Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

jazzae

I got £230 back from Barclays. I happen to be calling about another matter and when they said is there anything else I asked about being overcharged on my mortgage redemption fee, they looked up my original contract, fee I paid and agreed to send me £220 plus interest.
Very happy.

BigBadDonkey

Saw the show on TV a few weeks ago, stumbled across it for the first time. I had remortgaged and then redeemed a mortgage in the previous few years. Read the info on this site and used the phone numbers given.

Abbey had changed the fee from £99 to £225 during the 2 years that I held the mortgage with them - sent me a form to fill in, I sent it back, got a cheque for £126 by return of post. Only thing to note is that they say that if the mortgage was in joint names the cheque is issued in both names, so if your circumstances or names have changed in between you might have some sorting out to do or maybe a letter to write.

As for the previous mortgage with the Halifax, I didn't have any paperwork - it had all been shredded years ago - so I didn't know whether I had been charged but thought it was worth a phone call. I did have a note of the role number, which meant that they could check straightaway. The very helpful guy on the phone checked and said that at the time their policy had been not to charge a fee if you had held the mortgage for over 10 years, and I had had it for 11 years so I wasn't charged anything at the time. He did say that had I redeemed it a few months later their policy had changed and I would have been charged and would therefore have been owed money.

Anyway £126 back to me, and purely through stumbling across the show, so thanks Martin!:T

If you are thinking about applying but you think it is going to be a battle, my experience was that the people on the other end of the phone were very friendly and gave good service, so GO FOR IT!

LCFC_Foxile

For anyone deliberating on whether to do this, stick your neck out & do so!

I contacted Leeds BS (formerly Leeds & Holbeck) & managed to claim back £55 - & all this from a 2-minute phone call & using Martin's template letter.

Thanks to him & all of the other Moneysavers here that encouraged me.

DaveBubbles

I claimed and got a refund on one account but on another I had had a further advance and they told me I had no claim as they had advised me of the updated Exit cost - Don't worry you can still claim in these circumstances! It was C&G and I did work for them for 21 years so it helped but... If you site the FSA directive of Jan 2007 to them it helps. It states that all lenders MUST be able to defend their charges by providing a full breakdown of costs involved in repaying a mortgage. C&G refused siting commercial confidentiality and two letters later when threatened with the Financial Ombudsman they paid up. Exit fee in 1997 when mtge taken out £35 when redeemed in 2006 £225 - refund £190! Sited that an increase of 900% in ten years when the cost of redeeming and paperwork involved had reduced due to technology had reduced meant the charge was unfair and unreasonable. My Advice stick to your guns if they refuse!

tbk1000

Hi

I am really confused about MEAFs and wonder if someone can help. I have redemeed 3 mortgages over the past 10 years and I am not sure if I can claim anything from any of them. I have no idea about the fee for the first mortgage because I can't find the info but for the other two I was charged £150 and £195. Are these classed as reasonable or can I claim any money back?

Cheers!

amanda40

I switched my mortgage from the Northern Rock 10 years ago, so thought it would be time barred, but sent off letter with account number ( had no other dets) and address ad got a letter back within the week offering me £65 in full and final settlement - delighted:j

I am now waiting on repy back from the Abbey - changed from them 4 years ago so not sure what if anything I am due - had the mortgage with them for 5 years.

Telephoned the A&L for my mum and she got a cheque through for £35 within 5 days great stuff.

If you haven't tried it yet - go for it!!

:T

michaelb_2

one phone call one stamp £165 thank you abbey and of course martin took just 14 days from first phone call to cheque in my hand:beer:

Son

:j :j :j Thanks to Martin and his website and his tv programme, I got a cheque from Abbey for overcharging me when my last mortgage was repaid. Without this wonderful site I would never have known about reclaiming and Abbey would still have my hard and well earned money. Thanks Martin x

MarkyMarkD

DaveBubbles wrote: »

I claimed and got a refund on one account but on another I had had a further advance and they told me I had no claim as they had advised me of the updated Exit cost - Don't worry you can still claim in these circumstances! It was C&G and I did work for them for 21 years so it helped but... If you site the FSA directive of Jan 2007 to them it helps. It states that all lenders MUST be able to defend their charges by providing a full breakdown of costs involved in repaying a mortgage. C&G refused siting commercial confidentiality and two letters later when threatened with the Financial Ombudsman they paid up. Exit fee in 1997 when mtge taken out £35 when redeemed in 2006 £225 - refund £190! Sited that an increase of 900% in ten years when the cost of redeeming and paperwork involved had reduced due to technology had reduced meant the charge was unfair and unreasonable. My Advice stick to your guns if they refuse!

What are you on about, Dave? For one thing it's "cite" not "site", but primarily there is no such statement within the FSA ruling about justifying charges.

If a lender quoted you a charge when you took the mortgage, switched product or took a further advance, then legally they are perfectly entitled to charge anything they like.

Threatening companies you've agreed to pay £x to with the Financial Ombudsman, simply because you don't understand the FSA ruling or the law, is just bullying and nothing to be proud of.

MarkyMarkD

tbk1000 wrote: »

Hi

I am really confused about MEAFs and wonder if someone can help. I have redemeed 3 mortgages over the past 10 years and I am not sure if I can claim anything from any of them. I have no idea about the fee for the first mortgage because I can't find the info but for the other two I was charged £150 and £195. Are these classed as reasonable or can I claim any money back?

Cheers!

Welcome to MSE. If you read the original article which this thread is a response to, you would realise that "reasonableness" is completely irrelevant.

What matter is what you agreed to when you took out the mortgage.

If you've switched mortgage approximately every 3 years, the chances of you being significantly overcharged are fairly small and similarly so will be any refunds.

If you want to phone up each of the lenders, or write to them, asking them whether you have been overcharged, then there's no real harm in doing so. But I wouldn't be banking on getting oodles of money in your circumstances.