Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

[barbaraD]

My first visit to LegalBeagles, so firstly hello all. Secondly, I could do with some advice on a long standing issue with the GE/Santander/Paypal/Newday credit card, 2007!
Is it alright to post a really long post. :yawn: :yawn: There's no way to shorten it.
Someone say yes....please :judge2: !

[enaid]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

Hi Barbara and welcome, no need to shorten your post as long as you make the problem clear and easily understood x

[barbaraD]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

Thanks ....here it is!
Feb 2007 took out a Paypal Credit card – GE Money
Santander took the card over and it continued till Feb 2012 when Santander stopped servicing the Paypal card and it was withdrawn from the market. Paypal was to inform card holders of the new SP, but the card was never replaced or any alternative offered.
My account with Santander/paypal credit card just stopped, well...the card did, so there was no card available for that account but there was an outstanding balance on the account.
I was just under the limit of £6,000 when the card was withdrawn from the market.
Santander simply kept on billing me monthly as if the card was active, charging interest on the balance and reducing the amount available to spend on the monthly statements. I raised it with them and was told I had to pay it off in this way....??? So I kept paying, kept receiving active cc account statements until Feb (?) 2014 when Santander...
“assigning the current credit card account I had with them to Newday”
Newday were hopeless....couldn’t access account online or pay....all the Santander statement records were ‘archived’ and yes, I did ask and was told....even though the service provider had stopped the card and not replaced the product....I had to keep paying the interest and any late payment charges as if it were a live account. There was no option to close the account stop interest and pay off the principal by direct debit.


I requested a CCA a while ago but then my brother died suddenly and my mother was diagnosed with cancer so I didn’t do anything about the copy agreement until now
I know if you borrow you should pay back as much as you can if you can. However this is crazy. I wasn’t in a position to pay it off in one go....not that anyone suggested I did. It was obvious from the accounts I was struggling to pay.

02/2012 -02/2013 Santander Annual Statement
£2140 total payments made of which £915 went towards the principal and £1,225 in interest and charges

02/13-02/14 Santander Annual Statement
£1,996 total paid....£992 towards principal £1,004 in interest and charges

Newday annual statement 02/2014 – 02/2015
£40 purchase ????? impossible !!
£1,448 total paid....£646 towards principal....£798 in interest and charges

So out of £5584 of the repayments I made, over 50% was taken in interest etc.......they took £3,031 as interest
Newday continued to treat it as an active credit card so for example, in May 2014 the statement reads
total brought forward £4175.89
Payment received £223.53
Interest £61.90
Total £4014.26
New Balance £4014.26
Minimum payment due date 01 June 14
Minmimum payment £101.42
Avialable to spend £1,985.74 (???!!!)
Estimated interest next month £65.61

Enough is enough!
The outstanding balance to date with Newday is about £2500, the account is still ‘live’ and I must have had twenty phone calls in the last week as payment is due! I don’t have any more annual statements but I would estimate I’ve been paying Newday approx. £100+ per month since the above balance, so at least £2,700 to date so that’s another £1.200 in interest etc...
It’s been a pretty tough 16 months losing my brother (married with two boys) and my mother being ill, so I didn’t do anything about this mess. The CCA they sent me a while ago was what I assume they consider to be a ‘true copy’. There are some discrepancies and the print is tiny! Also we moved house after the initial contract was taken out.

The discrepancies are......
Contract between GE Capital Bank and you XXXXXXXX
Original has address...copy does not

Key Financial information – original states 12.9% APR (Variable)...copy states 12.9%.APR
OTHER financial information
Interest rates
Original states 12.240% p.a. for retail purchases.......copy states 12.195% for retail purchases
No signatures

Apologies for the very long mail....I tried not to rant. What really gets me is that anyone who’s had financial issues knows how scary getting into some kind of trouble again is. So much so that we comply with rules we don’t rock the boat and keep paying and not challenging.
I think the ethics here are despicable, maybe I have no redress, maybe I deserve being in this situation...perhaps I have to shut up and put up unless I want a fight with a big financial organization. I don’t really care anymore. I resent the misery caused by corporate greed, lack of social responsibility and gutter ethics.
Plain old fashioned bullying – and it’s long reaching, always in the back of your mind...that gnawing debt worry which takes away the joy of anything. I wish this hadn’t been the last thing my brother and I ever talked about.
Oops! Sorry....slipped into a little rant there.
If there is anything I can do to stop this I’d be grateful for some advice. If not, it’ll have to be Plan B - when I think of one:noidea::noidea:
“Relativity applies to physics, not ethics”
Albert Einstein

[Kati]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

tagging [MENTION=48934]Debt Camel[/MENTION]

[charitynjw]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

Hi babaraD

Have you received your unfair charges refund?
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/credit-c...s-to-customers,

Also, you could probably reclaim PPI
https://www.thinkmoney.co.uk/news-ad...d-0-5796-0.htm

[barbaraD]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

Thanks for the advice... nope not a thing from Newday and I didn't notice, but yes there was some PPI which I've just traced.

What really bothers me is that when Santander stopped their partnership with Paypal in 2012, Paypal were to inform card holders of the new service which they would replace the old card....this didn't materialise.
Santander then promptly increased the interest to 20% and continued to charge me as if I still could use the account, which wasn't possible as there was no longer a credit card issued which I could use. Why wouldn't they allow me to pay off the debt without further interest and late payment charges accruing. The card was withdrawn from the market and no cc service was provided so my account became a debt. The statements always refered to interest being added as purchases and always gave the amount available to spend. I couldn't benefit from the card all I could do was watch the compound interest make the debt higher.
The FCA suggested I write and complain and send them a copy of the complaint.

I don't know quite how what I'm complaining about ?!! The contract terms, the discrepancies in the copy contract, making it impossible to pay of the debt by upping the interest rate. Not being a responsible lender or just making my life a misery when I was in real financial trouble.
For the first time I looked at all the papers, the lack of any intention to help anything but their own financial reward has finally made me so angry for all the years I worried about it.
It beggars belief that a financial industry still has the power to profit from stakeholder hardship and practices no social responsibility except to its shareholders and profits. What happened to our dreams of corporate social responsibility, the caring sharing bankers, let's make a profit but not bankrupt people in the process. Grrrrr....
My partner was an adviser on the Hicks review on Corporate Governance and Business Ethics, it would seem that nothing changed since then.
The only good to come out of a total lack of any ethics in the 'lending' industry is the birth of sites like these by people who do give a damn about someone other than themselves, who give their own time and practical advice and guidance on how to fight back!
What should I do next ???:fear:
Thanks for listening !!!

"Relativity applies to ethics, not physics"
Albert Einstein ......he also said...."The strongest force in the world is compound interest" !!....Genius !

[Debt Camel]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

Santander then promptly increased the interest to 20% and continued to charge me as if I still could use the account, which wasn't possible as there was no longer a credit card issued which I could use.

This I think you can complain about. Whether it is legally correct or not it is unfair and unreasonable to increase the interest on a card you are no longer using.

Why wouldn't they allow me to pay off the debt without further interest and late payment charges accruing.

Why should they? You pay interest because you have borrowed money, not because they are providing you with a credit facility,

It was obvious from the accounts I was struggling to pay.

You mean late payments, that sort of thing?

making my life a misery when I was in real financial trouble

Did you ever tell the lender you were in difficulty?

the discrepancies in the copy contract,

Not my field of expertise - [MENTION=55034]nemesis45[/MENTION] ???

[nemesis45]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

This I think you can complain about. Whether it is legally correct or not it is unfair and unreasonable to increase the interest on a card you are no longer using.


Why should they? You pay interest because you have borrowed money, not because they are providing you with a credit facility,


You mean late payments, that sort of thing?


Did you ever tell the lender you were in difficulty?


Not my field of expertise - @nemesis45 ???

You are right DC Satan's bank are out of order.

What is needed is a Formal Complaint to their CEO.

If the contract is faulty and unreasonable and /or unfair charges have been levied the Formal Complaint route is the one to take.

If Satan does not sort the problem out within and respond within 56 days the you can take the matter to the ombudsman.

nem

[barbaraD]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!


Why wouldn't they allow me to pay off the debt without further interest and late payment charges accruing.



Why should they? You pay interest because you have borrowed money, not because they are providing you with a credit facility,

I take your point.
I had assumed that the cc provider has an obligation to provide a service as well as to provide credit, and as there is no annual fee for the card, I again assumed that was part and parcel of the interest.....but then we know what assuming does !

You mean late payments, that sort of thing?
Yes


Did you ever tell the lender you were in difficulty?

With Newday I screamed it from the rooftops! I asked them to stop the interest and allow me to pay it off as due to no fault of my own I had no card I could use and the account was showing I had £2,000 available to spend. I also complained it was impossible to use the Newday account manager to make a payment. They sorted out the payments problem !!! However, whilst they understood my frustration regarding the account, they could do nothing to assist me:ballchain:

Do I complain to Newday and Santander or just Newday as they bought all interests in the account ?

Again thank you for your advice.

"Relativity applies to ethics, not physics"
Albert Einstein ......he also said...."The strongest force in the world is compound interest" !!....Genius !

[Debt Camel]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

I would complaint to Santander about the interest rate rise on an account you could no longer use.

And complaint to Newday about their poor handling of your situation when you told them you were in difficulty.

In both cases complain by email - you then have a dated record of what you sent and when. And take the complaint to the financial Ombudsman if it is not resolved in 8 weeks.

What I am not clear about is whether there is any mileage in asserting that you have not been sent a valid CCA agreement. If this is possible it could get you a better result than either of the above complaints. - @nemesis45 can you comment on this aspect?

[nemesis45]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

I would complaint to Santander about the interest rate rise on an account you could no longer use.

And complaint to Newday about their poor handling of your situation when you told them you were in difficulty.

In both cases complain by email - you then have a dated record of what you sent and when. And take the complaint to the financial Ombudsman if it is not resolved in 8 weeks.

What I am not clear about is whether there is any mileage in asserting that you have not been sent a valid CCA agreement. If this is possible it could get you a better result than either of the above complaints. - @nemesis45 can you comment on this aspect?

The Ombudsman will look at the scenario e.g. have all attempts to resolve the matter been exhausted and has the creditor made a Final Response
that you do not accept?

The FOS is supposed to deal when all else has failed.

The threat of a complaint to FOS may spur them on but Santander have been known to ignore such.

nem

[Debt Camel]

Re: Paying more in interest than monies owed cannot be right!

There is a general summary of taking a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman here https://moneytothemasses.com/using-c...help-complaint.