Alliance & Leicester "administration" (!?!) charges

Pobman_2

I've just successfully got Woolwich to reduce the exit charge back to the £95 as per my original contract in 2001 - in the interim it had increased to £275.

It took 3 letters - first two were fobbed off. 3rd letter I threatened to refer to the Ombudsman and/or take them to Court. The have refunded the £180 difference as "a gesture of goodwill".

Redeemed in June - paid the full fee to get out clean, it's taken a month to get them to refund the £180, but worth it for a few letters. It think they are sailing very close to the wind with this issue and I await the FSA review in the Autumn with interest, albeit a passive interest.

Pobman

dfarry

Cheers Pobman thats helpful to know

Hazevin

Just in the process of selling and have just learnt of this charge. If I write now before they perpere the paperwork will they reduce it to a sensible amount? The Woolwich that is. All they haeve to do is prepare a statement as there are no Deeds, insurance etc. That can only cost a few pounds at most.
If any one hs copies of letters I can send that would be usefull.
Cheers Vince already stressed with trying to move!!!!!!

humfer

Had all this hassle with A&L late last year - it took 3 letters to get it back down to the £195 it was when the mortgage was taken out, but they weren't half pains about it. In the end I think I had to pay the £295 and then they refunded me £100 just to make things more complicated

humfer

Also has anyone ever receieved a breakdown of how they reckon £195 or £295 is actually a fair price for closing your account. I tried on several occasions and they just kept avoiding the issue.

Caparn

I took out a 25-year mortgage, with the Halifax BS, 11 years ago. When I took the mortgage out the fees stated on the account were £15 for the mortgage release fee and £40 early repayment fee. I found myself in the fortunate position where I had made additional payments into my mortgage account so that the outstanding balance of the account was less than £100; this meant my monthly repayments were less than 50p a month.

The Halifax then sent me a repayment option which the mortgage release fee had risen from £15 to £55 and the early repayment fee had risen from £40 to £175. This was in just 11 years during which the retail price index (RPI) had risen by less than 40%.

I phoned up to complain about the massive unexplained increase in fees and argued that I could just carry on paying less that 50p a month for the next 14 years and they wouldn't charge then me the £175 but they would have to send me a statement of my account every year and keep me on their system for the next 14 years. They wrote me a letter saying that that was the price and there was nothing they could/would do about it.

I then wrote them a letter saying that I did not wish to pay the large fees and asked them for an explanation for the massive increase in fees and why they were so large. I also asked them to send me a deadlock letter to say that they were unwilling to do anything more so that I could take my complaint to the financial ombudsman.

Unsurprisingly, I received a phone call from a very nice lady at the Halifax who asked me what sort of settlement I was looking for. I told her that I thought the £175 early repayment fee was unreasonable for reasons I had already given. They then sent me a letter offering to credit my mortgage account with £175 if I paid my account off. Which effectively meant that I didn’t have to pay the £175 early repayment fee. I now have paid off my mortgage and can sell my house whenever I want without the Halifax having me over the proverbial barrel with their fees.

If anyone wants to see the letter I sent and the Halifax’s response let me know and I’ll scan it in using OCR and put a copy of them both in this thread.

dfarry

Hazevin wrote:

Just in the process of selling and have just learnt of this charge. If I write now before they perpere the paperwork will they reduce it to a sensible amount? The Woolwich that is. All they haeve to do is prepare a statement as there are no Deeds, insurance etc. That can only cost a few pounds at most.
If any one hs copies of letters I can send that would be usefull.
Cheers Vince already stressed with trying to move!!!!!!

I initailly called the woolwich and had a letter back from them, stating that £275 was fair...

I have now sent a further letter complaining so will see what happens next...

If you want the letter to refer to send me your email address in a pm.

dfarry

Good news for those that are questioning the Woolwichs' Final Repayment Charge.

I had a letter this morning...I quote the key paragraph:-

I have taken into account your comments and reconsidered our reply. <the first letter they sent me> Although the Final Repayment Charge is payable for the repayment of your mortgage, in this instance I confirm that as a gesture of goodwill I will apply a payment of £275.00 to the mortgage account. This payment will cover the Final Repayment Charge, which will be included in the final repayment figure.

:j :j :j :j :j

Clearly, they don't want to admit that they and all the other banks are blatantly ripping off their borrowers and therefore respond with the gesture of goodwill. Obviously it's a "good little earner" for them so preventing the wider public from becoming aware of this they would rather pay off a few unhappy customers.

From my point of view I am very happy (many thanks to those on here that have offered advice, help and struggled with the lenders before me). By applying the £275 to my account it will also save me a small amount of interest until redemption so that is good. If the move falls through (it's been a bit of a struggle) then I assume the Woolwich will want the £275 back plus interest....but maybe not....

raeble

I have finally got around to writing to Abbey who have replied back that their charge is fair - despite admitting that they have combined two charges and applied them to all customers as redemption fee. How they can say that when one of the charges only applied to a particular group of customers I don't know.

ericthekidstoner

raeble wrote:

I have finally got around to writing to Abbey who have replied back that their charge is fair - despite admitting that they have combined two charges and applied them to all customers as redemption fee. How they can say that when one of the charges only applied to a particular group of customers I don't know.

try a second - more strongly worded(?) - letter
it'll cost you a stamp... might just work