Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

Lisa18

After reading Martins Money Tips on Mortgage Exit Fees, I used the sample letter and sent off to C&G. I got a cheque for £126 in the post yesterday! Thanks Martin Money for the heads up! I have passed your email onto my colleagues.:T

dawn.cw

I didnt have any of the paperwork relating to my 2001 redeemed mortgage so I didnt hold out much hope of success.
i phoned Halifax and found them extremely helpful and they said they would look into it and get back to within 5 days. They phoned me back within an hour to check a few details and said I was entitled to £75 refund. This seems low compared to other reports but as I had no documents I couldnt argue. All in all I was well pleased with £75 for a quick phone call.

grove_2

Many Thanks Martin, 0ne phone call,one template letter to the Woolwich and I recieved £319 great!:T

adolfothecat

I tried calling Bristol & West today (or Bank of Ireland as they are now) about reclaiming fees paid when a mortgage was paid off in 2004 - and was told I need to send them a cheque for £20 so that they can look into my case for me!

Are they really allowed to do this?

dunstonh

adolfothecat wrote: »

I tried calling Bristol & West today (or Bank of Ireland as they are now) about reclaiming fees paid when a mortgage was paid off in 2004 - and was told I need to send them a cheque for £20 so that they can look into my case for me!

Are they really allowed to do this?

Depends on what you are asking for. If they dont have the information to hand and you asked them to provide copies of your data then they can charge £10 (per company) for that. However, they cant charge you for making a complaint (unless you include the data search as part of the complaint).

pally99

phoned the halifax on the 12th of may to reclaim my meaf which i paid on 16th november 2001,got a letter back on 14th of may saying my £75 fee was been refunded,still waiting to hear from the yorkshire bank though.:j:j

hayhay2010

After comping accross this post by accident earlier I went back an checked an old morgage exit fee I had with an ex.
5 minute 5 phone call to Halifax confirmed i should not of paid £115 but should have been £50 raised a complaint over the phone. within the hour I had a phone call offering a refund of the whole amount.
As im not with the ex anymore they could only offer my half £57.50 but for a 5 minute phone call im really pleased.

I love msn

legg11

Hi, I have read the article about MEAF and dug out my old paperwork. I paid off my Mortgage when I sold my house in 2001 and did not take out another one.

I have the Redemption Statement and it just has "Product Related Charge" of £2220.96!!! but i have no breakdown for this figure. I either can't find it or have misplaced it.

Can I find out the breakdown of this figure and how much the MEAF is? Can I write to the bank and ask this?

dunstonh

legg11 wrote: »

Hi, I have read the article about MEAF and dug out my old paperwork. I paid off my Mortgage when I sold my house in 2001 and did not take out another one.

I have the Redemption Statement and it just has "Product Related Charge" of £2220.96!!! but i have no breakdown for this figure. I either can't find it or have misplaced it.

Can I find out the breakdown of this figure and how much the MEAF is? Can I write to the bank and ask this?

MEAFs tend to be around £50-£250. A figure of £2220.96 would indicate that you suffered an early repayment charge.

You can ask the bank but there is a very good chance that they no longer hold the documentation. Plus, you cannot reclaim early repayment charges (you cant reclaim MEAFs either - just the difference between what your contract said and what you paid).

Jon_C

UPDATE: On March 30 I received my £110 refund from First Trust (they charged me £150 back in December 2004 when the contract said I should have been charged £40).

Their letter to me mentioned interest they had charged me for a period of a few days when my cheque to them was clearing. It seemed like quite a high amount but I accepted it was probably accurate and it would be difficult and time-consuming to prove otherwise. However, it did make me think, 'two can play that game'.

So after I lodged their £110 cheque I rang them to ask for the interest on the £110 they had kept from me for the past seven years and four months. The woman from First Trust said that the bank had tried to contact me a few years ago about my refund but that my address had changed so I had not replied to their letter.

I acknowledged their efforts to contact me but said the fact remained that they had been in possession of my money for seven years and four months and that they should not have had it in the first place.

She opened a complaint about the matter.

Today I received a cheque for £64.35 representing simple interest calculated at a rate of 8%.

Thanks again MSE!