Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

vodkafreak

Just phoned Halifax to claim repayment fee! I didnt know what the original repayment fee was in Dec 2000 so i had to rely on Halifax being honest with me! I paid £115 "Repayment Admin Fee" & £50 "Deeds Despatch Fee"(£165 in total). Have been promised a £40 refund within 28 days & I have accepted.
Does this seem reasonable & does anyone know what the fee actually was in Dec 2000?

ICan'tStandIt

Hi

After watching the recent "Tonight" programme, I rang the Halifax just now and was told that I was charged £75 as a MEF rather than the £50 it should have been.

They are sending me a £25 cheque with no questions asked other than those confirming my name and address.

Thanks :-)

Bungarm2001

Just been on the phone to the Woolwich...no waiting to get to speak to someone which was a MAJOR surprise..:D I didn't have any details about the mortgage I redeemed 3 years ago except the number...all I was asked for was DOB and previous address and postcode...30 seconds later was asked which account I would like my overpayment refund of £65 + interest paid into!!! :j :j :j BRILLIANT...!! I am SOOOO grateful for this website and can't see how I managed without it for so long...!

Martin..you are a STAR!! :T :T

Now flushed with success, I'm off to construct a letter to Standard Life to see if I was overcharged there too...wish me luck...!:D

shays_mum

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

That's not generally true. It was £195 from January to July 2004, then £295 thereafter. £85 applies to mortgages a lot older than 2004.

I can assure you my mortgage has only been with them for 2 yrs!

davidmcg2u

I took out a mortgage in Nov 2000 with the Alliance & Leicester & left them in Nov 2004.

I phoned them on Saturday morning & explained I was a past customer & the lady said "are you phoning for a refund?"

It saved me alot of hassle & she quickly worked out that I'd be due £100 back - :beer: it would possibly take 3 weeks to get the cheque as they had been over run with requests last week.

Anyway, the cheque arrived today - 5 days after my 5 minute phonecall & was for £220 :j

I also received a letter to say that they honoured my original fee of £75 (2000) as they increased twice in 2004, first to £175 then to £295.

They were polite on the phone & very efficient in dealing with it.

What can I say Martin - THANK YOU!!

TELL YOU FAMILY & FRIENDS ABOUT THIS ASAP!!!!!

MarkyMarkD

shays_mum wrote: »

I can assure you my mortgage has only been with them for 2 yrs!

It's hard for people to see what this is about when you reply to a post about 100 posts ago after weeks have passed!

I don't dispute that you may have been refunded back to £85 by A&L despite your mortgage only being 2 years old. But that refund is incorrect - you just got lucky!

MarkyMarkD

Drama_Queen wrote: »

I approached C&G today with no idea what I paid, what my mortgage number was etc. The very nice lady on the other end of the phone went through everything with me and stated that because we had taken out 4 separate borrowings on the mortgage since it's inception in 1996, that we should have actually paid £160, but only paid £100. (I had no idea we had remortgaged so often! - "We" being my ex now...). She did investigate further on the phone and said that my agreement stated £40 charge for repayment, but she also stated that the £40 was for each part. She went on to say that they don't do it this way any more, it would only be one fee as they would consider it to be one account. When I asked for my number/s I was only given one, which I wrote down. Meanwhile, I have asked her to ensure I receive a breakdown of the £100 charge and to highlight where costs were duplicated for the 4 separate borrowings....anyone had anything like this?

This is nothing to do with remortgaging, but to do with you taking additional funds.

C&G used to charge the MEAF per mortgage sub-account. So if you took an initial advance, and then 3 further loans, you'd have 4 sub-accounts and would have effectively agreed to pay 4 x £40 = £160.

Then later on they changed this policy and unilaterally decided to charge you only £100.

So you were under-charged, not over-charged.

Just because no other lender charged per sub-account doesn't affect the fact that it was in their Ts & Cs and you were assumed to have agreed to it.

MarkyMarkD

Vickie wrote: »

Hi,can anyone help.On monday the 23rd of July we paid off out morgage.The
mortgage centre informed me we have to pay £225 for a redemption statement if we do not get a redemption form then our mortgage will by them still be running.I must be thick as how on earth can we still have a mortgage when it is paid in full.Have checked our mortgage it says one months notice to be given to close mortgage they got longer.Also on the agreement there is no fixed price so do we have to pay the £225.Any information will be welcomed.What was meant to be happy time they have dampened it.Morgage has been paid off 2 years & 1 month early we have had to fight them all the way as they kept trying to reduce our payments.The bank is the royal bank of scotland.

If you obtained a redemption statement, it would have said you needed to pay your outstanding balance plus the £225 MEAF. If you pay merely the outstanding balance, you haven't redeemed your mortgage as the MEAF is still due.

Most lenders didn't state the MEAF amount on the mortgage offer, prior to mortgage regulation in 2004. They would have said in your offer/Ts & Cs that you would be liable to pay an MEAF (or whatever other name they called it) and the amount would have been stated in a separate leaflet. Most lenders also re-issue these separate leaflets along with each annual statement and it's at this point that they increased the amounts, eventually leading to the FSA guidelines.

So, if the £225 was the going rate at the point you took out your mortgage, and your offer or Ts & Cs state that you have to pay an MEAF/sealing fee/redemption fee/whatever, then you have to pay the £225.

motherchristmas

This was the easiest £100 I've ever received ! Followed Martin's instructions, one of the mortgage companies he had named also had it's telephone number. I called on the Wednesday evening on the Saturday morning I received a cheque for £100 ........ THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

T_Allen

Rang C&G this afternoon and took no more than five minutes (including a change of address) to get agreement for £142.40 refund. Originally charged £225.00 when I paid off the second of my two mortgages in 2005. £50 charge for each but £17.40 interest was added without having to ask. Brilliant!