Is my morgage company trying to cheat me?

Wulfrune

The other day I got a letter from my mortgage provider. I was going to post an image of the letter, but sadly the site wouldn't allow me to do so, so I've typed it out the best I could, word for word.

" A few days ago, I received a letter from my bank. I was going to cut and paste is as an IMG, but the site won't let me. So, I'm going to have to type it out.

"We recently undertook a review of your mortgage that has revealed an inaccuracy in the way your repayments were calculated. The effect of this, when combined with last year's unprecedented rapid reduction in interest rates, is that your minimum payment has fallen below the level required to repay the mortgage within the agreed term.

We would like to sincerely apologise that this situation has occurred.

As a responsible lender we always aim to treat our customers fairly, so please rest assured that we have done our utmost to ensure that this inaccuracy is corrected on your account as quickly as possible.
Accordingly, we have recalculated your mortgage balance which now stands at £97,070.79. this includes a refund of £7.02 for the interest that you have paid on the incorrect higher mortgage balance caused by the underpayments.
To insure your mortgage balance is repaid within the original contractual term, we propose that your repayments increase from £434.06 to £ 558.29 from 01/07/2010. This new amount will also cover the shortfall on your account (on which you also pay interest).
Your direct debit payment will be automatically adjusted from 01/07/2010.
In the event that our proposed solution is not suitable for your particular circumstances, please do not hesitate to contact our customer care team of the free phone number above. Our advisors will be able to discuss other ways that you can bring your mortgage repayments up to date with the minimum of fuss; for example, making a one off payment or extending the term of your mortgage to repay the underpayment.
Once again we would like to apologise for this issue and any inconvenience that it may have caused you."


__________


I cannot believe this letter. THEY make a mistake with the amount that they were supposed to charge me and now they want ME to put right their error.



PLEASE, if you have any advice that you could give me I would be really grateful as I really don't have the money to pay them any one off payments and I'm too old to extend my mortgage, because it was made to be paid off at retirement age.
Please help if you can.


Thank you in advance.


Wulfrune.