Santander want to pay themselves with my PPI refund. Is this legal please?

[Rocky Roadster]

Hi all, thanks for the support received from this site so far. I am spreading the word and helping others caught in the debt spiral.

 

 

I had a loan with A&L now with Santander. My income stopped when I had one payment outstanding and I have been making small payments against this, as and when I can.

 

I was self employed and realised that the PPI sold to me was useless. They have agreed to a full and final settlement figure with 8% interest, which is great, but they are saying that the amount will be paid against the outstanding arrears.

 

the acceptance form says:

 

This amount will be used to repay the outstanding arrears on your account before the balance, if any, is paid to you.

 

(PPI arrears are £5.62 Loan arrears are £270).

 

Basically, is this legal, as I have outstanding priority debts that I am struggling with at the moment (rent, council tax etc.) and could use this money (£150) more effectively.

 

 

Hope that someone can help.

 

RR

[dj1971]

Hi Rocky,

 

Under the right to offset, Santander can use your PPI to clear any arrears on your loan only. Anything above and beyond the arrears on the loan must be refunded directly to you.

 

Have you already done your own calculations of how much you are due?

 

DJ

[Rocky Roadster]

Thanks for the reply dj.

They have calculated the amount and added 8% interest.

How can I check the amount is correct?

 

RR

[saleka11]

Hi Rocky Roadster,

 

I'm in a similar boat like you. Abbey want to pay themselves though they closed my account, although I had a balance oustanding and sent me a statement saying i owe £0.00. They now want to hold onto the refund which is just under £7k which i was able to get them to confirm by using the letters on this wonderful forum! will be writing to them again once i get more advice.

 

re checking if the calulations are right, there's a post on this forum that has a link to the payment calculator. You enter the amount you took out, duartion of the loan and APR and it works it all out for you - sorry not sure how to copy & paste onto here yet, very new to the forum. i hope this helps - if I make any headway with Abbey, I'll let you know.

[dj1971]

Rocky,

 

We will need some information from you in order to calculate the amount you are owed.

 

1) Total cost of PPI

2) Amount of monthly repayments for PPI

3) Interest rate charged on PPI

4) Number of repayments

5) Date of final repayment

 

DJ

[ZENTRIX9]

If the account is in dispute can they still offset payments you claim against the debt?

 

"Furthermore you should be aware that a creditor is not permitted to take ANY action against an account whilst it remains in dispute.

 

The lack of a credit agreement is a very clear dispute and as such the following applies.

 

* You may not demand any payment on the account, nor am I obliged to offer any payment to you."

Would this apply?

[Rocky Roadster]

Hi ZENTRIX9,

 

Unfortunately this account is not in dispute. I couldn't make the last payment and have got the PPI refunded to help clear the debt.

They sold the account to Moorcroft when they got my PPI refund acceptance. I got a letter from Moorcroft demanding the outstanding balance plus, so I rang Santander (A&L) to see what was happening and they said the refund would go to Moorcroft. The A&L (Santander) PPI offer letter said they would also refund letter charges, so I asked how much over the phone and they said £75 would be paid by internal transfer, when I asked if Moorcroft would get it they just said it would be an internal transfer. Moorcroft haven't had it.

 

Moorcroft have now acknowledged the PPI refund, and are chasing for the balance. They haven't informed me what the balance is though, just "ring and pay up".

 

Any ideas on what I should do next?

 

RR

[postggj]

This is shocking

 

seend moorcrap a cca request to wind them up and demand an up to date statement and send santandar a sar request