UPDATE in August 2021 Barclaycard is sending out some letters saying “they have noticed a mistake was made with one or more statutory notices(s) in the past”. That’s very vague! But those too may well be the “NOSIA refunds” described in this article.
In June 2021, Santander sent some credit card customers a letter saying they would be paid a refund because Santander had failed to send them a Notice of Sums In Arrears (NOSIA) letter.
Some of these refunds are very large – one Debt Camel reader was told she would get more than £10,000 credited to her bank account within 10 working days.
Many of these refunds however were not paid on time and some have been changed. Santander says 600 people will be receiving a lower amount than they were originally told. Some people will be receiving more.
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Santander realised some of the numbers were wrong
Customers here on Debt Camel and on MSE have been reporting having problems with these refunds.
When a few people phoned some phoned up to check, they were told there was an error in the calculations and a new letter would be sent with the revised number.
At first Santander customer services could not say what was wrong – people were told the revised number could be larger or smaller, which was alarming. One customer said:
Santander said that the refunds will be more, less or nothing at all. They couldn’t tell me on the phone how much it will be and were very evasive about the error. I’m so angry that they can do this. The money would be a huge help.
By 9 July Santander had recalculated the numbers and people who phoned up were given the correct one. New letters have been sent out.
Most seem to have had small changes and many increased a bit – £100 up, £15 up. But one person in MSE reported a massive drop – they had originally been told they would get a refund of over £3,000 but the new number was only £585.
The timescale for paying these amounts has gone back. It seems they will now be paid in 10 days from the date of the new letter.
This has left people wondering, is this new number correct?
So let’s look at what a NOSIA refund is, and how much it should be.
Why are NOSIA refunds paid?
This is a simple overview. Any debt advisers wanting the full details should read SDAS’s Checking Post Contractual Information Compliance under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
Lenders must send customers specific letters in various situations so that customers are informed about the status of their account. The letter we are interested in here is a Notice of Sums In Arrears (NOSIA) which was introduced in 2008:
- NOSIA applies to loans as well as credit cards and catalogue accounts;
- a creditor has to send you a NOSIA when you are in arrears by two months of payments;
- the letter is in a set format and has to be sent within a set timescale.
If you have not been sent a NOSIA when you should have been, the creditor cannot charge interest, add charges or enforce the debt, for example by taking you to court for a CCJ.
When the creditor later sends you a correct NOSIA, they can start to charge interest and the debt becomes enforceable. But the interest and charges that have were added during the “period of non-compliance” before the correct NOSIA was sent have to be removed from the account as they were unlawfully charged.
This is what Santander is doing. Because of a systems error, it didn’t send NOSIAs to some credit card holders who had missed some monthly payments. So it has to refund all the interest and charges since that point.
How do you calculate a NOSIA refund?
There isn’t an easy way to get a rough estimate of what you should receive.
The number may be small if Santander soon stopped adding interest to the account, for example if you asked for a payment arrangement or put the debt into a Debt Management Plan. It may be very large if you repaid the arrears and carried on using the account for a long while.
Interest and charges
The number marked A in your letter should be the sum of all the interest and charges added to your account since the first time Santander should have sent you a notice.
They have enclosed a list of all the NOSIAs they should have sent. The key date the refunds start from is the Due Date for Notice 1.
Unless you have kept all your credit card statements since that date, you can’t tell if the total Santander has given is correct.
You can’t add up the numbers given in the Notices Santander has given you. Those are the full payments due on a monthly statement – you are not getting a refund of all of those, just of the interest that is added to the accounts.
If you think you have paid a lot more interest than the number Santander say they are refunding, you can ask Santander to send you a copy of all your personal information, known as a SAR. You are going to get a LOT of paper sent to you to search through.
If the second letter from Santander offered a much smaller amount than the first letter, you may think this is worth looking into. Otherwise, unless you think Santander’s number is wrong, there probably isn’t much point in doing this.
8% simple interest
This is marked B in your letter. It too is hard to work out.
First you need to know all the individual items of interest being refunded in the total A and the date of each. For a credit card that is being used, these numbers may change a lot.
Simple interest is 8% added for each year, not compounded. So 8% simple interest on £100 for two and a half years is 100 * 0.08 * 2.5 = £20.
The number B may look low to you. But you didn’t pay all the interest you are being refunded on the earliest date – it was spread out over years. So the later interest being refunded will not have has as much 8% interest added as the earlier payments.
You could ask Santander to explain how they calculated it, but you may not get anything very helpful in reply.
Tax deducted
There is no tax on the interest being refunded – this is your own money you should not have had to pay.
But the 8% simple interest added is treated by the taxman as “savings interest” so it is taxable. But everyone has a tax-free savings allowance, so you may be able to reclaim some or all of the deduction if you pay basic rate tax or don’t pay tax. Higher rate taxpayers may actually owe the taxman more.
The number marked C on your letter is the tax Santander has taken off and paid to HMRC. See PPI or affordability refund? Get back the tax deducted! which explains who can reclaim some of this deduction and how to complete the R40 form.
“Is it fair for Santander to reduce the refund it promised?”
I don’t think Santander has handled this well.
As soon as it realised there were errors, it should have immediately informed the customers that there would be a delay in paying them and that some of the numbers may change. It should not have waited until all the recalculations had been done.
People should be able to rely on what a bank tells them about when they will credit your account. If you can prove that you have gone overdrawn because the refund was paid late or was reduced, then you could ask Santander to refund you the extra costs you have incurred.
“Should I get a NOSIA refund from my bank?”
NOSIA errors are an unusual systems error by a bank or other lender. They are often picked up in a lender’s audit.
Other banks have had to pay some NOSIA refunds in recent years and they always come as a surprise to people.
It isn’t possible for you to guess if this mistake has occurred. It is uncommon – if you are in financial difficulty and ask for help from a debt adviser, it isn’t something the adviser will normally check for.
When you know you missed some payments, the only way to find out if you were not sent NOSIA letters is to ask your bank for a copy of the NOSIA letters you were sent, or for a full SAR (a copy of all your personal information) which would contain these letters.
Further reading:
Was your credit card or catalogue limit increased too high?
What to do if a lender won’t freeze interest
Should you ask a debt collector to produce the CCA agreement for a card or loan?
Anita says
Hi Sara, sorry if it is a silly question, does the above apply to me as well-NOSIA Letter if I am still payng mu debt for a loan though DM since 2011 ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you should still have had a NOSIA letter, but in a DMP interest isn’t normally added, so IF the NOSIA letter wasn’t sent (which you have no idea about, it would just have been a systems error) there may still be little or northing to refund.
Have any of the loans, catalogues and credit cards still in your DMP been sold to debt collectors? If they have, a more promising route may be to ask the debt collector (NOT the original lender) to produce the CCA agreement for the debt… see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ask-cca-agreement-for-debt/ which explains about this.
Ljc says
Hi Sara
I haven’t received any NOSIA letter but I do have an old large balence on an abbey national credit card (around 10k) that I pay £1 a month towards (to a debt collection agency) and have done since around 2013 . Prior to that I use to pay a minimum payment to them when I spoke to them around 2009& they stopped charging me interest as I said I was in financial difficulty but before that I had a lot of interest added, plus charges for bounced direct debits etc , is it worth me contacting them as I may be one who is owed a refund ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you were making minimum payments but some were late, it sounds unlikely that you were ever 2 months in arrears.
Also the NOSIA rules came in in 2008.
So I am not sure whether you should have been sent a NOSIA letter. And most people who should have been sent one were sent the letter – these refunds are for a SMALL number of people affected by a systems error, not everyone who should have been sent a NOSIA letter…
Bottom line is it sounds unlikely to me, but the only way to be sure is to ask Santander for a SAR as the article above says and wade through all that paper.
Ljc says
Ok thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
But the token £1 a month payments you are making…
Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/ask-cca-agreement-for-debt/ and think whether you should ask for the CCA agreements for any credit cards, catalogues and loans you are still making token payments to.
Anita says
Hi Sara I have send data request to Cash plus as i am sure that they do not send me a letters regarding status of my account. I have received it by email and the context is passworded. The password given does not open the files. I have been provided with onother 3 passwords which still do not work. Do they have an obligation to send me on my written request these documents without any ptotective passwords?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you say you will be making a complaint to the ICO if they do not provide you with the information in a format that you can access.
Anita says
Thank you so much for your advice. Kindest regards
Anita says
Thank you for your reply. The debt has not been sold to a debt collector. I am payng Santander through DM. Do you suggest I should call the bank and ask why NOSIA letter Has not been sent?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You would probably get a brush off or a confused reply from customer services. If you want to know if they did send a NOSIA letter, ask for a SAR as the article above says. Then sit down with that pile of paper and look for NOSIA letters – they will be headed Notice of Sums In Arrears.
Anita says
Would I be due a refund – even very small one?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is no way I can guess.
I don’t know if you were sent a NOSIA letter – most people were, there was just a systems problem for some people. I can’t tell if you were affected.
And even if you were not sent a NOSIA letter, Santander may have frozen interest in your DMP so there is nothing to be refunded.
Sorry, the only way to find out is to ask for a SAR and sort through the paperwork – no easy option.
Anita says
Thank you Sara. Appreciate your opionion and advice.
Deirdre says
If Santander have sent a letter stating how much they are refunding (within 10 business days – which was not met), are they not legally bound to honour that?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you now been told a lower amount?
Deirdre says
Not yet but I suspect I will as the first notified amount was not paid within the specified time so I reckoned something was not going right.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you phone up, they should tell you. Some people have been told they will receive more than they were originally told.
Caroline says
Hi,
I’m now late with my Santander Credit card payment this month and wouldn’t have been had they paid the refund by the date they initially stated.
I’ve had an unexpected expense crop up this month which would have caused a problem for some bills hadn’t this refund happened but now it has been delayed.
I have contacted them but they won’t budge on the extra 10 days and they were more interested in me giving them a date when I would be paying.
Where do I stand?
Thank you,
Caroline
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should send them a complaint in writing saying you had planned your fiances on the basis of them paying the refund they had promised, as it has not yet arrived your Santander credit card payments has been late. You would like them to waive any extra interest and charges because of this and also arrange for it to not affect your credit record.
It sounds as though the second problem didn’t actually turn out to be one in practice?
Caroline says
No, I just happened to come across this website trying to find out as much as I could about these refunds.
The NOSIA or lack of were from years ago.
Thank you for the guidance.
Tom says
We got new letters dated the 6th July with the correct amounts saying payment in 10 working days. Would be nice to get this sooner than 10 days for the hassle we had from the original letters dated 25th June! but we will see has anyone received payment or do we think they will leave it to last minute?
Caroline says
I can see it being the very last day I.e 20th.
I don’t know what’s involved, there could be lots of paperwork and signing off to do.
Owing to the size of Santander, I’m going to guess there’s a large number of us.
Maybe I’m being negative.
Caroline
N says
Im hoping its be by friday the latest 🙏
Kayleigh says
Someone on the MSE thread spoke to Santander today. Apparently they were on a payment run yesterday so I would expect to see the money tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
N says
🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 thanks for the info 👍
Lev says
I spoke to them yesterday and was told it may be within the next two days. So I’m hoping Friday
Caroline says
I’m hoping by close of play today 🤣🙏
N says
Me too sick of checking my account now 😂
Kayleigh says
I doubt it will be. If its a Bacs payment it will be first thing in the morning
Caroline says
Check your accounts peeps
N says
Woo hoo thanks i was waiting til tomorrow to check 😁😁😁
Kayleigh says
Still haven’t got mine 😭
N says
Have you had it this morning?
Kayleigh says
Yes got mine late yesterday. Phew!
jane collins says
I received two letters one lower offer then another paid in today
Jo Ann says
Morning
Has anyone actually received their refund having completed the new updated letter?
I know it says 10 days and that’s fast approaching for me with no refund in sight.
Thanks
Caroline says
All, you can claim the tax back (if eligible). Go on HMRC website and look for R40. You can complete online, takes 10 minutes and have your P60 handy and your Santander letter. It’s the savings option you need.
Mel says
Is a NOSIA letter separate to a credit card statement ? I have a few cards that I fell behind on years back (all except Santander are now closed) but don’t recall seeing any letter – only my statements telling me how much in arrears I was and how much I owed, default sums applied etc
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A NOSIA letter is not the same as a normal credit card statement.
Mel says
Hi, I have just had a call from Barclaycard who say that the statements contain enough information to constitute a NOSIA?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well I suggest you send them a Subject Access Request as the article above suggests. See what these statements actually said.
Mel says
Thanks Sara, and what is it that I am looking for that wouldn’t be on monthly statements?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ah there are a long list of prescribed terms.
See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/1167/schedule/3/made?view=plain and note that the exact wording has to be used or the Notice is defective.
I am not saying it is impossible to include in a standard monthly statement, but it would be… surprising.
eg “Default sums and interest
You may have to pay default sums and interest in relation to the missed or partly made payments referred to in this notice. Please contact us if you would like further details. This notice does not take account of any payments received after the date of the notice.”.
Dave says
Still no refund I think there dragging there feet on paying
Jo Ann says
Still no payment here either, called Thurs 8th July and agreed the new amount and was told 10 days started then. I then called Weds 14th to check to progress to be told my call on the 8th wasn’t taken as agreement as I had not physically received the new letter and the 10 days started again on the 14th!
Caroline says
Have you received your new letter and if so, what’s the date on the letter?
Dave says
It’s been handled terrible I’ve put a complaint in so Ive been told tm it should be there we shall c
Sarah says
Hi,
I had a NOSIA letter offering me £2,300 which I accepted and returned and have now received a new letter dated 6th July and the amount is now £1,500.
Are they legally bound to the first amount or should I just rapidly accept the £1,500 before they change their mind?
Many thanks, Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you are entitled to ask for an explanation of how the current figure has been arrived at – it is a random number which at the moment you cannot verify. I am not saying it is wrong, but who knows if it is right? I would be VERY surprised if it drops again, I think they will have double and treble checked their second attempts!
Also if you had made financial arrangements based on being paid £2,300 in 10 days, have you been harmed because it was not paid? This is a bit different from being harmed as you are getting less money. But say you had a bill to pay, you knew it would be covered by the £2300 payment from Santander and so you did not move money across from a savings account and then the payments was not made as there wasnt enough money in your account. Or if you knew you could pay £X to a credit card debt and still pay a priority bill later because of the £2300, but now you have already paid X and are short for the priority bill? These will be unusual situations but if you can show they happened to you, you can make a complaint to Santander that you were harmed because you relied on what they told you and they should compensate you for this.
PS irrespective of the amount you get, don’t forget you can reclaim some or all of the tax deducted if you are a basic rate tax payer, see article above.
Sarah says
Thank you so much Sara X
sam says
My husband had a refund letter out of the blue and then a change of refund letter but eventually received £5000 from Santander .
Brilliant.
My question is that I have a credit card too with a balance but did not get anything ? Dont want to be greedy but should I look into mine and can I actually find out if I should get a refund too ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I assume the letter your husband got was a NOSIA letter as described in the article above.
He got that because
a) he missed some payments to his Santander card, probably quite a few years ago because his refund was so large.
AND
b) Santander has a systems error which meant they failed to send him the correct NOISA letter when he had missed a couple of payments.
Could this have happened to you? Well it’s possible, I can’t guess how likely it is…
Do you remember missing payments to your card? And did you carry on paying interest after that?
sam says
Hi Sara
Thanks for quick reply.
Yes Ive had my card longer, have missed payments on occasion and still have the card now with a balance.
The only difference is that at some point possibly 3 years ago I was about 3 months behind and the interest was suspended until I caught up.
I know I have had some letters informing me of arrears but so did my husband ? How could I possibly know if Id had them all ?!
Thanks Sam
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The only way to find out is to ask for a copy of all your personal information as the article above says. This will be a LOT of paperwork. You will need to sort all through it into date order and go through and note where you went into arrears and see if there was a NOSIA arrears letter after that.
This sort of systems problem that means a letter isn’t sent in error is rare. There isn’t a way to predict if it happened to you.
Are your current repayments affordable? Was your credit limit raised to too high an amount? Or have you only been making a minimum payment for many years?
sam says
Hi Sara Thank you for the info .
I can access my documents on line back to 2014 but sometimes I have had NOSIA sometimes just a default sum notice.
Is it only if you go 2 or more payments in arrears that a NOSIA is sent and Im wondering if the systems error that occurred was once for everyone or at different points.
Would help if we had a date to look at. Obviously I dont expect you to know these answers just your opinion !
Thanks Sam
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have no idea at what point or over what period the systems error was. But it can’t have started recently as some of the refunds are very large.
Anita says
Sara, does NOSIA apply to all credit card providers? I wąs in arras with Vanquis and have no recollection of any letters being send to me. Appreciate your advice. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes it does.
A lot of people forget these letters as they don’t look very interesting.
Mel says
I thought same but so far Barclaycard have told me that my monthly statements have the same information as the NOSIA. I’m still waiting for my ‘official’ feedback. I can’t find much information to confirm that, but if Santander gave me monthly statements and they have been caught out by not sending NOSIA then why aren’t Barclaycard?!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It seems to me to be VERY unlikely that normal monthly statements have the same information as a NOSIA.
Mel says
Yeh I don’t think so either, but I am not clued up on these matters to argue with them ! I’ve tried to find what information is different on NOSIA but I can’t find much. Shall I escalate this ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you asked for a copy of your SAR?
As ai said above, there is a lot of information that has to be on a NOSIA notice.
for example the ststement
““Default sums and interest
You may have to pay default sums and interest in relation to the missed or partly made payments referred to in this notice. Please contact us if you would like further details. This notice does not take account of any payments received after the date of the notice.”.
So you need to find the statements and see if any of them contain that.
Mel says
They are calling me back today so I am going to ask them for a copy of SAR and statements to see what they actually said
P says
Anyone else still waiting on their nosia refund? Other half posted second letter with bank details on 12th July but still nothing.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should phone up and enquire.
Mrs Susan McLean says
Hi Sara, we apparently received an initial letter regarding the refund, which must have been binned by accident, as the only time we realised was when we received a second letter saying there had been an error in calculation. The new amount was about £3.5K, which would be lovely right about now! We’ve received nothing yet, although the letter said 10 working days from receipt, and we returned it in the 2nd week in July. Should we have had something by now do you think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you should – phone them up and ask what is happening.
Mrs Susan McLean says
Thankyou we will. Sx
P says
Hi there, sorry you’re experiencing this too. (Other half posted 12th and no refund yet.). Would you mind updating if you speak to the bank? Other half won’t have opportunity to call them until next week. Many thanks.
Mrs S says
Hi P messaged Santander on their robotic chat system yesterday, left a message there as it couldn’t answer my query. Real live person responded with a number to phone, he could see a note on the CC acc but didn’t know what it said. Called the dedicated team on 0800 234 6062 and spoke to a lady who advised that the note said we’d returned the incorrect form, which we hadn’t and she confirmed that. She said she was passing it straight to the Payment Team for payment asap as it had fallen outside their accepted time scale for payment, through no fault of ours. Fingers crossed it’ll appear soon! Hope this helps. Sx
Mrs S says
Hi P just FYI our payment arrived today. :)
Caroline says
Hi all, did anyone make an official complaint and if so, did you get a response?
I did, and got a small compensation amount.
For me, it wasn’t just the way they handled it. The person I spoke to wasn’t very professional, he kept huffing and puffing down the phone. I understand he was probably frustrated with the situation but I also work in a public facing role and it wasn’t professional in an already stressful situation.
Caroline says
Hi Sara,
I submitted an SAR and received the documentation from the credit card company. I have gone through them and between 2011 and 2013 I missed payments. There isn’t any letters from them during that time. Is it worth pursuing this?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should have been sent a NOSIA if you were ever 2 months in arrears. If you only paid a bit late, that would never happen. If you only missed the odd payments and then went back to paying, it wouldn’t happen. Either you have to have missed successive months payments or you have paid less than the minimum over quite a few months.
Justin says
Hi Sara
I have a credit card that formally defaulted in 2016 with Sainsbury’s Bank, they send me a NOSIA every 2 months, despite the fact that it defaulted, I never cleared the default and have been paying £1.00 token payments a month ever since.
They state this is their policy to send these notices, several other credit cards did this, but only prior to default.
They are extremely annoying as far as I am concerned a default trumps an arrears notice, as the whole point of NOSIA was to let customers know that they are potentially in the reals of default and with extra charges/interest etc,
Is what they are doing correct? Tried to take it to FOS but all they say is there is nothing within the regs that prevent them from doing so and the Ombudsman confirmed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did they send you a Notice of Default?
Have they have frozen interest and charges?
How large is this debt? Did they increase your credit limit to too high a level to be manageable?
Do you have other debts from that time or more recently?
(Some of these questions may sound irrelevant, but there may be several ways of skinning this cat…)
Justin says
Hi Sara,
Yes, they sent a notice of default back in 2016 (although I am not sure that I have this paperwork/notice now).
At this point in 2016 (actually before this), they froze interest and charges.
The debt was not large (some £1000), and issues happened as I lost my job at the time. I have complained that such NOSIA’s are unnecessary, given the default, as they completely make no sense anyway, as they state £0.00 payments expected! Obviously, as the account defaulted!
Yes, I have several other debts from that time, (several also paying £1.00 a month) but no other credit cards are pestering me with these NOSIA every 2 months like SB are. Wescot is currently administering the account but I believe that SB still owns the debt. I belive in the past I have asked for a copy of my credit agreement.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, well there isn’t much you can do to stop these letters. I don’t think there is a legal reason why they aren’t allowed to send them. Can you try to just see them as some systems thing, automatically generated, rather than pestering?
Justin says
Yes, I guess I will just have to accept that they will arrive every two months, just is annoying that the other 5 or 6 companies I was/am in the same position never sent these once default was issued. many thanks.
Anita says
I have managed to open it and have found that there is only one default notice letter send in Feb even though they marked my credit record in Sept the previous year. I raised a complaint and in their final response they listed many emails which according to them have been send to me. The data does not show it though. Shall I send it to them Ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
even though they marked my credit record in Sept the previous year.
What happened at that point? Did you just miss a payment or make a few later?
Anita says
I had 4 missed payments in 2019 then I stooed making payments in Sept 2020 and received default notice in Feb 2021. My reson for complaint was no letters from them (NOSIA) which they obliged to send to the customers. SAR does not include any corrrspondence apart from that default notice. They trying to say that i was contacted in regards to my debt. Hope that makes sens
Sara (Debt Camel) says
did they carry on charging you interest?
Were you ever 2 months in arrears? or were your 4 missed payments spread out – missed one – caught up, missed another, caught up etc?
Anita says
They did not charge interest. I mised consequtive 4 payments -4 months in areas in 2019 and consequtive 7 payments- 7 months in areas in 2020.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, but if they have stopped charging interest then making a complicated you weren’t sent a NOSIA a letter won’t gain you anything, as all it means is they have to stop charging interest…
Anita says
I was not aware of what they doing to my credit score until I paid to see it. In my understanding they not made me aware of this furthermore they did not fulful the obligation to send letter to the customer. Also they either send me incomplite data or they made up these several emails which are being listed in their final response. It caused my frustration and upset.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you missed 4 consecutive payments then it is within the credit reporting rules to report a default. The lender doesn’t have to warn you about that before hand – the Default Notice letter has nothing to do with credit recording, it is confusingly named.
Anita says
Thank you Sara. You made it very clear. Appreciate your time. Kindest regards
Colin says
Is a NOSIA the same as a Default Sum Notice. Had a Default Sum Notice sent for missed payment charge of £25 and separate Default notice for £115 which seems to be £90 for missed payment plus £25 late payment charge. Payment missed was on 28.10.2021 and letters dated 1.11.2021 (4 days after). This was 1st payment due under new credit agreement and error on setting up of the direct debit.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No it isn’t. A NOSIA is a formal notice sent when you are 2 months in arrears
A Default Sum is a charge made eg for late/missed/ returned payments, or for exceeding a credit limit. A lender has to notify you of these, which can be on your statement or by sending a letter. This can just be for a single late payment.
Matt says
I have received a NOSIA from Santander but my credit card account is not in arrears. When I asked why they sent such a letter they said because I hadn’t made the minimum payment but the minimum payment had been paid by way of a (1) a goodwill gesture direct from Santander (a previous error) and (2) them taking a reduced amount from my direct debit to equate to the minimum payment. So why are Santander sending such notices when there are no arrears? The notice even states to ignore the letter if I have received a refund/credit to my account that has resulted in my minimum payment being partially or completely paid. It doesn’t make any sense and it’s causing unnecessary distress. Your thoughts would be most appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you checked that your credit report has not been affected?
Matt says
Yes I have but Decembers payment is yet to show on my report. Santander have said it won’t impact my credit file but the point is they say it’s a regulatory requirement to issue such a notice even though I haven’t done anything wrong. Surely if this is true the FCA should be amending their rules.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so I asked about your credit report as you have a different and more serious problem if that shows arrears next month.
Sending a NOSIA is a requirement of the Consumer Credit Act,. However nothing in the Act suggests that they have to send you a NOSIA if you have actually paid the a lower amount for a month that Santader has said is acceptable because of their goodwill payment… You are not in arrears at all.
It would probably be more accurate to say that sending out NOSIA norices is deeply embedded in banks’ systems and hard to adjust for ununsal anomalies.
If I were you I would shrug and ignore it, assuming your credit record stays clean next month of course.
Matt says
Hmm, yes I think you’re right about the banks computer systems automatically generating the NOSIA notices but doesn’t make it acceptable to cause unnecessary alarm. I’ve said my peace to their complaints team and will know for the future what to expect should I receive refunds or credits to my account two months running. Thanks for your input!
Simon says
Hi, I’ve had letter from Santander saying they want to repay me £249, this is on a card that I haven’t used or paid off since 2012 and the debt has been sold on many many times, I have never responded or paid anything, I was unemployed for a while. If I accept the refund does this reopen the debt in anyway?, Many thanks S
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It could well be that this debt is statute barred, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/statute-barred-debt/. If it is, then nothing you do now can “unbar” it. You could talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 about this.
If a debt collector becomes a nuisance threatening court, you could also ask them to produce the CCA agreement for the card. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ask-cca-agreement-for-debt/ If it’s been sold many times, there is a good chance that the current debt collector cannot produce the agreement.
Samantha says
Hi Sara
Sorry if this is not the best place to ask, I can’t find a clear answer online
This has made me think of an issue I had with Santander 5-6 years ago
I had a student overdraft that I utilised when student finance didn’t pay me on time and I needed to cover the rent. I never recovered after this. I then moved back to my home city and started renting. my income was 13,000k annum. They sent me a letter to arrange payment and they were asking for £200 per month which wasn’t affordable due to my income. I offered to pay £100 per month and the advisor said it’s 200 per month or a default, I said it was unaffordable so they organised a default on the file so that I would have to go through the step change to make smaller payments
It never felt right but being 20ish at the time I was quite naive – I then suffered the worse credit file after and my 20s was a rough start for sure .
Was this allowed?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How long had you been paying interest/fees on the account when Santander asked you to make a payment arrangement? Was this your main bank at that time?
Annabelle says
Hi
Sorry, I am late to the Santander NOSIA party. I got a refund back in September 2020 relating to NOSIA on my Santander credit card. I had defaulted on the balance in the March 2020, would I be able to get this default removed? The refund paid off my credit card so in theory if the interest hadn’t have been charged I wouldn’t have had the default in the first place!
Thank
Annabelle
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what period did the NOSIA cover? It may well be that no NOSIA would have been relevant if you hadn’t had a default.
Gk says
Not exactly santander related but definitely NOSIA related, what happens if a lender sends it via email but not a physical letter through the post? And later they identify a system issue where it wasn’t sent and send it through 15months later?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 about what your options are.