MEAF`s???

poolblue27

I have just asked Abbey for a mortgage exit balance as iam intending to pay off my mortgage at the end of my current term.

I am tied in to my current deal until 2nd November 09 and iam happy to wait until that deal ends.

Abbey however, have quoted an admin fee of £225, they have said that they will do all the legal work to close the mortgage or i could employ a solicitor to do the neccessary work, but the £225 is payable either way.

I have seen this site advising people to claim back MEAF`s so why are Abbey still charging this fee and how do i get out of paying or even reducing it?

Sorry if this has been asked and answered previously!

_Andy_

The £225 is an account fee and was detailed on your mortgage offer and KFI, i.e. you agreed to it.
They are quite entitled to charge it and you can not reduce it.
The only time this is different is when the lender is wanting to charge you more than what was on the original offer (which isn't the case here).

trynsave

The above is what happened to me on a previous mtge.

My original contract stated a charge of £55, but when I moved the lender charged me their then current rate of £85.

Thanks to this site I queried the cost and was sent a chq for the difference of £30. Not much maybe, but better in my pocket than theirs!

If your contract states £225 and that is what they are planning to charge you, then there is nothing to query.

dunstonh

I have seen this site advising people to claim back MEAF`s so why are Abbey still charging this fee and how do i get out of paying or even reducing it?

You have misread the article if you think that.

The FSA ruling was that people could claim back the difference if the MEAF had gone up between you buying the mortgage (or the last mortgage deal whichever is later) and when you redeemed the mortgage.

There was no ruling on the amount of fee that could be charged.

Some lenders have removed or reduced the fee but then they have increased their front end fees to compensate. Exit fees were often just part of the overall pricing of the product anyway.