Sick to the back teeth of Redstone mortgages

scabbyfiver

Anyone else lucky enough to have a mortgage with redstone? I am sick to death of them and want to know if there’s anyone I can complain to about them. I’ve had nothing but problems with their management of my account for too long and a recent incident has tipped me over the edge.

A year ago my rate went onto a variable one which dropped my payments. Great, I thought, I can make overpayments. I phoned them and asked them how I go about doing this. I was told I could increase my direct debit but could only overpay 5% every year. I wrote to them to ask them to increase my DD but they wrote back saying I couldn’t and had to overpay by cheque. However, I could overpay as much as I like providing I wrote them a letter every three months waiving one months interest or something. During another phone call I was again told something different…that overpayments had to be made by cheque and could only total 5% per year. I decided to study my key facts document and mortgage offer and discovered that it wasn’t even the right documentation, the rates and amounts were different!

I started making regular monthly overpayments…stating the bleeding obvious on each letter I was told to send them every month. I phoned up every few weeks wanting to know my balance because I didn’t trust them. One of my £300 payments had been processed as £120 or some lower figure. I asked what had happened and their guy said that the cheque was processed too close to the direct debit coming off so it wasn’t applied properly. After another payment I got a letter back from them thanking me for my lump-sum payment and they have adjusted my DD accordingly. Something I instructed them verbally not to do.

When I got my statement through I phoned up to check my balance and the figures didn’t add up. This is because they add the interest on at the beginning of the month apparently. So on the first of October my mortgage was £95000. On that day they add 31 days worth of interest (oct 1st- oct 31st) so the balance on the second of October is £95K plus 31 days interest on that £95k.
I don’t know how mortgage companies work but is this normal? How can you charge interest on money you might not have? If I make an overpayment of £500 on the 15th October my balance will be £94.5k…so how can they get away with charging interest on money I don’t owe them…in advance??

The last straw came today. My Buildings insurance was up on the 15th of sept and I got a letter from them a while back saying I should send them a copy of my insurance schedule. Fair enough. I renewed on the 14th and phoned redstone to say I will send them a copy when I get the documents through. The woman on the phone said not to worry, I have 21 days from the expiry date to send it to them. However, a note has been put on the account so it will be OK.
I sent the insurance schedule along with my regular monthly cheque on the third Oct. Cutting it fine but as the 5th was the 21st day then the very latest they would receive it would be on the fifth.
I got a letter today from them, dated the fifth, which stated that they hadn’t received anything and were setting up their own insurance at £20 per month and I was being charged a £30 non-refundable fee for the privilege. What happened to the “note on the account”?? The letter definitely arrived because the cheque has been processed and the letter would definitely have been in their office on the fifth.


I just know I’m not going to get these fees back and I am at the end of my tether with them. I cant move my mortgage and I am stuck with them….so who can I complain to about the way they have been treating my account?

I feel like driving down to Skipton myself and wringing every one of their necks!