Mortgage redemption charges

sikejsudjek

This may help some. I have recently redeemed two mortgages one with the Woolwich and one with Alliance and Leicester. The charges for paying off the loans were £275 and £295. (These are final redemption charges and not early redemption charges).

After several letters of complaint, and starting action via the Financial Ombudsman service, BOTH banks have refunded the charges in full.

It doesn't look like banks want to have to explain their admin charges to the FOS, and will try to avoid this if possible. They refused to discuss with me how the charges are made up. Remember a few years back the charges were either £50 - £75 or no charge at all. Since then their actual costs must have fallen with further automation and the holding of deeds electronically at Land Registry.

So if you want your money back, complain and keep complaining. If they are charging a fee for administration according to the FSA they should only charge what it costs them - and not any more. Does it cost £275 to write two letters and send a computer generated statement out ? I think not.... !

Ian_W

Quite a few posters have already challenged the charges, see:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=100358&highlight=Alliance+%26amp%3B+Leicester+Admin+charge

Most have had them reduced but not completely withdrawn. I suspect the lenders are running even more scared since the OFT report about unfair cc/bank charges which appeared a few months ago.