im a part time car dealer and buy cars on a fairly regular basis from a local auction house.

up until recently the auction has insisted on cash payments,but recently changed its rules to allow debit cards for payment .with no additional charge. i recently bought a skoda estate for £5600 pounds on a friday and went back on a monday to collect the car.

first though i checked with my bank ,santander, that it would be ok to pay the amount by debit card.

i rang thier telebanking service who said no problem .thier was enough money in my account and it would go through. On four seperate attempts my card was refused.Each time it was refused i rang santander who said they couldnt understand why it was refused,but to give it five minutes while they sorted it out and then try again.

Finally i drove to a local santander branch where i paid £10 for a bankers draft made out to the auction, and went back and collected the car.

i then wrote to santander to complain, asking for an explanation,and for a refund of the £10 plus £60 to cover my wasted time, 3 hours at £20 an hour .a total of £70.

santander wrote back acknowledging the mistake was thiers .apparently each transaction can only be for a maximum of £5000 .but up to £10000 in one day.i just needed to pay the transaction as £5000 and a seperate one for £600.

they agreed in writing that thier staff should have known this but had never offered the correct information.Even though i spoke to four different members of thier staff

although i wrote again to santander asking for £70 to be credited to my account they have not replied.

im now seriously considering going to the small claims court to try and get the £70.

the issue is not really the £70,its much more about santander ignoring my request completly, and that they were so inept, as to fail to give the correct information 4 seperate times.

So in short, it seems to me that i am definetly due a refund of the £10 i paid for a bankers draft .However am i entitled to the £60 to cover the one hour of my time that i spent at the auction ringing santander followed by a two hour 20 mile drive to collect a bankers draft from thier branch.

regards

tony g