Alliance & Leicester - MEAF pre 2007

mrbells

I exited a mortgage with the Alliance & Leicester in 2004 and was promptly charged a MEAF £295.

I am unsure as to what the MEAF was specified in the original mortgage policy. However, I was informed yesterday by A&L that I am unable to claim, something to do with it being an agreed amount and it is not contestable.

Given that the FSA ruling declared that MEAF's of this level were unjustified, surely I am entitled to claim regardless of what the T&C's stated at the time.

Could someone please clarify?

Thank you.

dunstonh

Is my understanding correct, in that because the MEAF was specified at £295 in my original T&C's, which I subsequently agreed to at the time of taking out the mortgage, I am unable to claim anything back?

Correct. That was the FSA ruling.

Given that the FSA ruling declared that MEAF's of this level were unjustified, surely I am entitled to claim regardless of what the T&C's stated at the time.

The FSA have not declared that.

mrbells

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I have however edited my question as according to my wife, we do not know for certain that the MEAF was indeed specified at £295 and we don't have a copy of the policy to verify this.

This being the case, if I can obtain a copy of the policy from A&L, which states the MEAF being lower that £295, I should be able to claim the difference. Is this correct?

Thank you.

dunstonh

I have however edited my question as according to my wife, we do not know for certain that the MEAF was indeed specified at £295 and we don't have a copy of the policy to verify this.

The last mortgage I arranged was around the last 90s. A&L used to charge £295 then.

They packaged their charges to encourage people to stay with them on each deal as they would only charge the £295 at the end and not with each deal bought. Effectively the pricing was pushing some of the front end cost on to the back and to discourage re-mortgaging elsewhere.