Santander Mortgage Arrears

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

You would need to show the expenditure just as it is Council Tax utility bills as the amount you actually pay.

[Ell-enn]

How many of you are in the household?

 

If you'd like me to look over the budget sheet once you've done it and don't want to post on here, I can give you my CAG email address to send it to ?

[Lilythepink]

Thanks Brigadier,

And i will get the budget sheet done out, but it every time you phone them they go through it each time.

 

Would rates (we're in NorthernIreland) electricity, gas (Santander thinks that is too high as well). they told us to stop paying our non priority debts, but the point is we only want interest only for maybe 5/6 months.

 

Sorry forgot to say there are two adults in the house

Edited October 31, 2012 by Lilythepink
to add something

[Lilythepink]

Budget done, can I have your CAG email please.....

[Ell-enn]

Hi, you can send it to [email protected] (there's no spare between the c and o, for some reason it always shows like that).

[Ell-enn]

Hi Lily, have you sent the email yet? I haven't received it

[Lilythepink]

I was trying to do it last night, but how do I send it. What is your email, or is it a PM I put it through. Having problems getting it into a format that I can attach?

[Ell-enn]

My email address is in post 30 above. Save the budget sheet to your computer and then start a new email - you can then affix to the email. You can't affix anything to PM's.

[Lilythepink]

Have you received it yet?

[Ell-enn]

Hi, I've got the email but can't open the budget sheet - you have saved it as a different version - can you please save it as an Excel 2003 file and re-send. I'm at work at the moment and don't have an updated version of Excel on my PC.

[Lilythepink]

I will get there in the end.

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, I've got the budget sheet now - but it shows you have nothing left over to pay towards the arrears ?

[Lilythepink]

no not yet, but I now have a start date to get back to work, and a charity is helping us out a bit. Santander did not ring us back today, I sat by the phone all day, and no phone call back as they said they would.

 

But we couldn't afford to pay the full mortgage and tried our best,but they would not give us a payment holiday, or interest only.....

Edited November 1, 2012 by Lilythepink
to add something

[Ell-enn]

To be honest, I don't think a judge would be too impressed if you sent in a budget sheet showing you have nothing to pay towards the arrears but have £150 for cigarettes - the judge would expect you to give those up to pay the arrears - similarly with £100 per month for mobile phones

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

£250 would impress a judge if it was offered to help clear the debt.

[Lilythepink]

This is for two of us, and my sister is in the process of giving the cigarettes up. We were just putting down honestly what our expenditure was. I only pay £20 a month for my mobile, and my sister is locked into a contract, and they won't reduce it.

However we are only asking for an interest only for about 3 months now, as I will be back at work from 10 December. I have seen judges let people that owe thousands in benefits, as they have cheated, and the judge has said pay back £50 or whatever you can afford for 2 years,and telling the agencies to write it off. I think my sister must have put the wrong figure in for mobile phones, she must have included the home landline as well. The law states that you are allowed to live, and we are trying our best.

[Lilythepink]

Why do Santander not let us have an interest free period of 6 months. I have put in a complaint to the FOS.

Santander just won't budge a inch. I am back to work on 10th Dec, and won't get paid until the end of January 2013.

Does anyone think I would be entitled to any benefits?

[Lilythepink]

Having reported Santander about the way we have been treated by them to the FOS, and they came back to say that Santander acted fairly, so I have appealed this, but this morning at 10.00 am Santander rang, to ask about the £2000 in arrears we are in. I am just back to work, and struggling with a lot of things healthwise. We had already decided to pay at least £25 or more over our payment every month, but they now want to go through the income and expenditure again. I feel it is harrassment to ring you on a Sunday morning, whenever our arrangement is still being paid, and we are returning to our full payment plus an amount to start off paying the arrears. Income and Expenditure again and again, surely we should be telling them what we can pay, as it would be us losing our house. Do we have to disclose income and expenditure to them all the time, we have given it about 6 times, and things have not come down in price, but went up. Where do I stand with them?

[Ell-enn]

Tell them you're not comfortable going through your finances on the phone and say you will send them an income and expenditure by post.

 

Fill in this budget sheet http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=31141&d=1320168516 It calculates automatically as you fill it in) then send it with a letter stating how much you can pay towards the arrears (send by recorded delivery) keep a copy of the letter and budget sheet for yourselves. If you need help with the letter please let us know.

[Lilythepink]

I remember getting that advice, maybe from you before, so I will go ahead with the budget, and see how it looks, we have already told them we were going to pay extra, but they obsessed with I/E budget sheets. thank you very much for your advice.

[Lilythepink]

I tried to do that letter today, but could you please do a draft letter for me, we have the budget done. thank you so much

[night-watchman]

I sometimes wonder if its a case of hoping to get someone who never got out of bed the wrong side that day, wanted to play golf today, lets hound a few customers.

 

I hope this makes you feel a little more re-assured, but I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago. I had to have a double bypass and whilst recovering I was living on SSP for 4 months, needless to say nobody got anything. Santander sent my case to the recoveries section and they started demanding start paying it off, in the meantime i was paying interest on the arrears as well as £35 a month admin fee. eventually it went to the repossession stage (even though I was paying a small amount to clear it). Panic set in.

I had a call from a very nice lady who suggested I change my repayment mortgage to and interest only one and use the remaining money to pay off the arrears, that way it would pay off the arrears quicker. It wouldn't stop the repossession, but the judge would suspend it, and as i was able to pay the amount for the repayment it would not affect my finances. I agreed and was sent paperwork to it all.

When it went to court, there was a slight discrepancy but the local solicitor they had tasked my case to sorted it within minutes, another very nice lady .

The judge was more than happy we had sorted it out before coming into court, and suspended the repossession until such times the arrears were clear (about 18 months).

All happy bunnies, I have a couple of months to go and I will be mortgage arrears free.

 

Sorry it is a little long winded but wanted to let you know there are ways to sort arrears. The courts will go in your favour if ever it went that far as long as you show you can repay, without causing yourself financial hardship, Make sure everything you do is via letter, do not accept emails or texts. Write to the top man, not to someone who missed 18 holes.

Hope everything gets sorted for you soon,

by the way my arrears were nearly £4500 (inc costs)

[Lilythepink]

Thanks for that, I am glad you are feeling better, and got Santander sorted. Wrote them a letter and enclosed my budget sheet, and said I would start off at £30 a month off our arrears, and we will increase it as we go along. Being sick is no fun, and they don't seem to understand that you actually would rather be out at work and paying your bills.

We are waiting for an answer, as we have other bills to sort out as well.

I have complained to the FOS, who sorted it informally and said Santander had done nothing wrong, but I objected and they are now investigating it formally. I just want to get it paid as quickly as possible, and get my finances sorted. It is so worrying, and causes a great deal of stress. Thank you for your reassurance, and hoping you keep well and get Santander sorted out.

By the way who is the top man?

[night-watchman]

The top man would be the head of the department. If you send a letter to say collections, anyone of a number of people would open it and sort it, so sending to a specific person, could improve your chances of sorting it out quicker.

Be aware they may add "admin" charges on a monthly basis, so when you do sort it out ask if they are adding them.

Never accept their word either, get it all in writing, I fell into that trap when I explained my situation, offering full documentation, doctors and hospital letters etc, they said "no that is fine, we believe you" then later WHAM the letter arrives.

You said you are offering £xx per month and paying more when you can, again be careful, if you start paying say £50 a months you have the money spare then then 3 months later you have to tax your car and revert back to £30 they may say you defaulted on the agreement. Perhaps word it slightly different, something like.

"I would like to offer a minimum payment of £30 per month to reduce my arrears and will pay more as and when finances permit, as I wish to clear these arrears off as soon as i can. The increase of payment may vary on a monthly basis, but I will pay no less than the agreed £30 per month."

Keep a copy of all letters you send, and post via recorded delivery, try not to send to a PO box. write on each letter the date you wrote it, date it was posted and any RD info, also update when they have received it. That way if they "lose" your letter you can send a copy and say oh yeah how did i get all this info then

This is all drawn on personal experience and thinking worst case scenarios.

Hope things improve for you soon

[Lilythepink]

THanks nighwatchman. We learnt our lesson the hard way, the first time we rang them to alert them that we might fall behind with our payments, the girl said oh just pay £50, and we believed her, she said as long as you pay something. As you say keep everything in writing, don't talk on the phone, and never listen to the crap that these call centres come up with. We think they are just reading from a script, as all they say is income and expenditure. So I explained that bills do rise and fall, but we will pay the £30 extra a month, hopefully more. Such a nightmare, especially when you are not well.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Lilythepink
It said it was personal abuse, don't know what I said that was personal, I was just thanking him