptable to entice someone into this position, the student cannot quarantee that when they qualify, they will automatically be employed in a job which pays more than £500.

Also send an "Official Letter of Complaint" to the bank. If you are unhappy with there final response. Pass it to the Financial Ombudsman.

 

Good Luck

 

Debs xx

[Ganymede]

No. They will have to show that she consented to this "upgrade", and they would then have to explain why they did it when they knew she didn't actually fulfill the criteria.

 

They won't go to court, don't worry. They may well sell the alleged debt to a DCA, which you can then send packing too.

 

Don't let them worry you, it's simply not worth it. Once you refuse to let them scare you, it's amazing how little you realise they can actually DO.

 

 

 

After I graduated from Uni a few years ago, I'm 27 now, my undergraduate bank account was automatically changed to a Graduate account but I knew this would happen when I signed up for the Undergraduate account...

 

Possibly a similar thing here?

[Prudence]

When she opened her initial account she told them specifically she could not open the account where you need £500 p.m. coming in).

 

 

Thanks Ganymede but no they "upgraded" her account while she was still an undergraduate. And she was not told that the account would be upgraded, in fact she made sure she stipulated that she could not have that type of account (see above).

[Prudence]

Can anyone give us some advice on the following please? My husband used his Santander debit card to pay for a stand at an event a few months ago. (It is just a basic account - no overdraft facility). Last month, the same event took it upon themselves to use my husband's card details to book his stand again for the next event (they hold about 4 a year). He did not give them any authority to do this, nor did they telephone to even check that it was OK to take the money. The first he knew about it was about 3 or 4 days later when he realised his bank account had gone overdrawn by about £20. He was furious with the event organisers (& phoned them to say so - they refunded him) but he was also furious with the bank as to why they had allowed this transaction to take place. He went to the bank but never got any straight answer to this question. This morning, he received a statement informing him they were taking £35 as a "Card Payment Fee" and £25 as an "Unauthorised Overdraft Fee". He immediately went to the bank and spoke to their head office. They acted like they had done nothing wrong and eventually agreed as a gesture of goodwill to remove the £35 charge but insisted on maintaining the £25 charge. We are outraged - how should we proceed to take this further?

[Migster]

The event organiser is at fault here and not Santander. His best bet is to contact them and ask them to cover the £25 charge he's incurred as a result of their error.

[Prudence]

The event organiser is at fault here and not Santander. His best bet is to contact them and ask them to cover the £25 charge he's incurred as a result of their error.

 

Thanks Migster. But any other time a transaction would never be allowed to proceed if he didn't have sufficient funds in his bank, as he has no overdraft facility, so how come this time - was it the promise of some nice fat charges I wonder?

[Prudence]

Can anyone give us some advice on the following please? My husband used his

Santander

debit card to pay for a stand at an event a few months ago. (He has a basic account - no overdraft

facility). Last month, the same event took it upon themselves to use my husband's card details to book his stand again for the next event (they hold about 4 a year). He did not give them any authority to do this, nor did they telephone to even check that it was OK to take the money. The first he knew about it was about 3 or 4 days later when he realised his bank account had gone overdrawn by about £20. He was furious with the event organisers (& phoned them to say so - they refunded him immediately) but he was also furious with the bank as to why they had allowed this transaction to take place. He went to the bank but never got any straight answer to this question.

He eceived a statement informing him they were taking £35 as a "Card Payment Fee" and £25 as an "Unauthorised Overdraft Fee". He immediately went to the bank and spoke to their head office. They acted like they had done nothing wrong and eventually agreed as a gesture of goodwill to remove the £35 charge but insisted on maintaining the £25 charge. I know the event organisers were very wrong but surely equally the Bank, as if my husband attempted to use his debit card and the funds weren't there the transaction would be 'declined'. How come this one wasn't, was his argument, but the answer was 'sometimes it goes through'.

We feel there should be no charge at all to us, what shall we do?

[slick132]

Hi Prudence.

 

I see a copy of this post is in the Abbey forum and you're getting advice there.

 

Please just use the other thread from now on, so you don't have 2 threads running on the same topic.

 

Thanks.

[Prudence]

My daughter had a letter of apology with £50 cheque from Santander after they changed her type of account (unknown to her and certainly not consented by her) whilst a student, to a type of account that needed to funded every month by a certain amount or else charges would be incurred. They racked up charges of over £300 until we took action.

We thought that was the end of that however she was recently turned down by two mobile phone companies (& in the end got one in her boyfriend's name). She assumed it was because she had been behind with payments on a credit card whilst a student 2 or 3 years ago (now all sorted). However when she was recently turned down for a new apartment rental she looked further into matters and found that to this day Santander are reporting adverse credit information on her credit file. Their reports of being over £400 in arrears are maintained up to date (the apology and payment were received a year ago!)

We have written to them and gave them 14 days to respond or we would take legal action. She had an acknowledgment after a week to say they were looking into it but that was a fortnight ago and have heard nothing else.

Can anyone advise what is the best next course of action - shall we go straight to Court - or the Ombudsman route? If it is Court, will it cost us and how shall we go about it. It is something a 'no win no fee' solicitor would consider? As surely this is 'defamation of character'???

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Before you can go to the ombudsman or court you must

try the complaints schemes of both the bank and the credit reference agency.

Firstly make formal complaints to both regarding the data Head the letters clearly

FORMAL COMPLAINT>

The CRA letter should be addressed to the compliance manager send both recorded delivery.

[Prudence]

Thank you Brigadier. Is this an additional letter to the one we wrote a few weeks ago? Would that not be considered sufficient - it was a letter of complaint, just not headed as such, and it was sent Recorded Delivery?

Also, an apology / rectifying of the situation will not be sufficient. She has lost two mobile phone contracts and an apartment and the humiliation of such. Any further advice would be welcome.

[silverfox1961]

Hi

It is unfortunate that some companies will not treat complaints as such unless they are headed Formal Complaint. It may be that they are treating it as a complaint but until respond, you won't know.

 

Has your daughter raised this with the credit reference agency? If not, do so. They will put a marker next to the entry until the bank come back with their response

[Prudence]

Thank you Silverfox. No she hasn't contact the CRA's yet. We will re-send as a 'Formal Complaint' and if no satisfaction - what then, Court or Ombudsman do you think? Many thanks

[silverfox1961]

Court or Ombudsman do you think? Many thanks

 

That's your choice of course but with court papers, they will sit up and take notice. With the Ombudsman, they are a bit more "who cares"

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Yes Pru make it a formal complaint so that you get the FINAL RESPONSE

from them this will show a court that you have made every effort to settle without wasting court time and money

and goes down well with the judges.

[Prudence]

Thank you very much both for your advice. Pru

[sir_gilmour]

Hi

Welcome to The Consumer Action Group.

 

 

I am just letting you know that as you haven't had any replies to your post yet, it might be better if you post your message again in an appropriate sub-forum. You will get lots of help there.

 

Also take some time to read around the forum and get used to the layout. It is a big forum and takes a lot of getting used to.

 

 

Once you start to find your way, you will soon realise that it is fairly easy to get round and to get the help you need.

 

It can be bit confusing at first.