I'm sorry to hear that gillian.

All banks seem to be getting heavily criticised currently but Santander seem especially poor.

If your debts have been discharged, and Santander will not reflect that in their data records about you, your point of call may be the Information Commissioner rather than the FOS.

I'll give them a try. At the very least, Santander need to look at the way their staff talk to customers. The person I spoke to sounded like Kevin the Teenager. A serious case of can't be arsed!

Gillian,

Sorry to hear that you have received some correspondence that has distressed you somewhat.

I have dealt with Max Recovery for years and can shed some light on whats happened. Max Recovery purchase bad debts (debts where the borrower has entered in to an insolvency agreement). The purchase the debt cheap, for example 5p in the £ in the hope that they will receive more than that at the end. The original lenders like to cut their losses at that time instead of waiting 3 years for a dividend. Max Recovery will take a hit on some debts but will make a profit on others.

Santander are legally obliged to tell you that the debt has been assigned. In this case they have misled you in advising that the debt has been paid off. Technically it has, but Max Recovery now own the debt and step in to the shoes of Santander.

I hope this makes things a bit clearer. Not the best of communication on the part of Santander!

I spoke to the ICO and they asked me to contact Santander to get the details of the debt recovery agency from them. I've done this and by giving them the same info I gave them this morning, I failed the security check and they refuse to discuss the account. Funny how they managed to discuss it this morning though. They have asked me to go into a branch to get them to verify who I am and then they'll discuss it. I told them I've spoken to the ICO and will be complaining to the Financial Ombudsman as well. The person I spoke to was marginally more coherant than the one this morning. I'll get a copy of my form 5, as much ID as I can get and go in to the nearest branch. They're beyond useless.

They are!

Have you completed the Trust Deed and your gripe is that they should be shown as satisfied but are still pursuing you for the debt? Or is it that you are annoyed that you are still being pursued by a creditor taking part in the Trust Deed?

Rob, I'm hacked off that they're still showing as in default when every other creditor I had is showing as satisfied. Also that they've been worse than useless in answering any query I had today. They also said that I didn't have to pay the default but I could if I wanted so as far as they're concerned it would appear that they have no intention of closing the account or marking as satisfied unless there is a payment made, irrelavent of the trust deed or whatever firm they've passed the debt on to. My concern is that as the default still appears as live on my credit report that it will never drop off.

Hi Gillian. I had dealings with Max Recovery when I was clearing up my credit file & they were a breeze to deal with. Santander are the scum of the earth. They treated me the same & it's infuriating. Even if you get this resolved with Max Recovery I would still complain to the Ombudsman about Santander. Do you have contact details for MR ?

If Max Recovery own the debt, and the Trust Deed is concluded then they are extremely competent in marking the debt as satisfied/paid in full/closed, dividend or no dividend. I have dealt with them for years with this problem for numerous clients. They usually write the debt off at the end but occasionally need a bit of prompting in some instances, generally due to the sheer volume of debts they own!

If you have notice advising the debt was legally assigned to Max Recovery, as I said the deb definitely lies with them and Santander should be shown as satisfied. If Santander still own the debt, likewise they should be shown as satisfied. Either way, Santander are at fault.

I would call your Trustee, explain the position and they can write to/call the creditor. A simple fax should be sufficient to sort the matter out!

My trustee sent a letter off but has had nothing back. I'm going to take a copy of my form 5 and other forms of ID into a branch and ask them to contact the collections department to see if I get any joy there. There don't seem to be that many people who have a decent thing to say about them.

Well I went into the local Santander and they couldn't have been more helpful. I explained to them and they were shocked that the people I'd spoken to already couldn't/wouldn't help me. Also that their collections department seemed oblivious to trust deeds. Once they'd verified who I was, they called collections and the person I spoke to there was apologetic and asked me to send another copy of my discharge paperwork and they would get things progressed. I'll give it a month and then follow up again to see if it's been resolved.

Fingers crossed they'll do the right thing this time gillian.

I do hope that's sorted it gillian.

Dealing with them on the phone, you can speak to a person one day and the next they'd convince you they occupy a parallel universe.

quote:

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Originally posted by gillian

Well I went into the local Santander and they couldn't have been more helpful. I explained to them and they were shocked that the people I'd spoken to already couldn't/wouldn't help me. Also that their collections department seemed oblivious to trust deeds. Once they'd verified who I was, they called collections and the person I spoke to there was apologetic and asked me to send another copy of my discharge paperwork and they would get things progressed. I'll give it a month and then follow up again to see if it's been resolved.

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I had a simlar problem with one of the "Scottish" banks. I ended up guiding the supervisor at collections to the
http://roi.aib.gov.uk/roi/ website and getting her to look me up there
They got the hint