Mortgage additional Fees

doremifaso

Hi there everyone

I am a first time buyer and have recently been approved a mortgage with Halifax. I have taken advantage of their current offer of helping to pay half the Stamp Duty and also £150 cashback for first time buyers who hold a current account with them, so I'm quite happy with saving money on that part.

However I've been reading through the mortgage quote they have given me in detail and have noticed that they will be charging a £265 'Mortgage account fee'. It says that it is added to the loan and its to cover the setting up, routine maintenance and closing down of the mortgage account.

I'm just wondering whether this is normal as it seems quite an expensive fee for what sounds like a bit of admin work!

I'm just wondering what other fees are they allowed to charge because under the section 'What fees must you pay?' it says that I will have to pay other taxes or costs in addition to the ones shown.

Thanks

Empty_pockets

There is usually some sort of set up/application fee. By adding it to the loan you're likely to be paying considerably more than £265 with the interest.

There should be a full breakdown of fees in the offer.

opinions4u

The mortgage account fee replaced a number of irritating fees that usually come at the back end of a mortgage. While £265 may seem steep to you, it doesn't attract interest and can't, over time, be increased by inflation in the same way mortgage lenders have increased discharge fees etc. to other borrowers.

Looking at it another way, it's less than 90p a month over a 25 year term and avoids unpleasant surprises later on.

Different lenders charge differently named fees in different ways at different times. This gets those out of the way in one go.

By adding it to the loan you're likely to be paying considerably more than £265 with the interest.

There is no interest accrual on this fee.

MiniSis

This is on my mortgage too and it's 0% interest.