Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

nevillet_2

Applied to all my previous mortgage lenders using the template letters so kindly supplied on this site ,Abbey supplied form to fill in ,C&G said i'm entitled to a refund of £43.78 ,Halifax no reply yet ,Royal Bank of Scotland taking the attitude that the fees are in line with other banks and no entitlement to a refund .To be honest I was a bit surprised at the Royal Bank of Scotland's reply as the letter template did actually request a justification of their charges which obviously hasn't been addressed ,any idea what to do next (they did enclose some leaflets referring me to the Ombudsman service) ,is it worth persuing this ? ,or should I write once again requesting a refund ?

Many thanks

Scott

Nevillet, when did you take your RBS mortgage, when was it paid off and also had you taken any new products/further borrowing (if so, when)?

sportyspice

we are wanting to write to A & L about their exit fee as we think it's pretty high but what is best way of doing this as our fixed rate is due to end in October. Do we pay the exit fee and move lenders and then try and claim or write now?

Thanks

Michelle

Noz

sportyspice wrote: »

we are wanting to write to A & L about their exit fee as we think it's pretty high but what is best way of doing this as our fixed rate is due to end in October. Do we pay the exit fee and move lenders and then try and claim or write now?

Thanks

Michelle

There's a fair chance A&L may have already corrected their MEAFs, so there well be nothing to claim now or then.

skodaboy_2

I wrote to the Portman about January asking for £150 back. They said that they weren't going to refund it so I went to the Ombudsman to look in it, who were more than useless telling me that they were too busy with their workload to look at it and they would get back to me when they could.

Left it on the backburner for several months when, hey presto, out of the blue Portman sent me a cheque last Friday for £150.

Nice surprise. I wonder what changed their tune?

Thanks for the tips everyone.

MarkyMarkD

sportyspice wrote: »

we are wanting to write to A & L about their exit fee as we think it's pretty high but what is best way of doing this as our fixed rate is due to end in October. Do we pay the exit fee and move lenders and then try and claim or write now?

Thanks

Michelle

All lenders are required to charge you the correct MEAF from today onwards.

If you took out your fix 2 years ago, the correct MEAF from A&L will be the current £295.

If you took it out earlier (say, 5 years ago), the correct MEAF will be less than £295 - probably £195 or even less.

But if £295 is correct, it's what you will be charged, and it's due. There's no point complaining about it because it's the amount you agreed to pay when you bought the mortgage.

clare22_2

Hey, I used the template letter on your site to reclaim £50 difference in exit fees and Bristol & West are returning the whole amount of £100!! Excellent result that I didn't expect.

N£m£sis

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread. But are the MEAF the same as bank charges in that you can only claim six years back?

himxxxher

Phoned up the Halifax today and asked them what exit fee I had been charged for a mortgage I took out in 1998 (which I finished in 2001). They checked on the computer and told me, my policy stated £40 exit fee and I was charged £75. To which he told me I had been over charged and I would recieve a cheque for £35. I hardly said a word on the phone, they did it all. When you phone the automated Halifax number, they have an option for you to pick for exit fee reclaim.

Thanks Martin

MarkyMarkD

N£m£sis wrote: »

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread. But are the MEAF the same as bank charges in that you can only claim six years back?

Strictly, yes. But some lenders are not enforcing the six year limit.

Amounts to be reclaimed over six years old are relatively small, though, as the main increases in MEAFs started in 2003 or 2004.