Urgent advice needed please!!! 27 September 2008 at 1:59PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 7 replies 766 views

payne6

I am very unhappy with unexpected charges for £3000 mortgage overpayment from C&G today. They have charged us a fee of £ 10.00 for the transaction. This fee apparently has been introduced by them since May 2008, but they did not make us aware about it in advance at all. What's more, there is nothing in our loan agreement from 2 years ago or/and annual statement from January this year that they are allowed to charge for overpayments ( if overpayment is within 10% of outstanding balance). The lady on the phone just stated that they are allowed to change any fees if they want and lied to me that the customers have been warned in advance ( but we were not). I need some advise on this - is it legal? Are we are able to complain? Many thanks for your help.

EssexHebridean

First off - to put it into perspective - the amount of interest you will be saving far outweighs the impact of a £10 fee for the overpayment, so if the worst happens and it does have to be paid, it's not the end of the world. However, I agree wholeheartedly with you that if this isn't in the T's & c's then you should not have to pay it! If you've got no joy from the department you have spoken with on the telephone then I would suggest putting your complaint in writing to the head of their customer relations department. The very worst I would imagine you should expect is that they will agree to waive the fee this time but will make you aware that you would have to pay it in the future.

Whether it is legal for them to make the charge would depend on a variety of things I would imagine - however, be very careful claiming that their staff have lied to you - remember that it is possible that a letter was sent and has for some reason not reached you......

StuartGMC

In many cases changes to T&C can be implemented by any organisation unless specifically covered in the agreement that they cannot. However they are required to notify those affected. Did they send a separate letter or an insert with the statement which may have been lost? Worth asking them on how and when they communicated this change to customers.

For future reference, it may also be worth asking that if you are making a monthly OP if this is applied without a fee, which may allow you to overpay without penalty?

Good luck in resolution

payne6

Thanks very much for your kind reply.
Are anyone is in the same boat? I've never heard before that a mortgage provider will charge a fee for an overpayment. And you are absolutely right - what if I make monthly overpayments -will I be charged each time? I think that this time C&G is trying to discourage people to overpay by panishing them for doing this. BE AWARE of C&G!!!!
I am writing my complaint now.

Many thanks again.

EssexHebridean

I think you will find that quite a lot of providers do charge for OP's. We're lucky - Northern Rock are frankly in no position to turn down ANY cash that anyone wants to give them right now, so we can OP as much as we want. (Well, as much as we can anyway - not quite the same thing!)

gallygirl

I assume you pay your mortgage by DD. May be worth asking C & G if you can change to Standing Order (can anyone think of a good excuse why ?). Then when you want to make an overpayment you could just up the standing order for that month.

£10 isn't the end of the world, but it will stop you making the bizarre OP's of £3.83 etc that we all make on here - which help keep us motivated - so I can quite see why you are so upset.

DawnW

Hi,
I am with C&G also. Last time I asked (and I will do so again next week) I was told that I could make OP monthly up to the same amount as my normal monthly mortgage payment without being charged. The person on the phone gave me details to set up payments online in order to do this. Apparently, doing so will lower the payments eventually, though this is only calculated once a year after Christmas. She also said that if I wanted to pay a lump sum off the term, which I intend to do next week as I have had a bond mature, this is done separately and there will be a charge of £10. I did ask her to clarify all this a couple fo times as it was a bit confusing to be honest. I THINK I have got this right, but will double check when I ring before I make the lump sum OP, as I don't want to be landed with an early repayment charge. I have always found them quite friendly and helpful whenever I have phoned, to be honest.

abouttimetoo

Hi
I am with C&G also and have always found them very helpful. When I decided to make OP's back in April this year I rang them to clarify the various methods and potential charges etc. Only one method incurred a charge and that was a lump sum via cheque and this fee was £10 and I could understand this as to process the payment is more labour intensive for them, all other methods, Standing Order, Direct Debit, on-line transfer etc were free. I don't think you mentioned how you made the payment - was it by cheque?

I know you feel aggrieved about the charge but as the others have said the interest saved will outweigh the fee; I would also be tempted to see if they will refund the fee under the circumstances and again as the others have said explore using other methods in future.