Halifax Arrangement Fee

BiggaThanBen

A couple of years ago I've applied for a mortgage product from Halifax (via a FSA). That product had an arrangement fee, circa £1000.

They tried to charge my credit card shortly after the application, but the transaction failed due to insufficient balance (I offered them to charge two cards separately but that was never done).

Meanwhile we pulled out of the house purchase as it was clear by that time that prices were going down, the mortgage offer was still valid for another 6 months or so but we never came back to that since. I also closed that credit card more than a year ago.

The question is, - as I understand the arrangement fee is charged regardless of whether we used the offer or not, so it might be an account's error on their side.

If we decide to purchase a house in the near future, should we steer away from Halifax ? They offer competitive products but on the other hand we do not want to risk losing a £1000 for nothing.

_Andy_

Did the KFI state the fee was non-refundable?

BiggaThanBen

_Andy_ wrote: »

Did the KFI state the fee was non-refundable?

I think so, but will check the KFi tonight ..

opinions4u

BiggaThanBen wrote: »

A couple of years ago I've applied for a mortgage product from Halifax (via a FSA). That product had an arrangement fee, circa £1000.

They tried to charge my credit card shortly after the application, but the transaction failed due to insufficient balance (I offered them to charge two cards separately but that was never done).

You presumably provided authority for them to do this.

Meanwhile we pulled out of the house purchase as it was clear by that time that prices were going down, the mortgage offer was still valid for another 6 months or so but we never came back to that since. I also closed that credit card more than a year ago.

The question is, - as I understand the arrangement fee is charged regardless of whether we used the offer or not, so it might be an account's error on their side.

In most cases (a couple of years ago, using memory alone!) mortgage arrangement fees were refunded if the mortgage wasn't advanced. To be honest, I always suggested that customers add the fee to the loan and pay it as soon as the mortgage commenced to avoid paying interest on it.

This meant that there was no paperwork involved refunding fees because they'd never been collected anyway!

If we decide to purchase a house in the near future, should we steer away from Halifax ?

Not because of this fee. They're not going to come looking for it, so don't lose sleep over it.

They offer competitive products but on the other hand we do not want to risk losing a £1000 for nothing.

You won't lose £1,000 over it, but they're not as competitive as they used to be.

Important word of advice - they used to have a policy of automatically declining a mortgage if the valuation fee cheque bounced. Probably not a good idea having any transaction fail with a potential mortgage lender!