Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

[armywife1]

On 2nd January, Santander withdrew our £2000 ARRANGED overdraft entirely with no notification. We only noticed when I tried to draw money out of the account that day. It happened once before, only to be told it was a mistake and it was put straight back onto the account. I phoned telephone banking immediately this time only to be told that tough basically, nothing we can do, in 12 months we'll look at it again.
I have put in a complaint, and went into the branch this morning to escalate the complaint, the branch manager is appealing the decision to remove the overdraft but I'm told it could take 2 weeks to sort out?!?! In the meantime, I'm left with a family to feed, 2 very small children and no other means of getting any money, my husband had been paid days before and we were fine for money.

I was told that maybe we weren't paying enough into the account, but we pay in over £2000 a month every month and have done for a long time now. When the branch manager looked into the account, my husband was down as unemployed with no income, when in fact he is in the army and his wage has been going into the account for at least the last 9 years without fail!!

Can anyone help me or advise me on what I could try next, we have literally £100 to keep us going until my husband gets paid again in 4 weeks!!!!!

Thank you

[The Debt Star]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

hang on in there. Someone will be along soon with some advice for you. In the meantime, rest assured that your family are not alone in this plight.

[armywife1]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

thank you, any advise would be very welcome

[The Debt Star]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

The cavalry is on its way

[leclerc]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

On 2nd January, Santander withdrew our £2000 ARRANGED overdraft entirely with no notification.
When was the overdraft arranged?
Was it arranged for a certain period of time?

We only noticed when I tried to draw money out of the account that day. It happened once before, only to be told it was a mistake and it was put straight back onto the account. I phoned telephone banking immediately this time only to be told that tough basically, nothing we can do, in 12 months we'll look at it again.
I have put in a complaint, and went into the branch this morning to escalate the complaint, the branch manager is appealing the decision to remove the overdraft but I'm told it could take 2 weeks to sort out?!?! In the meantime, I'm left with a family to feed, 2 very small children and no other means of getting any money, my husband had been paid days before and we were fine for money.
Have you looked at opening another account with another bank with an overdraft facility short term wise?
I was told that maybe we weren't paying enough into the account, but we pay in over £2000 a month every month and have done for a long time now. When the branch manager looked into the account, my husband was down as unemployed with no income, when in fact he is in the army and his wage has been going into the account for at least the last 9 years without fail!!
That is one issue ie that they made a mistake on that issue.
Does he have any lending facilities on the account, ie loans or mortgages?
Can anyone help me or advise me on what I could try next, we have literally £100 to keep us going until my husband gets paid again in 4 weeks!!!!!

Thank you

See above and hopefully we will get you some more help as to a solution.
Do you have any credit cards that could be used in the short short term for essentials?

[Amethyst]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

Bloody gits. That is completely utterly out of order. Get your husbands pay sorted to go to another account firstly so it isn't in danger of being swallowed up again. Then long term negotiate with the bank to repay the overdraft at a reasonable rate per month (ie reduce it by £100 a month) For the bank to give you 'maybe's' as a reason why the overdraft has been taken away is completely unacceptable.

In the short term, Write, or call, your MP, they usually get straight on these things and are very persuasive. I'd also write to the cheif exec of Santander.

There is also the first right of appropriation that you hold under common law, this is basically that you have the right to say where your money goes and money for essential living comes first, priority debt second, and bank helping itself LAST. Banks like to ignore that, but it is worth a try to the branch manager....take in a list of essential living expenses (food/mortgage/utiltites/council tax etc) that need to be paid from the pay that has been swiped.

[WendyB]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

Bloody gits. That is completely utterly out of order. Get your husbands pay sorted to go to another account firstly so it isn't in danger of being swallowed up again. Unfortunately Ame they've already swallowed it...
Then long term negotiate with the bank to repay the overdraft at a reasonable rate per month (ie reduce it by £100 a month) Why would the bank do this when they've already repaid the overdraft to themselves in one fell swoop?

.

In order to repay them at 100 a month they would have to reinstate the overdraft, which could take a while. And they have already paid themselves the overdraft back, without asking, so on the bright side there is no overdraft outstanding any more. I'm not being flippant here, just that if you don't look on the bright side you end up in a snivelling heap on the floor. So at least when you open a new account you'll be starting from scratch with no overdraft.

They have already nicked the whole lot back and left you with sod all. Are you due any Family Allowance/tax Credits etc? If so, ring the DWP striaght away and get them diverted to another account. Cancel all your direct debits otherwise Santander will bounce them and then charge your for the privilege of that too. You'll probably need to call all the companies you have DDs with and explain the situation, and have to reschedule, otherwise you'll end up in arrears. Open another account as soon as you can and get wages paid into there, and change any DDs so that they come out of the new account.

[leclerc]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

I would add that currently the first post seems to suggest that there isn't an overdraft but that there is only £100 to live on for the next 4 weeks and with 2 young kids that is almost impossible to do.

[armywife1]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

Thanks for all the replies first off. The overdraft has been on long term, at least for a couple of years, they once took it by mistake then put it straight back on. It was never negotiated for a certain period, they never said anything of the sort to us or in a letter, and yet now we're told it was only for 12 months, yet we've had it for a long time?!
We are going to open another account and have his wage paid into that, but in the short term, we've got nothing left, and there is just no way we can live on that amount of money.
When I was speaking to my branch manager today, I explained that if they had tried to take it back at a small amount a month maybe £100 or £200 a month, then we could have handled that, but they have basicallly left us nothing. I am still livid about it, I am going to do anything I can think of to get it back, and at the moment the bank is putting in an appeal to have it put back on, which I doubt they'll do, the bank also suggested a short term personal loan, which only gives us more debt! but there's no guarantee we'll get it

[WendyB]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

To be honest, if they give it back at all, if i were you just have what you need to get through till next payday, don't have the full amount back. Don't have a personal loan either, as you say that will just put you in more debt.

You have to be prepared for the possibility that the bank will not put the overdraft back on, in which case the best you can hope for is that somehow you can struggle through till payday. I know this might sound a bit lame, but is there any way you can borrow from a relative, just enough to tide you through?

They have probably broken their own terms and conditions by taking it without notice, so you shouold complain to the Chief Exec etc, and possibly the FOS. All of which won't solve the immediate problem but might make you feel a bit better. If all else fails, then if you have a credit card put the essentials on that if you can, then pay it off straight away when next wages go in.
Personally I wouldn't bother trying to get it back, i'd just go and open another account somewhere else and tell Santander to stuff their account up their jaxy. Sidewards.

[armywife1]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

That's kind of what we were thinking anyway, we're just going to have to ring all the people that we would normally pay by direct debit and explain the circumstances, because we have around £900 of bills that are due in the next couple of days that now aren't going to get paid. We don't have a credit card but we have some family that may be able to help, Luckily I get paid in 2 weeks, it isn't very much but it could help a little. thanks

[The Debt Star]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

Another problem is that if you can't meet your minimum payments this month you will start to get adverse entries on your credit files. Something of a bone of contention with me right now.

My wife had her overdraft pulled suddenly by HSBC but because there was no salary being paid in they demanded the whole sum in one lump payment.

The bank then defaulted her despite agreeing a repayment plan and banged on a Default with the CRAs.

If you can avoid a payday loan, avoid it! They charge 25% what they lend! far better to go to friends and relations if you can. Does the army have any hardship fund you can apply to, just to tie you over?

(Sorry, crossed with your above post armywife)

[WendyB]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

And make sure your wages in a couple of weeks don't go to the Santander account.

[Caspar]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

I agree with pretty much everything above. Definitely open another account and get your money paid in there from now on. You could e-mail the CEO: Antonio.Osorio@santander.co.uk


It makes you wonder if Santander are collecting funds before big payouts over breach of Data Protection, or am I being cynical?

[The Debt Star]

Re: Santander withdrawing a £2000 with no notification - help

am I being cynical?

Vous, Caspé cynique ? Comme si!