Mortgage Exit Fees discussion

hollydays

Surely rather than ignore or call them stupid,a simple-"please read the thread " if you find this so irritating , would be sufficient(lets face it repetition goes on on every board,but most boards its dealt with with civility).Having knowledge doesnt give you extra rights to be abusive.

RufusFrog_2

To claim or not to claim.

Briefly, we took out a mortgage with a shortlived intermediary called 'Promises' around 1999 (ish). We were promised 'no fees ever'. Actual mortgage they got us was a bankrate +0.5% tracker with The Woolwich (good choice in what turned out to be a falling market!). A few months later we got a letter from Winterthur (parent company of Promises) saying they were getting out of the mortgage market but they would fulfil the original conditions. At the end of 2003 we redeemed the mortgage and were charged £150, which had just that month gone up from £95, by the Woolwich. We were furious and harangued them on the phone over it but were told tough - the no fee promise was from Promises not themselves and the rise was justified by their costs!!!

So I spent a long time trying to contact someone in Winterthur who had even heard of 'Promises' but eventually succeeded, wrote them a letter enclosing their previous letter and got a cheque back for £150 on condition we never bothered them again.

So my dilemma is, given that I am not now out of pocket, do I go to the Woolwich for the refund or not? I kind of feel I should as I don't see why they should have gotten away with such a price hike (I think our original contract stated about £45). But if I do and I get the money, should I a) return it to Winterthur, b) give it to charity or c) take my other half out for a slap-up dinner?

Suggestions please.

Well I did the deed. The refund was in the region of £62 but then I couldn't find the original tariff last night so I have to accept it was probably £90 when I took out the mortgage. I thought it rather disingenuous of the Woolwich to say 'this is a dedicated line' when you first ring the number (08000 234180) and then ask you why you are ringing. But I stumbled my way through it (not very English to ask for your money back) and they were fine about it.

sammybee

have u got the number for the halifax, i might aswell try 2 c if im owed

well done on ur win

Bernard_Coleslaw

hollydays wrote:

Surely rather than ignore or call them stupid,a simple-"please read the thread " if you find this so irritating , would be sufficient(lets face it repetition goes on on every board,but most boards its dealt with with civility).Having knowledge doesnt give you extra rights to be abusive.

I'm kinda with MarkyMarkD on this one.

He's answered probably dozens of posters' questions on this thread alone, on a number of occasions having to repeat himself when people have asked the same questions over and over. I'm almost not surprised he snapped, he must have the patience of a saint (but don't forget, he did at least answer the poster's question...;) )

I know that repetition is the bane of many a forum group, so please, people - if you haven't read this thread from the start (and its associated article), do so now. It's 15 minutes out of your life and you might, just might, find the answer you're looking for.

Right, anyone asking the following question from here onwards gets the 4x2 to the back of the head. The answers (or at least, pointers to them) are either already on this thread, or won't be public knowledge until the 28th:

• I paid a £2,000 charge when I repaid my fixed rate early - can I reclaim?
• Anyone know what xyz bank were charging in 1998?
• What have abc bank decided to do about past customers?
• What number do I use to call ghj bank about this?

Glad I got that off my chest now.....:beer:

regularsaver1

sammybee wrote:

have u got the number for the halifax, i might aswell try 2 c if im owed

well done on ur win

08457 273747

MarkyMarkD

hollydays wrote:

Surely rather than ignore or call them stupid,a simple-"please read the thread " if you find this so irritating , would be sufficient(lets face it repetition goes on on every board,but most boards its dealt with with civility).Having knowledge doesnt give you extra rights to be abusive.

Thanks to Bernard for his well thought-out comments. I don't ignore people who post off topic, because it just encourages the whole thread to go off-topic. I normally answer their query, AND point out why they are off topic.

As Bernard says, there have been SO many posts on this thread about ERCs that it is untrue. That is why I asked the forum management to amend the original post to make it clear that ERCs are NOT relevant to the FSA's ruling, or to this discussion, and they've done so.

Not reading 189 posts is fair enough (if you are in a hurry). But not reading the article which this thread is the response to, or the header post, and then posting off topic is just laziness and inconsiderate forum etiquette.

And I stand by the fact that paying ERCs 3 times in 5 or 6 years is stupid. It displays a complete lack of common sense and isn't a situation I can understand ANYONE getting themselves into.

It's like burning yourself on the cooker, and then going back and doing it two more times just to make sure that it's damned uncomfortable. Most people would have worked that out the first time, and the remaining 10% would have worked it out the second time.

07311022

Remortgaged to Halifax in October 2005, sold house in May 2006, and as we were not able to take ownership of current property for 5 weeks. the mortgage was redeemed. (obviously incurring a erc- which I'm not querying, as it was refunded as we subsequently took the new mortgage with them. We were still charged a £175 exit fee though, even though they resumed part of our mortgage at our old deal. Anyone know if I will I be able to reclaim the meaf? Hope this makes sense, but it seems a bit unfair.

Also does anyone have contact details for Halifax Loans Ltd, our first mortgage was with them. They are/were part of the Halifax group.

Potton_Man

Hi there

I began my repayment mortgage with Abbey in 1990. I paid off the mortgage in late 2006 and was charged £225. In the light of recent publicity, I wrote to Abbey and received a cheque for £170, which according to them represents the difference between £225 and "the charge stated in my mortgage contract".

The problem is that I still have documentation that I received in 1990 - General Terms and Conditions, Mortgage Offer and Special Conditions - and nowhere does it mention anything at all about exit/redemption/closure fees. Nothing whatsoever.

I am following this up with Abbey, but in the meantime, does anyone have any idea of whether Abbey actually levied a charge for redemption/early exit in 1990, and if so, what it was? I am suspicious because their reply implies that the charge in 1990 was £55 (£225 minus £170), and if the table on Mr Lewis's website is correct, the charge was only £50 in 1997. In other words, the charge was less in 1997 than it was in 1990. Seems unlikely??!!

I note that someone else made a similar request in message #49 (with no success); also note that the This is Money website says that Abbey charged '£99 up to 2005' (message 93) (in which case they have been overly kind to me(!); and I note MarkyMark's comments that general info about these charges would have been contained in leaflets issued at the time - unfortunately, although I have plenty of original paperwork, none of them are leaflets.

Thanks for any help you can give me

Alec

MarkyMarkD

07311022 wrote:

Remortgaged to Halifax in October 2005, sold house in May 2006, and as we were not able to take ownership of current property for 5 weeks. the mortgage was redeemed. (obviously incurring a erc- which I'm not querying, as it was refunded as we subsequently took the new mortgage with them. We were still charged a £175 exit fee though, even though they resumed part of our mortgage at our old deal. Anyone know if I will I be able to reclaim the meaf? Hope this makes sense, but it seems a bit unfair.

There's no reason why you shouldn't pay the £175 as you DID redeem the original mortgage and the fee is for redeeming that mortgage.

The fact that you ported the loan to a new property doesn't affect that.

Felix2

Hello there

Hope you can help. I was interested to hear that there was a FSA announcment about exit charges when closing your mortgage. I printed off the template from moneysavingexpert.com and sent this off. In the letter I stated I no longer had the account details and requested what the fee increase was. 10 days later I got a reply that they could not find my mortgage account and request I call their Customer Service Team. I called the centre and was informed as I had remortgaged to Direct Line in 1996, they did not hold records for longer than 10 years. Is this correct and if so is there any way of establishing what my mortage account number was? If anyone can shed some light on this that would be fantastic.

Regards

Felix2