MSE News: Mortgages hikes after Yorkshire/Clydesdale Bank glitch

dogfox1

A victory for the man on the street. The Yorkshire Bank informed me in August that they had made a mistake when calculating my mortgage. They calculated I owed £2300 to put my mortgage back on track, so that my mortgage would be paid within term. I complained to their customer services and was offered a poultry £250 compensation for their mistake. My argument was " Why should I pay the Yorkshire bank £2300 plus interest for something I had no controL over". I refused their offer and contacted the Financial Ombudsman. Two months later, I have received the news that the Ombudsmen has judged in my favour. The result meaning that the Yorkshire bank will have to pay the full £2300, thus adjusting my mortgage to where it should be. TAKE MY ADVICE. GO TO THE OMBUDSMAN (FSA) .

globetraveller

I am still waiting for Clydesdale to make a decision. Have had the delaying tactic of a letter saying that it was taking longer than hoped for but would hear within a month- this was over 3 weeks after my initial complaint. Its now almost a month since the letter.

MrNiceGuy_3

Hi all, I am just posting this to let everyone know that I have just heard from the Financial Ombudsman who have confirmed that Clydesdale Bank have agreed to write off the shortfall that has occured on my mortgage account. My shortfall was approximately £5,000. Since mine has been written off then I see no reason why this shouldn't apply to everyone with the same issue.

Thanks to everyone for making the effort to post onto this site, and best of luck to all of those that are still waiting on a resolution.

globetraveller

Good news. Do you also know what changes there will be to your monthly payments?

biffo_the_bear

Have just received a 'phone call from the ombudsman dealing with my complaint (a very nice, friendly lady by the way, but I won't mention any names), and she informed me that their proposal to the Clydesdale - which they have accepted - was that they should make good 100% of the shortfall i.e. put me in the position I should have been in had they not cocked up. That, by the way is £7800, so I think this is the largest success on this forum to date. My decision to go to the FOS has been vindicated, and I think anybody who is vascillatiing over whether or not to go to the FOS should use this to spur them on. This problem is entirely of Clydesdale's making, and they know it, so please reject out of hand any offer they make you and go to the FOS, it is free, you have nothing to lose, and they are very helpful.
Good luck to everybody else who has a complaint outstanding, but I'm sure that the FOS will be inclined to uphold all complaints in this instance.

Jeff

:beer:

globetraveller

Thanks Jeff
more good news:)

clydesfail

Heard from the Ombudsman that our shortfall (nearly 5 grand) will be written off in full. Obviously delighted.....Funnily enough this is precisely what I told Clydesdale would happen during our most recent contact - I suggested that instead of forcing me to go down the FOS route, they could instead generate some goodwill/decent PR by putting up their hands and admitting that yes, they had messed up, but they would now proactively write off the shortfalls of customers affected. That way they could at least be seen as, if not the good guys, then a bank which has the interests of its customers at heart, acknowledges mistakes, listens etc etc....an opportunity to turn a negative story into one which portrays the bank in a (comparatively) favourable light.

But no, instead they tried to fob me off with a "fair and reasonable" offer of a few hundred quid, which I rejected.

So well done Clydesdale. Yes you will probably claw back some money from those who haven't gone to the FOS and accepted your compensation payouts. But otherwise you've simply managed to alienate your own customers even more, whilst managing to bolster your growing image of general incompetence. Well done.

wotsanubian

We heard back from the Ombudsman and like so many others Clydesdale have agreed to write off the shortfall in full. Has anyone received anything from the bank with reference to this??

Judging by our dealings so far with Clydesdale/Yorkshire I am not celebrating just yet.

Dollydebs_2

Well I got a letter from the FOS last Friday stating that they are 'continuing with their investigations' - I feel this is not a great sign? I just dont understand why its taking so long, although I am not blaming the nice chap from the FOS as I know that CB had been playing delay tactics i.e. not giving over paperwork etc.

However, its now November, the problem was flagged up in May, my complaint has been with the FOS since July and in that same month the bank have been taking the increased monthly amount.

Congrats to all those who had a great outcome but to those people, did the bank reduce the monthly payments at all?

DD x

biffo_the_bear

Dollydebs,

from the outset I never agreed to the Clydesdale increasing my mortgage to the level they suggested to cover up their mistake, what I did agree to was that they increase it to what I should have been paying if they hadn't cocked-up, so my payments should remain the same. Is your mortgage flexible? If so I would just look upon the extra as an overpayment (assuming you can afford this of course).

I'm surprised your complaint is taking so long to resolve as I presume most of us are in a fairly similar situation, although I was first notified of the underpayments in June and only got my result last week, and I already had all of the necessary information to hand because I demanded it from the Clydesdale as part of my initial complaint. I've asked the ombudsman about timescales for the bank to start putting things right, and I was told that they expect this to happen within 4 weeks of them receiving your signed acceptance of the FOS decision (this isn't a statutory timescale however), although it could be slightly longer depending on circumstances. Personally, if they haven't put things right to my satisfaction within 5 weeks I'll be getting in touch with them to ask them why.

I'm sure everything will work out fine, I had the same concerns before I got my decision through.

Good luck.