Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

BillyBlue_2

Unsuccessful. Northern Rock have stated that their DOM fee has not changed from when I took out my mortgage - Feb 99 to when I repaid it - Jan 07. The fee being £140.

Julieah2004

I've only just joined this site after a friend of mine recommended it, telling me about all the refunds I could claim back.

After reading Martin's articles on MEAF's I printed of the list of contacts and passed to my husband as he's changed our mortgage every 2 years for the last 10 years or so. 10 minutes later we were told to expect a £75 refund from Alliance & Leicester. Halifax was a little slower and after around 2 weeks has just offered us £25, but we're still yet to hear from Abbey. Even if nothing comes from Abbey, we're still £100 up since joining this site!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH :T

stefderm

Ha - what a wheeze!!!

Rang Halifax on number provided - had absolutely no details with me WHATSOEVER!!! - lovely woman in Belfast announced that I was due a £125 refund which should be with me within 28 days. The number - just so as you have it to hand is 08451 203033.

Total conversation took no more than 3 minutes.

I'm also getting cheekier with the credit card people. Have got back £490 from Capital One and Halifax - just the difference between the charges and the £12 - but stepping up a gear with Barclaycard and Sainsburys - going for broke - including interest!!! Anybody had any recent dealings with either???

When you are financially illiterate (like me) you always feel that everything is your fault and you deserve what you get....it's very empowering to start to sieze back a bit of control. Every blessing to you all.

jim.glasgow

Redeemed my mortgage last March 2007, sent off the template letter on Monday 14th July 2008 to RBS claiming £150.00 (had mortgage for 5 years), using figures in listed info table, and got letter back today repaying £150 into my bank account.

Took 5 mins to find the account number and 5 mins to do the letter.

Excellent result.

Thanks Martin for your excellent web site

Steve_xx

My friend had a 2 year A&L discounted mortgage in 2000, then in 2002 he renewed it for a further 2 years. In 2004 this lapsed and the mortgage reverted to standard variable rate. On the standard variable rate documentation it says he is liable for a £295 mortgage exit access fee. he's just discharged his morgage and has been charged this amount. Given that it did mention the charge in his documentation is there any mileage in arguing with A&L that the level of the charge is unreasonable?

AbiTate

Hi

Just had two successes......both within 2 weeks of contacting the lenders.....

1. Halifax - had a mortgage with Halifax that was closed in 2002 - I pad £125 exit fee but should have been charged £99 - I phoned the number detailed on this site and a nice man looked up my details by giving him my name, address of property and rough dates of mortgage start-up and finish. He did all the stuff there and then on the phone and I got a cheque within 10 days for £26:T

2. Abbey - Phoned the number on this site, initially the message leads you to believe you won't be entitled, got through to a guy to be told they couldn't do it over the phone and would send me a form. This arrived within a week. Reading the letter it implies again that they 'Abbey' are in the right and that only a few people are entitled to claim. It tells you that you need to be totally sure you are entitled before completing the form. I couldn't find anything in my original mortgage offer letter detailing the exit fee I should have paid, but I knew I actually paid £225 when I redeemed the mortgage in 2006. Initially I wasn't going to complete the form. However, I have a friend who works for Abbey in mortgage redemption so I asked her where I should look in the offer paperwork - she said there should have been a paragraph detailing all the changes, I still couldn't find it. So I though I'd complete the form anyway. This morning I got a cheque for £126!:beer:

My advice - stick with it, complete all the forms they send you. It only takes a few minutes and what have you got to loose! They have to investigate your claim and you never know you might be in for a nice surprise!

smarterbytheminute

I also decided to investigate my ex-mortgage fees after Martin's weekly newsletter (as I have just re-mortgaged from Halifax to Abbey after 2yrs).

With no paperwork to hand and going down the list of contact numbers I contacted the Halifax and there was no overcharge there but the lady at the Halifax was very helpful and suggested I look at any earlier mortgages.

Again I rang the number for the Woolwich who have been taken over by Barclays and a really helpful lady put me through to the claims department and just by giving my details over the phone (confirming the personal info they knew about my account to verify who I was) I was told that from 1992 when I took out my mortgage with the Woolwich to 2006 when I changed to Halifax my fee had changed from £30 to approx £200 so with interest I was told I would receive £258 + some small change!!!! not bad for a short phone-call and no letter necessary - in the bank via BACS within 5 working days too - and very helpful, obviously expecting people to be enquiring!!

My next step is to locate my paperwork for previous mortgages from 1979 - to 1992 and 1970 - 1992 as I can't remember the exact mortgage details but I'll definitely call first.


So good luck - it's worth checking out and thanks once again to Martin for keeping us so well informed as it wouldn't have occurred to me to do that, even if I had read it in the news... having all those links saves so much time too.

Since receiving Martin's MoneySavingsExpert emails I have paid off/got rid of 7 credit cards, and after NatWest would not give me a preferential mortgage rate despite being a customer for over 23 years, when looking to re-mortgage, I ditched them by paying of my bank loan, so saving the equivalent of £5,000 by cutting the loan short and got a better re-mortgage deal elsewhere + my £258 bonus from the above so becoming smarterbytheminute!! ;o)

Trish_TD

I contacted Abbey for a form to claim back mortgage exit fees from 5 years ago. Didn't really expect to get anything but received a cheque for £30 within 7 days. Well done Martin for the advice and well done Abbey for handling the claim so efficiently.

mumoffour77

I rang A&L last week after reading about reclaiming mortgage exit fees!!
I was charged £295, they are going to give me £100 back! It took 5 mins:)

Steve_xx

mumoffour77 wrote: »

I rang A&L last week after reading about reclaiming mortgage exit fees!!
I was charged £295, they are going to give me £100 back! It took 5 mins:)

On the documents accompanying your mortgage did it specify that there would be a £295 charge?