Westcot now involved

[FredF]

Hi

 

I've had an agreement in place with Santander since early this year to pay my £1 into a £1500 overdraft. Currently I'm unemployed and actively seeking work.

 

This morning I received a letter from Westcot asking for immediate payment or to contact them.

 

I've done a quick search through the forums regarding NOA letters and apart from my regular monthly bank statement, I've had absolutely no other correspondence whatsoever.

 

I also have an arrangement to pay £1 a month off of my Santander credit card so I can only assume that this will be next to be handed over.

 

Should I cease paying the £1 to Santander and send a 'prove it' letter to Westcot or should I ignore this letter and carry on and wait for 'further recovery action'

 

I'm not sure of what to do next.

 

Fred

[rebel11]

Hi fred

 

Have you been mis-sold PPI or have you had any Penalty Charges on your credit card account?

If you've had Penalty Charges on your overdraft, you can put in a Hardship claim, if your finding it difficult to manage.

This is over the last 6 years, you add interest to your claim. Have a read of 1,2 and 3.

[FredF]

I didn't have PPI on my credit card, I've probably had late payment charges and all sorts since I got into trouble late last year. I did have PPI on my loan account which I successfully claimed on but that only lasted a year and left me with two months outstanding.

 

My current account, which is what this Westcot letter relates to has no insurance, up until I got Santander to freeze charges and interest and accept my £1 token payments I was incurring interest on that account. This letter has come out of the blue however, so while I can write to Santander and start claiming, I don't know what to do about Westcot taking over the account.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Keep paying your £1 per month on

both accounts send Westcott the prove it letter,

Noting that you do not acknowledge any

debt to them or ant company they claim to

represent.

Don't ever phone them

There's a template in the CAG library.

[FredF]

Thanks both of you, I'll send off the prove it letter to Westcot and see what happens. I'm so annoyed at how Santander can so easily and quickly go back on their agreement.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

I get the impression Fred from reading about Santander

that admin and customer service is worse than useless:madgrin:

[FredF]

I've got an ongoing complaint with them about telephone harassment, basically they were ringing six or seven times a day, and I was getting the odd "we'll send someone round" card on top.

 

I sent a complaint about it and got a written reply to say that my numbers had been removed from the system and that they would accept my £1 payment offer (I'd written to them about 4 times asking them prior to complaining) on both my credit card and current account overdraft. My loan was being payed by PPI. Anyway, when those PPI payments ended I was still £1500 from clearing my loan and the phone calls started again.

 

I can post up my second letter of complaint if it's of interest.

 

So yes, to cut a long story short, Santander's customer service is nothing short of atrocious.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Please do that Fred, it's always good for

us to see how others are dealing with their

problems.

Brig.

[FredF]

Here it is:

 

I find it difficult to believe that you have not received any communication since your last letter, my reply to which is enclosed along with a copy of the proof of postage receipt from the post office.

I realise that sending my previous letter 2nd class in a bid to save what little money I have to live on gives you the opportunity to deny receiving that letter.

I’d previously asked that you remove my numbers from your system as I found the quantity and frequency of calls harassing. Therefore I was surprised that on the day of receiving that letter I received an unanswered call from 0800 389 0755 which when returned was found to be Santander.

I decided to speak to the agent and reiterate that I did not want to receive calls and would only correspond in writing, after I informed them that I’d already complained and had a letter from yourselves (date & reference removed) that my numbers were removed.

Your agent said they were removed but only from “page 1” of your system and not from “page 2”.

I did however continue the call to explain my current financial situation when the subject of the IE form arose and the attached reply prepared.

I was then quite shocked that on the same afternoon I had a further call from yourselves. This time your agent denied all knowledge of the earlier conversation and when I asked about why my phone still wasn’t removed from the system was told that it stays within the system until the next day.

Were these calls not logged? Or do they not count as “communication”.

Furthermore, I would like to ask why, even though I have your letter from your complaints department telling me that my phone numbers had been removed, that in fact they weren’t removed at all.

I’d also like to ask you why you insist on documentation in the form of an income and expenditure form that you already have in relation to my other Santander accounts? This was confirmed to me by the first agent I spoke to on the (date removed).

When asked why he couldn’t use the same IE form, his response was that it was in a different department and that “Santander does not have a photocopier.”

 

Basically I wrote that in response to receiving one of those "Our records show we have had no communication" letters they sent me a couple of weeks later. I received another one of those too, a couple of days after they wrote to acknowledge receiving my complaint.

 

I've not received anything further from them until this letter from Westcot showed up yesterday morning.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

What a cretinous bunch, don't have a

photocopier!!

Wetcloths are just as dim.

Get the prove it letter off to them.

 

Brig.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

What a cretinous bunch, don't have a

photocopier!!

Wetcloths are just as dim.

Get the prove it letter off to them.

 

Brig.

[FredF]

Okay, posting today. I'll keep this thread updated.

[FredF]

Hi Guys,

 

I received a reply from Westcot which basically consisted of just my signed application for opening this bank account and a standard "pay us now" letter.

 

As it stands, I received a reply from Santander on the 22nd September to my above complaint which I wasn't satisfied with at all, I wrote back to them with a follow up letter. That was on 29th September and I've yet to hear from them to this day.

 

In the reply from the 22nd they did mention that my bank account had already been passed (no other documentation has told me this) to a third party agency but no mention was made of Westcot at all. What they did say in the letter was that my account was passed to this "outside agency" on the 19th August. The original demand for payment from Westcot was dated the 14th August.

 

Either way, I'm not sure what my next course of action should be, Do I write to Westcot and tell them I'm still waiting for a reply from Santander? Do I write to Santander and again tell them that I have had no "official" notification that they've passed my debt to Westcot? I'm a bit puzzled at to what to do.

[FredF]

Can anyone advise?

[Nishikigoi]

Do the CCA to Westcot, that will probably prompt them to send it back to Santander but you can still dispute it on the basis of receiving an application form...

[FredF]

But that's what they sent me.

[Nishikigoi]

But that's what they sent me.

 

And that's a good thing, shows that currently they do not have the documentation required.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Have care here if this is a bank currenr

account the CCA is of no use at all.

If the app form for the account is

correct and signed they will need no

further proof that the account exists.

 

Brig.

[FredF]

So should I write to them making the £1 offer? After all, it's what Santander accepted prior to passing it on in the first place.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

So should I write to them making the £1 offer? After all, it's what Santander accepted prior to passing it on in the first place.

 

Does this mean this is a current account + overdraft?

If so and as I said in post18# tthe account application form

is in order signed and dated and the account has been

used statements will exist, I afraid your best move is £1.00

minimum payments.

[FredF]

Does this mean this is a current account + overdraft?

If so and as I said in post18# tthe account application form

is in order signed and dated and the account has been

used statements will exist, I afraid your best move is £1.00

minimum payments.

 

Yes it is, and what they sent me was the original signed application form. I was angry because I'd spent the best part of 4 or 5 months getting Santander to agree in writing to my £1 a month offer. this then ran for just 2 to 3 months before they passed the debt on, without any notice that they were going to do that.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Have you has a notice of assignment from

Santander or Westcott?

[FredF]

Have you has a notice of assignment from

Santander or Westcott?

 

No, the first I knew of it was when I received a demand for payment from Westcot. It's headed "Notice Of Debt Collection".

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

That's what they will claim as being an NOA in my opinion.

[FredF]

That's what they will claim as being an NOA in my opinion.

 

I suppose, I've had a similar issue with Barclaycard. However they wrote to me to inform me they were assigning the debt to Link Financial, they also said that Link Financial would honour the £1 a month payments which to their credit they have. And Link Financial then wrote to me to confirm these arrangements and gave me details to setup a standing order.

 

Santander have been completely unreasonable at every stage of communication.