NEW Mortgage Exit Fees Discussion

wintermare

can anyone clarify if i can reclaim anything on my previous morgage it does seem rather steep for leaving i left i july it is with morgages plc :
"balance brought forward at 1st jan 2007 £65053.54

advances made £0

interest to 31st july 2007 £3000.71

closing admin charge(payable only once £134
on final repayment)

early repayment charge £1937.49

solicitors fees £1000*

OTHER DEBITS £844

insurance debits £0

TOTAL DEBITS £71970.74



less repayments £3778.47

total £68192.27


*this amount was refunded 4 weeks after completion it was to cover any potential legal fes incurred between statement and closure of account


Are "do other Debits really exist"

flololmeemor

Hi, double barrelled question..

Firstly, I left the HSBC 4 years ago because I informed them that I no longer required their services from a certain date.
They withdrew my overdraft immediately without telling me and my next 3 months worth of bills came out berfore we reached the date that I had requested them to cancel my account.
Because they had withdrawn the overdraft without my knowledge and I was travelling, I had no way of knowing that I was then going to be charged £1,975 (over the 3 months).

I tried to reclaim these charges but the HSBC sent me a letter saying they had taken legal action against various bodies as they felt the charges were lawful and as such, they were in the legal position that they did not have to pay me anything or even entertain my claim until this was finalised in court.

Does anyone know anything about this and where it leaves me?

Secondly..

I remortgaged to be with cheltnham and gloucestershire but was charged an £800 admin fee from my previous lender and another charge of £95 for deed release and £45 for cancellation of Direct Debit.
I have looked through my agreement with them and there is a mention of the admin fee but it doesn't say how much... is this a reasonable amount?

cl3opatra

This is a quesytion to Martin and anybody else who knowss whether these fees were applied by spcialist buy to let mortgage companies, and if so has anyone managed to reclaim anything. Thanks

Lennie08

Hi just a quick question, hope someone can help please, we had a mortgage in 2000 with Sun Life, not long after we moved in they wrote and said that although our current mortgage stood they would no longer be dealing with UK finance products. We re-mortgaged in 2004 and paid an extortionate 6% early repayment fee. Does anyone know if we can still claim mortgage exit fees from what seems to be a non english practising financier and is there anyway of claiming back early repayment fees? It seems such a high penalty to pay for switching mortgages?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Sputnik57_2

Hopefully someone will be able to answer this.

In August 2007 I switched my mortgage from The Woolwich/Barclays. My mortage with The Woolwich was taken out approx 14 years ago. I had no contact from The Woolwich at all. My new lender sent me the figures showing amount owing and balance that would be sent to me.

I wrote to the Woolwich and asked for the full details of fees, charges etc and they sent me statements. The statements only show my regular monthly payments no sign of any fees - does this mean I have not been charged. Have these companies stopped charging exit fees now?

Thanks

LouBlue

Thought I would give this a go! I have remortaged a couple of times in the last 6 years.

Rang Halifax, I found a statement from them when I closed the mortgage in February 2004.

It showed Mortgage Discharge Fee of £75 and Deeds Despatch Fee of £50. I rang them and they said the Deeds Despatch Fee has nothing to do with it, and I was not overcharged with the £75. :rolleyes:

Shall I send them a letter then and to which address?

dacado

HELP !!!

took out a mortgage in march 2004 with future motrgages totally missold to us by a financial advisor anyhow it was a fixed discounted rate for 3 years the redemption penalty stated is 6 % of outstanding balance in that period thereafter nil !!!
changed to abbey in april 07 redemption statement from future reads

starting balance £89821.95
redemption charge £120.00
interest £600.21

total £90542.16

can i reclaim the redemption fee ?? in there fees booklet it is called a redemption sealing fee.

And anybody know what the interest charge is all about???

any help appreciated

lowonmoney

I changed my mortgage from Abbey to Stroud and Swindon in March this year. I was charged £225 MEAF from Abbey. When I originally took my mortgage out in 1998 I signed up for £80 MEAF, however, since then I have moved house and as a consequence had to negotiate a new mortgage product with Abbey due to a very high redemption penalty (£7000). In 2006 the fixed rate penalty ended and so I changed to another Abbey product while looking for a different mortgage lender. Looking at the new contract I signed, the fees had changed to £225.

As I signed this new contract have I stuffed up my chances of reclaiming the £145 extra MEAF I paid?

Thank you.

MarkyMarkD

@Lowonmoney - Yes, apart from your terminology. You didn't "stuff up your chances of reclaiming ..." - you have no entitlement to reclaim anything as you accepted the new Abbey mortgage with its £225 fee.

MarkyMarkD

@wintermare

I don't know what your "other debits" are. The Early Repayment Charge is doubtless contractually binding and not refundable and not relevant to this thread. The £134 closing admin charge is, in fact, very low and probably also documented in your mortgage conditions.

I doubt you have anything to reclaim but there's no reason not to ask what the other debts represent and to check your original mortgage offer re the ERCs. But you should really have understood your ERC before you redeemed - if you remortgaged on a mortgage adviser's advice, s/he should have taken account of all such fees in evaluating the financial benefits of remortgaging.

@flololmeemoor - the HSBC part of your question is nothing to do with MEAFs and should be posted on the bank charges thread where it might likely get a response.

Regarding the remortgage fees, I find it very surprising that you were charged an £800 MEAF by any lender. Perhaps it's made up of a number of elements? Naming the lender would help. And also it's irrelevant if the fees are reasonable - what matters is whether they were specified in advance and agreed by you at the time of taking out the mortgage.

@cl3opatra - the FSA's ruling applies to any lender regulated by the FSA, including specialist lenders. The only category of loans it does NOT apply to is buy-to-let mortgages.

@Lennie08 - you CHOSE to pay the ERC because you felt (or were advised) that it was cost-effective to do so. ERCs are legally binding and they are not subject to the FSA's ruling. They are a price you pay for getting mortgage deals which are inherently uneconomic for the lender and to cover the lender's risk of early exit from fixed rate deals.

@Sputnik - not all lender charge(d) an MEAF and there's no reason to think that this is wrong in the case of your mortgage. In any case, if you've not been charged anything, you haven't got anything to worry about.

@LouBlue - I have heard this same query re Halifax before. They are WRONG. Anything which is a payment relating to the redemption of a mortgage forms part of the MEAF, and is subject to the FSA's ruling on MEAFs. They can't isolate particular elements of the MEAF and pretend they are exempt. Look at https://www.halifax.co.uk for contact details or Google "Halifax Customer Relations".

@docado - I don't understand your issue. The "interest" will be the unpaid interest for the part-month before redemption; the redemption charge of £120 is not high at all and is doubtless something they documented at the start of your mortgage.

Hope those help. Sorry for delay but I've been on holiday!