MSE News: Halifax to repay £500m to 300,000 mortgage holders

xman

If somebody is tracking this numbers, I got £1800... happy days...

booma_mitch

Hi, I'm wondering if anybody can help me re possible goodwill payment.

I will start from the beginning. We received a mortgage offer for £75,000 on the 16 May 2007 on a 2 year fix repayment morgage over 15 years. On 25 June 2009 we received a further advance offer for a further £17,500. At the same time we changed the term of our mortgage to 25 years, although don't seem to have any paperwork in respect of that.

My understanding was that we would receive a goodwill payment in respect of the original morgage as the product had remained the same. The interest rate on the original morgage and the further advance is different as the further advance is still on a fixed rate.

I have looked at the Halifax website which claims:

9. If I took out my mortgage after being sent an offer between 20th September 2004 and 16th September 2007, why might I no longer be on the same mortgage conditions?
Because if you had a further advance or a product transfer since 16th September 2007, you will have moved on to the current mortgage conditions that do not include the Halifax SVR cap.

However, looking at my Further Advance Offer there is a paragraph which says:

Our mortgage condition and 'Information about your mortgage' booklets which apply to the existing mortgage will also apply to this additional borrowing.

I cannot see anywhere that it says that the terms of the existing mortgage have changed. We haven't yet received a letter and have just phoned up for a balance which although can't be certain appears to be as it would be without any goodwill payment.

sorry that was a bit longwinded but wanted to give the whole story. I can't see anywhere where the Halifax have shown that "you will have moved on to the current mortgage conditions that do not include the Halifax SVR cap". Fair enough in respect of further advance but for the existing mortgage I am still on the same product.

Any thoughts anyone?

Edit: have now spoken with the Halifax. They say that the contents of that paragraph are usually the other way round meaning that the existing loan conditions are replaced by the new. But clearly that was not the case on my offer. She couldn't get a copy of the offer from archive until tomorrow so will look at it then. They have logged it and will write to us within a couple of weeks. So not getting my hopes up but I will take this one further if I need to, as if they are paying out for one set of ambiguous terms and conditions then I can't see how they can get away with it for a second set!!

JAYTOON

Hi
I'm in a exactly same position as you,I took out £138000 2yr fixed mortgage in Jan 07,been on SVR since Jan 09.I had a further advance in Feb 08 which is on a fixed rate until Feb 13. we have filed all the correspondence from the further advance offer somewhere, no idea where!!
Think i will call them tomorrow and go down the same route as you.
Cheers Jay

booma_mitch

JAYTOON wrote: »

Hi
I'm in a exactly same position as you,I took out £138000 2yr fixed mortgage in Jan 07,been on SVR since Jan 09.I had a further advance in Feb 08 which is on a fixed rate until Feb 13. we have filed all the correspondence from the further advance offer somewhere, no idea where!!
Think i will call them tomorrow and go down the same route as you.
Cheers Jay

It's a shame you don't know where your further advance stuff is, as it would have been interesting to compare wording. The lady at the Halifax didn't seem to want to believe that what I was saying was right, but that's fair enough without a copy of the document in front of her. It does make me wonder though how many others are affected by this wording as can't believe it was just my offer that had it on.

Good luck with them tomorrow, they will probably tell you that they can't get it from archives until the day after, so without the paperwork to hand you won't know for certain if the wording is the same in your offer but certainly worth a try.

charlesstones

I think I am in the very same position, I took out a mortgage in 2005 fixed for 2 years, then took out a further advance in 2008. I fail to see why the terms and conditions of the original contract were changed without this being made clear to me, fine if the further loan was different, but not the bulk of the loan. I am awaiting a response from Halifax, however I will be complaining in the "strongest terms" to the FSO if the Halifax claim I am not entitled the good will payment and suggest anyone else affected does so also, strength in numbers.

hopeless_case_2

got my £2020 refunded to my account. I was in arrears and paying £42 extra per month. Could i have requested part of the refund in a cash cheque?

bargainlover100

great news! I took out a mortgage in march 2007 and went onto svr in july 2009, just called them up and recieved £1415 credited to the mortgage. Great as we are in the process of selling so it gives us a wee bit more equity. Well chuffed! I also called the 0845 no listed in this thread and was answered within 5 seconds, definetely the number to call.

Magicboo

I knew nothing about this until I recieved the letter telling me that they were giving me a "goodwill" payment..but now I know differently!! The letter says that the changes to the SVR cap didn't affect my mortgage, but surely it must have done if they're giving me that much money..? My 2 year fixed rate mortgage started in April 2007.
Does anyone know how long we have to claim a cheque instead of the money off the mortgage? I'll know in May if I'm getting a bonus at work, in which case I won't need the cash, but if I don't get a bonus, then the £1900 "goodwill" gesture will come in very useful!

xyellowx

update my bankers draft from the halifax paid into my halifax account will take up to 5 working days to clear ?

mallow56

Hi There, I am very confused about all of this! (Doesn't take much really!) We received a mortgage offer from the Halifax in November 2004, which started in April 2005 when we moved house. This was for £103,000 over 25 years on a fixed rate till 30.09.2005 - this was our current mortgage being transferred to our new property and also for £31,000 over 25 years to run alongside on a tracker rate which was due to end on the 28.02.2007. In the August of 2005 we changed to a mortgage of £132,677 still with the Halifax on a fixed rate until 31.12.10. I know we were on a fixed rate so do this mean we don't come under the goodwill payment heading? To confuse matters further, we took a months mortgage holiday in Sept 2005 but on the letter it states my mortgage is on the following rates from 01.09.2005 - Variable base rate at 3.79%, Tracker rate at 4.74% and Halifax Standard Variable Rate at 6.5%. If anyone can help me out and explain all of this it would be much appreciated
Many thanks

BTW - I'm not with the Halifax anymore, changed in Jan this year. Have tried ringing to query the above with them but they say they are sending letters to current customers first and people who have left the Halifax will be getting their letters at the beginning of May