First Direct - how can you tell them what date to switch your mortgage? Help!

straddie

Yep we were new to FD as well so looks like that's the difference.

Mrs_Chicken

I'm 99% certain it wasn't mentioned on any of our forms either, which I thought was v.v. odd at the time. We're new customers too.

I've called twice to tell them not to complete before October 1st, but now I'm thinking that isn't sufficient.

Our ERC would be £4000 if they switch our mortgage too early, so, given the OP's experience, I'm uncomfortable about not having this in writing!

Locoblade

Me too, our ERC would be over £2500 so I think I may put it in writing too. FD do say all their calls are recorded though so really that should be enough.

InMyDreams

I remember having the same concern as I couldn't find a place to officially tell them when I wanted to switch (we were also new customers), but I just wrote it all over the forms anyway and they did it correctly. I was also worried because if done too early my erc was thousands. In actual fact, they ended up getting the redemption figure a day too early (I thought) but they assured me there was no erc to pay and there wasn't.

In the end, the final redemption figure was about £700 more than what I had stated simply because of the timing (that was the interest accrued since my last payment to the date the redemption was requested and the exit fee of around £100) and they ground everything to a halt until they had spoken to me (luckily they could get hold of me that day so it didn't delay anything) and I had to agree to pay the extra immediately rather than add it on to what they had agreed which would have delayed us by another couple of weeks.

So to Mrs. Chicken, at £4K extra, if they haven't agreed to this amount, I'm sure they wouldn't go through with it anyway.

And to 1ipstick, £130 sounds like a very small erc. Are you sure that isn't the exit fee which would have to be paid anyway?

1ipstick

Thanks for all your comments. It's my husband who's been on the phone to them and he said that they briefly mentioned something about filling in the form as new customers, so maybe this is something to do with it, as people have said.

They do record their calls but they didn't seem too keen to go back through the whole call record (they said they 'didn't have the facilities to do this').

I'll keep you updated...

superpup

1ipstick wrote: »

They do record their calls but they didn't seem too keen to go back through the whole call record (they said they 'didn't have the facilities to do this').
quote]

That's got to be rubbish. If they don't have the facilities to find a specific call, there is absolutely no point in paying for the software/equipment to record them in the first place. Translate it to 'we can't be bothered to go back through the call records'. :rolleyes:

Hope you get it all sorted.

1ipstick

Right... after several hours of calls they have finally agreed to compensate us. We're still not too pleased with the way they handled it though, and we genuinely want to know where in the process the start date etc should come up - they seem unable to tell us.
They did call us to advise us that fees were being charged etc - but this was the *day before* it was due to start, and so by the time we had gone to Nationwide to ask why they were charging a fee, it was too late to do anything about it. Bear in mind that as we'd never heard or told them otherwise (and they hadn't asked) we weren't looking out for the start date to be anything other than after the fixed rate expired. My husband definitely remembers bringing it up in an earlier phone call and asking for confirmation that this would switch over when the current one ends.

The guy on the phone even told us that the amount we were out of pocket by was 'only a small amount' (I guess compared to large ercs of thousands) which really made us cross as that is not up to them to judge! He started by telling us that there *was* somewhere on the application form that we should have filled in and obviously had to backtrack on that.

So all in all, if there wasn't anywhere on your form to make it clear, I'd advise anyone to ensure in advance that you've told them in writing the date you're expecting your FD mortgage to start. I'm still none the wiser about where the date they actually started it was pulled from!

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

I admit that the form perhaps isnt the clearest, but i'd lay money that its on there... Most of mine came pre-filled from what i told them over the phone and just had a small box on the bottom of one of the pages detailing who the existing lender was, the date which any redemption penalty expired and (i think) how much the penalty would be.

Perhaps there was a tick box which states "asap"? Its a while since i did mine (feb) so cant remember the specifics, but mine kicked in on 1st July which is the date I put on the forms.

Either way, they have compensated you when i dare say most would not have. I'd say its a thumbs up..

1ipstick

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

I admit that the form perhaps isnt the clearest, but i'd lay money that its on there... Most of mine came pre-filled from what i told them over the phone and just had a small box on the bottom of one of the pages detailing who the existing lender was, the date which any redemption penalty expired and (i think) how much the penalty would be.

As a good money-saver, I'll definitely take you up on that!! :cool:
It's definitely not on there - I know it seems crazy (and as an ex legal assistant I'm more than used to scrutinising forms) - FD did actually agree with us that there's nothing on the forms about it.

straddie

I've just scrutinised the form we filled in and there's definitely no date on there - either handwritten or printed. In fact, I just reviewed our offer document (which we haven't sent back yet) and I notice the start date on there is not the one I told them on the phone, so will definitely be clarifying this with them tomorrow to avoid running into this same problem ourselves!