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

GB350

Letter received today from Halifax regarding our complaint. Basically said " We offered you £165 and understand that you were expecting nearer to £8,000. Your complaint will be looked into and answered by the 31st of January. Assuming I don't get a satisfactory settlement I then have another month to wait before I can involve the financial ombudsman.
Is anyone else fighting a similar case..? Will post again as soon as I hear anything.....

smitchy73

GB350 wrote: »

Letter received today from Halifax regarding our complaint. Basically said " We offered you £165 and understand that you were expecting nearer to £8,000. Your complaint will be looked into and answered by the 31st of January. Assuming I don't get a satisfactory settlement I then have another month to wait before I can involve the financial ombudsman.
Is anyone else fighting a similar case..? Will post again as soon as I hear anything.....

Hi gb350, yeah i'll be fighting a similar case they offered £420 altough i'm not sure what I should be due i'd certainly be loooking at at least three years worth of the 1% difference, but ideally more as if id have gone to say the HSBC 0.99% above base rate which wouldve put me on varying levels from 4.99% down to 1.49% from between 5.99 on one product to 6.89% on another( I had a couple of parts to my mortgage). This will be what I will be looking for as compensation, I mean who wouldn't have moved free of charges knowing when the fixed rate ends we'd be paying more than was agreed.
I've logged the complaint on the phone just waiting on the letter to come now.

linaraman

We have taken a mortgage with Halifax of £180,999 (including arrangement fee) in May 2007, which was fixed for 2 years. Fixed period ended in June 2009 and then reverted to their SVR which we've been paying since. In March last year we received a goodwill payment of £250, which I am about to challenge with the help of Financial Ombudsman, as they are claiming that they have informed me in September 2008 that SVR will be increased to 3% and I have three month to repay my mortgage or move to another lender. I found the letter, which does tell me this information, however the dates in the letter is very misleading. The letter dated in September 2008 and they telling me to take action by 8th January 2008. Of course, I disregarded the letter, as it didn't make any sense and because of that did not take any action. My calculations shows that I am entitled to £3167 + interest that the bank must compensate, as after my fixed period ended I was overpaying 1% from 1 July 2009 until April 2011, which comes to 21 months. So, £180,999 x1% *21months /12months= £3167. Does anyone thinks that I have a good case to get my money back as bank refused to pay out.
Any views welcome.
Thanks

opinions4u

The letter dated in September 2008 and they telling me to take action by 8th January 2008. Of course, I disregarded the letter

It's a typo then. Nothing more. The fact you disregarded it won't be looked at positively by the FOS. You'll end up with modest compensation for the typo and that will be the end of it.

linaraman

I understand that now, but their typo mistake costed me money and at least I should try to get some of it back. At the time of getting a letter I just thought what a hell they are talking about, but now with all this media info, I got it of what that actually meant. One more question please, I am still paying my mortgage payments on the old agreement with the bank, so why can't I claim anything beyond April 2011?
Thanks,

GB350

linaraman wrote: »

We have taken a mortgage with Halifax of £180,999 (including arrangement fee) in May 2007, which was fixed for 2 years. Fixed period ended in June 2009 and then reverted to their SVR which we've been paying since. In March last year we received a goodwill payment of £250, which I am about to challenge with the help of Financial Ombudsman, as they are claiming that they have informed me in September 2008 that SVR will be increased to 3% and I have three month to repay my mortgage or move to another lender. I found the letter, which does tell me this information, however the dates in the letter is very misleading. The letter dated in September 2008 and they telling me to take action by 8th January 2008. Of course, I disregarded the letter, as it didn't make any sense and because of that did not take any action. My calculations shows that I am entitled to £3167 + interest that the bank must compensate, as after my fixed period ended I was overpaying 1% from 1 July 2009 until April 2011, which comes to 21 months. So, £180,999 x1% *21months /12months= £3167. Does anyone thinks that I have a good case to get my money back as bank refused to pay out.
Any views welcome.
Thanks

You received the letter that I and many others should have been sent then. They were informing you of their intention to increase their marginal rate and giving you the 3 month period to pay off your mortgage without ERC's.
Had I received this communication I'd have jumped ship quicker than an Italian captain and grabbed a far better deal elsewhere. This forms the basis of the complaint I've made to them which has cost me a great deal of money.
Unfortunately it looks as though they have kept to their T&C's by giving you written notice of their intent and for that reason I doubt you have much of a case. The thing I don't understand is why you were sent that letter but I was not.......

Lisadt

I have Recieved my final response from Halifax in relation to my complaint and unbelievably they have decided not to uphold my complaint. They fully admit that they made an error but claim they have rectified that by allowing me to change to a different fixed rate now. They will not accept that I should have been allowed to do this three years ago as I was entitled to and that I could have been paying lower interest for the past three years. I will now be taking my complaint to the ombudsman. I would imagine that everyone else who has put in a complaint will get the same response as me from the conversations I have had with them, totally appalling!!

Thrugelmir

linaraman wrote: »

as after my fixed period ended I was overpaying 1% from 1 July 2009 until April 2011, which comes to 21 months. So, £180,999 x1% *21months /12months= £3167. Does anyone thinks that I have a good case to get my money back as bank refused to pay out.
Any views welcome.
Thanks

You were totally free to move mortgage lenders in July 2009. That was your decision. Hindsight isn't a consideration.

GB350

Lisadt wrote: »

I have Recieved my final response from Halifax in relation to my complaint and unbelievably they have decided not to uphold my complaint. They fully admit that they made an error but claim they have rectified that by allowing me to change to a different fixed rate now. They will not accept that I should have been allowed to do this three years ago as I was entitled to and that I could have been paying lower interest for the past three years. I will now be taking my complaint to the ombudsman. I would imagine that everyone else who has put in a complaint will get the same response as me from the conversations I have had with them, totally appalling!!

Judging by what you've said I will assume the letter I'm due to receive within the next 10 days will probably say the same. I cannot believe they expect to get away with a defence of saying "it's ok because we've offered you this opportunity of the 3 month window to pay off without ERC's albeit 3 years late...!!!!!! Timing is everything in this case and I don't see that they will have a leg to stand on when the Ombudsman gets the details of our claims. They have admitted their mistake and will be made to pay...!!!!!

smitchy73

GB350 wrote: »

Judging by what you've said I will assume the letter I'm due to receive within the next 10 days will probably say the same. I cannot believe they expect to get away with a defence of saying "it's ok because we've offered you this opportunity of the 3 month window to pay off without ERC's albeit 3 years late...!!!!!! Timing is everything in this case and I don't see that they will have a leg to stand on when the Ombudsman gets the details of our claims. They have admitted their mistake and will be made to pay...!!!!!

I agree with what you and Lisa both say, I can't honestly see how they have a leg to stand on with this, roll on the ombudsman, and i don't think they'll be too pleased when they see how it's been handled either, having the choice to move now makes no sense, considering three years ago we were all in a fixed rate at a much higher rate than the SVR and IF we'd have been given the chance to jump most, if not all of us would've snapped their hands off at the chance, but that was THREE years ago and all of our houses were worth more, now I have little to no excess equity in my property whereas three years ago it was about £15k more so guess what no mortgages out there for 90-95% ltv, they know this too.:mad: