Got Charged Fee Because DWP Pay Mortgage Interest

BanditQueen12

Here is a good one and I doubt very much that many will have experience d this on their mortgage payments. Part of my mortgage interest is paid by the DWP SMI payments, and the rest by me by court order. So Capstone have invented on top off their other horrible fees and penalties and lost payments and invented arrears amounts, fees for making payments by any other means than standing order or direct debit. If you are unfortunate enough to be ill and a carer and get paid every two weeks into a basis bank account then it is not always possible to keep up with direct debits. In any event they do not accept direct debit for anything but the full contractual payment and they do not allow you to do it by standing order either. The only way to do it is to log on to their unfortunate website were all payments vanish into the myth that is Capstone in cyberspace and get lost, or the site is always offline and payments take 7 days to appear on the account or you can pay through what they call CHAPS. My bank abandoned CHAPS years ago as it took too long and they have a faster bank transfer bill payment on line which takes a couple of hours and is in the company account the same day. It is cheaper and faster than direct debit and I have paid like this since 2007. In April 2011 Capstone say they invented Alternative Payment Fees for anyone not paying in their two favourite ways and this applies even to the DWP payments.

The DWP payment also gets hit with a fee as that is also classed as an Alternative Payment Method despite the fact that it is most likely made automatically and is the same amount on the same date every month. My own payment is also automatic and I am sure does not cost £5.00 to process. If I am using the same thing as CHAPS but under a different name, they have no right to charge me this money.

And how can they justify another £5.00 fee in the same month for the DWP payment. They have even had the stupidity to tell me to ask the DWP to set up a method of payment that they can use that does not have a fee such as a direct debit. Excuse me! Are these people idiots? What say do I have in how the DWP make payments to my lender?

I am fed up with these people adding fees on top of fees and inventing more fees and taking money out of what I struggle to pay each month. The arrears is almost 80% in fees and costs and when I am making the full payment I am still being hit by fees as it is not by some limited proscribed method of payment.

Is it legal for them to use the DWP money for fees? Is it fraud for them to use money meant as mortgage interest only as fees? How can I force them to give me this money back? Can I report them to anyone, such as the DWP?

Has anyone else had this? I have never heard of any company charging a fee for the DWP making mortgage payments before; this is a new one on me. But then it is Capstone, the arch criminals of the prime lender world!

Please advise! I have to go back to court on 27th March; I would love to be able to ask the court to do something about this one.

Cheers!