MSE News: Mortgages hikes after Yorkshire/Clydesdale Bank glitch

MSE_Jenny

Hi guys

We’ve had several requests from journalists who want to talk to people who’ve been affected by the Yorkshire/Clydesdale Bank glitch.

If this has happened to you and you’d be happy to speak to the media about it, please send me a private message with your name, where you live and your telephone no.

Thanks very much

MORPH3US

Slightly O/T so apologies but is it only me that gets annoyed by journalists expecting people to give interviews for free?

Maybe its just me, or maybe people think they will get some benefit out of doing the interview like some action from Yorkshire / Clydesdale Bank....

Anyway back on topic and apologies again...

Spare7684

Hi all
I work for Clydesdale Bank. Believe me, this is the tip of the iceberg.
Systemic errors are rife here and there are many more issues bubbling under the surface. Last week we had huge problems with our BACS facilities which resulted in many thousands of our business customers being unable to pay their staff wages. Our Business Internet Banking platform is on it's knees and ready to crash.
This week its our mortgage customers who are suffering. The bank's high level management is dismissive of any criticism aimed their way and blame these problems on 'systems'. It is all down to lack of investment and cost cutting so that executive pay and bonus may rise way in excess of the average employee at the sharp end.
As one of those staff working in a customer facing environment I have just had the worst afternoon of my life, trying to explain ( cover up ) what we have done wrong and how we are going to fix it ( make the customer pay us back in full ). Many of us here do not feel this is right or appropriate, If I had the power I would waive all the charges involved but sadly I am only a lowly paid servant of the bank. Shame on CB.

mutron_2

MORPH3US wrote: »

Slightly O/T so apologies but is it only me that gets annoyed by journalists expecting people to give interviews for free?

Maybe its just me, or maybe people think they will get some benefit out of doing the interview like some action from Yorkshire / Clydesdale Bank....

I think highlighting the issue is the main concern for a lot of people here. Besides, if there's enough pressure then surely the bank may consider waiving these charges or, at best, drastically reducing them.

Also, I don't see the red tops fishing for interviews in here...

Clydefail

Live in the West of Scotland and have also been affected by this. Shortfall on my capital by about £2000 due to bank under-charging the capital repayments each month as interest rates fell. Payments going up £120 a month. Can accept that my payments should be readjusted to correct monthly charge consistent with the term. But should not be charged interest on this, and the bank should waive the underpayment. So far waiting on an offer letter for about 50% of the shortfall, which has been promised for a couple of weeks now. Thinking of rejecting this and taking it to Ombudsman.

Just googled "mortgage underfunding - a common approach on compensation" and found a reference note from the Financial Services Ombudsman. Seems they consulted on this in 2001. Will see if I can find the outcome of the consultation and any rules that have been applied since the consultation.

Just found this folks on the ombudsman website. Incidentally the Clydedale participated in the consultation so should be aware of the outcome of it! So should not be haggling over compensation.
Future Approach where the lender was 100% to blame.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]A typical case where the lender was 100% to blame would be where the mortgage offer itself quoted an incorrect monthly repayment, the borrowers paid that amount in good faith, believing it to be correct, and the borrowers raised the matter with the lender as soon as the discrepancy became obvious. [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The Financial Ombudsman Service will be required to decide cases on the basis of what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances – which means that it is not limited to the strict legal and regulatory position. The Banking Ombudsman Scheme and Building Societies Ombudsman Scheme are in a similar position (unlike some other current ombudsman schemes). [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The Financial Ombudsman Service intends to adopt the following approach in cases it receives from N2, where it considers the lender was 100% to blame. The approach will be kept under review in the light of experience. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The Banking Ombudsman Scheme and the Building Societies Ombudsman Scheme have decided to adopt the same approach in respect of cases received before N2. Ordinarily, we (the ombudsman) will tell the lender to write off the capital shortfall that has built up to the date the mistake was sorted out, and we will not deduct notional past savings. [/SIZE][/FONT]

Apologies forgot to cite the source: Financial Ombudsman Service, June 2001.

worldtraveller

Am I missing something here? Probably! I don't know the whole story and have not had time to read the whole thread.

However, if you have a contract with the bank, and under the terms & conditions of that contract you are to be advised of any change in the rate of interest to be paid (by letter) and your DD payments changed accordingly, and you comply with those terms & conditions, and pay in full, what right do they have to change those terms & conditions?

I may be missing the point completely, but, surely, the lender is in breach of contract by asking the borrower to pay any difference due to an error on their (the lenders) part? :doh:

Personally, I would tell them to take their claim for any additional interest and shove it......!

The_Mad_Prof

I took the Yorkshire bank to court and got over £8000 refunded due to unfair bank chargers being applied to my current account.

The Yorkshire Bank caused me 6 years of misery prior to this due to them paying direct debits early then charging me 100's of pounds in charges which I then had no way of making up before my next paycheck. It spiraled out of control and I got into a situation where I could never get into the black.

I changed my account to another bank and in the last five years have never gone into the red. I totally blame the Yorkhire Bank for what happened and I expect there are many thousands that for whatever reason are afraid to take this organisation on.

A bank what cannot even calculate properley their customers mortgage payments just beggars belief. My reccomendation is to pay the new mortage figure but withold the "arrears" tell them it is their fault and if they wish to pursue the amount outstanding take them to couurt for negligence and sue them.

To everyone in this predicament it is their mistake do not let them get away with it!

SurreyMan2010

We discovered the error on our mortgage when requesting additional borrowing for a house purchase. The mortgage adviser informed me that a letter had been sent to me explaining the situation, this was news to me! In 2 subsequent telephone calls from 'customer service advisers' I was informed a letter had already been sent - this was patently untrue.

The front line staff have obviously been provided with a script to quote parrot fashion, in the hope that we will simply accept the apology and pay up.

We eventually received a letter saying our account had been "recently reviewed" and we owed almost £5000, and our monthly repayments were being increased by £300 per month.

When challenged, they admitted the error was discovered "last year", but could not explain why they had delayed informing us. We have made a formal complaint and received a holding reply saying we will have to wait 4 weeks for a formal response.

Our financial planning is now radically altered as a result of this banking error, and all they can say is "sorry". It seems that the poor customer/taxpayer is expected to bail out the banks whenever they make errors.

I shall be taking my complaint to the banking ombudsman, it remains to be seen whether this is a dog with bite, or another financial poodle!

jsc_3

Hi we have had a similar letter asking us to increase over £100 pm. When I phoned they stated it was a system error. New system installed and not properly tested !!! They have offered us £250 as a goodwill payment. Why should we be penalised for their error?? we are going to the financial ombudsman with this as we believe they should write this off.

Any more advice from anyone ?

skintnortherner

I previously worked for Clydesdale/Yorkshire in 2006/2007 and they knew at that time there was potentially a problem with calculating monthly payments for customers on a variable rate as there were a couple of issues during this time when rates increased. Looks like it was swept under the carpet and forgotten about. Surely the bank takes responsibility for setting the new monthly payment and taking the DD so it's their error and they should stand the cost?