Halifax overpayments query

John424

Hi,

I made some overpayments earlier in Dec/Jan and Halifax have not reduced my monthly payments. They said that they now only reduce them when asked rather than automatically so I said then that must reduce the numbers of months/years left on my mortgage then because your capital repayments have increased to which they replied no, The maths doesn't stack up here.....

John

alwaystryyourbest

How much did you overpay by ?.... if it was only a very small amount then i dont think it would change the date..but any more than your monthly payment i think should of done..

opinions4u

Q1: Did you take the mortgage out in 2002 or later?
Q2: Did you specifically state that this was an overpayment when handing the money over to them?
Q3: What is your normal monthly payment?
Q4: How much did you overpay by?
Q5: Why did you overpay?

If Q1 is no, ask them to change your loan to daily interest if they haven't done already.

If it's yes, the interest being charged will have reduced and the loan will finish earlier (or the final payment will be smaller).

John424

Mortgage taken out in 2006. Overpayment to the tune of a few grand, on a mortgage of 200k. I used to regularly make overpayments and they used to reduce my monthly repayments accordingly. But for them not to reduce them anymore and say the term remains the same must be incorrect.....

Goldiegirl

Many years ago, when I worked for the Halifax, when a borrower made a part repayment, we would either

A) calculate a new monthly payment on the new debt outstanding, using the existing term of the mortgage. The new monthly payment would be keyed onto the computer system.

Or

keep the monthly payment the same, but instead calculate a new mortgage term based on the new debt. This new term would then be keyed on to the system.

All this takes up staff time, so it seems they now only take any action if asked.

If you ask again, they should be able to reduce the mortgage term, and enter the new term on to the computer.

It's probable that the people on the phone or in the branch don't realise that this can be done - but an old time admin person will know how to do this.

opinions4u

John424 wrote: »

Mortgage taken out in 2006. Overpayment to the tune of a few grand, on a mortgage of 200k. I used to regularly make overpayments and they used to reduce my monthly repayments accordingly. But for them not to reduce them anymore and say the term remains the same must be incorrect.....

The contracted term remains the same.

But the account is now "a few grand" in advance.

This means that you have an option to underpay in the future by up to the same amount.

Equally, it means your debt has reduced. The interest accruing has reduced. Assuming you make all your contractual payments when due your debt will hit zero before the term expires.

You will have received all the gains that overpaying gives you.

Annieddiva

John - you are not the only one having problems with the Halifax. I've been with them since 1997 and my current deal started in November 2012 and it has been an absolute nightmare about the overpayments since this new deal started in November - no one seems to know what they're talking about at the Halifax anymore, and every time I call I get a different reason, and I keep telling them since 1997 I've never had such problems with my overpayments! I've now been told wait till the new system comes in late March and you'll get a new reference number as well as a new mortgage statement when this new change happens, and it will look different; it will show how your mortgage account is broken down and how much is outstanding for each part of your mortgage.

So I've just tried to do an overpayment today and it won't go through, so I'll wait and see what this looks like, otherwise I'm going to escalate it to a manager.... its unbelievable! So John you're far from alone!

Punksparkle

The mortgages have been removed from the on line banking system, they must be switching over I think to the new system. You can only pay over payments on a standing order, not direct debit under this new system I was informed in branch a few weeks ago.