Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

milesfb

I may appear out of order at first, but did you read the initial reply to my original thread from Dunstonh? Trust me the guy is a complete p.r.a.t.t., and it was him that was out of order with me. The idea of this website and forum is to save money and reclaim what you think is rightfully yours, when you feel you have been ripped off. He said he hopes I get made redunant as a result of my success in reclaiming my exit fee - does that seem acceptable to you? So when you put it into context my profanity back at him I feel was fully justified, and Im very proud of it - regardless of whether it could be considered abuse or not. Whats MSN got to do with it by the way?

MarkyMarkD

shell1000 wrote: »

I feel vindicated really, as Alliance and Leicester proper diddled me over the mortgage, I signed up to a 2 year fixed rate and they set it up from when i arranged the mortgage, so the 2 years started ticking away straight away... i ended up with 1 year and 9 months on the deal before it went to A and Ls svr of 7.2% at the time.. my payments went up from 650 to 900! Gutting when working out I was only paying 133 per month off the loan!

You weren't "diddled" by A&L. Their product was never a "2 year fixed rate"; it was always a "fixed rate to a certain date". That is the way that A&L and most other lenders work. The fact that you took more time from application to completion than others means that you lose months on the fixed rate.

I won't rehearse the arguments about you getting out of paying £295 that you should have paid, but suffice it to say that you have no moral basis for getting that £295 back. As a Santander shareholder I say "boo hiss"!

MarkyMarkD

@milesfb

Dunstonh is very experienced and posts with great wisdom on this, and many, matters on MSE.

The idea of MSE isn't to reclaim what "you think" is yours. It's to reclaim what is genuinely yours.

The slippery slope from reclaiming what is genuinely yours, to reclaiming what "you think" is yours is a painful one. The former is MSE; the latter is obtaining money with menaces.

The same thing applies on MSE to the slippery slope from "getting the best out of loopholes in deals which are genuinely available" to "defrauding Tesco by stealing Clubcard points". The former is MSE; the latter is plain fraud.

bowbelle

We redeemed our mortgage with the Bristol & West in 2006. After Martin's brill advice I got in touch with them to reclaim my MEAF. They offered me £20, I refused and asked them to justify the £195 we had paid. This week I have had a letter offering the full £195! All it took me was 1 phone call and 2 e-mails. Thank you so much Martin, I wouldn't have done it without this brilliant website.:T

bowbelle

dunstonh wrote: »

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I really hope that you are in business and you suffer something similar so you realise what it is like to be on the other end. Or maybe you get made redundant because your employer suffered it and had to make staff cuts to cover the costs.

Crikey, that's a bit harsh isn't it. Sometimes you have to make a noise to get listened to. Havn't he FSA ruled that these charges were too high in the first place so we are only rightfully claiming back what is ours? I agree that this forum should be open to airing one's views but be careful wishing bad things on others, it has a tendancy to come back on you.

dunstonh

Crikey, that's a bit harsh isn't it. Sometimes you have to make a noise to get listened to.

Maybe. However, there is a clear ruling on these and where they should be refunded or not. Making a nuisence of yourself is not fair on any business.

Havn't he FSA ruled that these charges were too high in the first place so we are only rightfully claiming back what is ours?

No. That was not the FSA ruling. The FSA ruling was that the increase between when you took it out and when you redeemed was usually unfair (due to the size of increase) and that the difference is what you are entitled to.

I agree that this forum should be open to airing one's views but be careful wishing bad things on others, it has a tendancy to come back on you.

I was just suggesting that he should experience the consequences of what he was putting on to others.

Claiming what you are entitled to is fine and what you should do. However, trying to get more by being a troublemaker is not right.

shell1000

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

You weren't "diddled" by A&L. Their product was never a "2 year fixed rate"; it was always a "fixed rate to a certain date". That is the way that A&L and most other lenders work. The fact that you took more time from application to completion than others means that you lose months on the fixed rate.

I won't rehearse the arguments about you getting out of paying £295 that you should have paid, but suffice it to say that you have no moral basis for getting that £295 back. As a Santander shareholder I say "boo hiss"!

Marky, you may feel that i wasn't diddled but i was under the impression the fixed rate started when the mortgage transferred, they never informed me otherwise. Of course it takes two to three months to complete when you are moving house, the fact that they ripped me off over fees, ripped me off over the charges (far higher than any other banks) and ripped me off over the svr makes me feel no guilt for gaining my 295 back.

I have never claimed any overdraft charges back or anything else that would effect the banks, but do you really think a 295 adminstration fee is really justified? As i said at a rate of 50 per hour thats still 6 hours work, no chance.

If they had provided me with a breakdown justifying it I would have been happy to have left it there but they couldn't which means to me they have something to hide. They certainly didn't make a loss on me. I shall never have any dealings with A and L again and ive banked with them for 15 years which makes me sad. but its a matter of principle.

You are entitled to your view but I have never been ripped off before and although Im likely to again, it wont be for a long time. Nationwide always treated me fairly on my two mortgages with them and first direct have been amazing so far.

The moral of the story is set your rates and fees reasonably and your customers wont leave the bank..

Superwoman100

I recently (October 08) took a fixed rate with Mortgage Express of 6.14% for 2 years. I was bascially scared into this by my Broker who said rates would rise further (what an expert). I have a large mortgage of £360,000 and early repayment charge of 5% of the loan. I would like to remortgage to the much better rates around now, perhaps a tracker with a bank who will let me fix at some future point. Problem is obviously the cost early repayment. I think that 5% is way out of proportion and much more than most other lenders charge. Is there anything I can do?

pixxyco

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

You weren't "diddled" by A&L. Their product was never a "2 year fixed rate"; it was always a "fixed rate to a certain date". That is the way that A&L and most other lenders work. The fact that you took more time from application to completion than others means that you lose months on the fixed rate.

I won't rehearse the arguments about you getting out of paying £295 that you should have paid, but suffice it to say that you have no moral basis for getting that £295 back. As a Santander shareholder I say "boo hiss"!

At the end of the day A&L, and some of the other lenders that have refunded all their exit charge, could refuse to pay back the charges if it was stated in the mortgage contract. The fact that they don't seems to imply that they prehaps feel that if the case was taken further then they might be on dodgy groung - otherwise why pay back the fee.

The fact that people are making the effort to get the fee back they are being forced to move because of the rubbish deals being othered by there present provider, if any deals are offered (I'm leaving Northern Rock as they want rid of me) - then good luck to them. I'll be asking for the breakdown of my £250 exit fee from Northern Rock once my transfer is complete, not because I don't agree with a charge, but because I think the charge is excessive.

You can say that I signed up to the charge, but what choice do you have when it's hard enough getting a mortgage to start with - your not going to start reading about the exit fees when your planning a 25 year mortgage! The FSA should impose a standard charge to make life easier, for instance First Direct charge £150, and Northern Rock £250, why does it cost NR £100 more?

As for being a Santander share holder - Good Luck :rotfl:

dunstonh

At the end of the day A&L, and some of the other lenders that have refunded all their exit charge, could refuse to pay back the charges if it was stated in the mortgage contract. The fact that they don't seems to imply that they prehaps feel that if the case was taken further then they might be on dodgy groung - otherwise why pay back the fee.

Because it costs them £450 if the complaint goes to the FOS. Even if the FOS reject the complaint. So, when they get people threatening them with that course of action they have a choice. Pay the £295 and save a ton of admin and staff costs or pay £450 and have the admin and staff costs that go with an FOS complaint. Given that choice, what would you do?

The FSA should impose a standard charge to make life easier

That would be illegal.

for instance First Direct charge £150, and Northern Rock £250, why does it cost NR £100 more?

The charging differences are part of an overall package. How much did it cost to book the deal, how much was the rate and how much is it to get out at the end. You could look at any one of those in isolation and come up with low and high examples. e.g. you get some fixed rate arragement fees in the thousands yet others have £199. Yet, the one in thousands could be the cheapest deal.