MSE News: Thousands of Santander mortgage holders could get payouts after blunder

TParty

I would just like to thank everyone on this forum as I may otherwise have agreed to complete the questionnaire over the phone as they seemed very keen for me to do this and said it would only take 5 minutes! Instead I said that I would like to review it and would then make informed decisions as I would have done had they supplied with the information in the first place.

Just to add salt to their wounds I also advised them that I would be reclaiming the mortage exit fee they charged me when I remortgaged.

Taylor_star

Hi, I wonder if someone could advise me what to do next. I've read most of this thread but not come across my situation.

I have received a decision letter from Santander which says I was affected, they believe I would have switched mortgage product and therefore am entitled to redress. However, they then say they have reviewed the market as was, decided that I would have switched to one of their 5 year tracker products and had I done that my payments would actually have been higher than they were so I would have been worse off! Well I know I wouldn't have switched to a product which meant higher repayments and I don't think I would have opted for a five year option either.

My question really is whether it is worth bothering going back to Santander and asking them to look again and also include products from other lenders or if to go straight to the FOS.

For further info, my payments were only affected for three months before my product ended and i did switch to a different mortgage so any compensation would be minimal.

It's making my blood boil that they can admit breaching a contract, say I'm entitled to redress then wriggle out of paying. I guess I'm lucky they haven't asked for a refund of the money they supposedly saved me!!!

Thank you for reading and for any advice anyone can offer.

TheMightySwordfish

I'm not going to be especially helpful, but I would say go with what you have to the FOS. A few here have (not exactly the same situation, but it all adds up.) and my advice is "It won't hurt to try". Not exactly helpful.

Taylor_star

Thanks two steps. I will write and let them know their psychic powers have let them down on this occasion and there is no way I would have opted for the product they have decided I would have taken.

stevieboy1

We took out a mortgage with Abbey in October 2006 for 13 years of which the first 24 months were fixed at 5.24 per cent. After the initial 24 month period the rate would revert to 6.75 per cent which was then Abbeys current standard variable rate, for the reminder of the loan term.
I do not recall any further correspondence apart from a letter stating that the initial 24 months 'special rate' was over and correspondence stating that Santander had bought Abbey over.
We are somewhat confused if we qualify for compensation or not, we have had no correspondence from Santander regarding this, but we are not surprised as we have found Santander to be one of the most inefficient company's we have ever dealt with.
With the brief information supplied can someone tell us if we fall into this category ?
Many thanks in anticipation.

Ninth_attemp_at_user_name

I have read this site with interest since we received out first m027 letter. We moved house in 2007 when we were offered a deal by Santander where they paid valuation and solicitor’s fees; we therefore took a 2 year fixed rate deal with a tie in SVR for 18 months.

A little bit of back ground and it now turns out good fortune, Santander made a mistake at the end of the 2 year fixed period, they contacted us asking if we would like to talk about their latest mortgage deals, we agreed a deal (which is unusual as we usually swap to a different Company at the end of each deal) we then received a handwritten letter ending I’m so very very sorry as our mortgage had the 18 months’ tie in’ that hadn’t shown on her system, unless we paid the early redemption fee we had to stick with them on SVR, I enclosed a copy of this letter with our form.

On Saturday 21.09.13 our ‘offer’ arrived, they agreed that we would have swapped to a new deal in September 2009, they again used their crystal ball and said that it would have been a 2 year fixed rate @5.19% (best alternative rate), however this deal had an arrangement fee of £2,380.78, which meant that we would have been worse off by £1,246 therefore no monies due to us.

To say that I was mad was an understatement; I turned my house upside down and guess what I actually found the deal that they withdrew in July 2009 before the ‘tie in’ began. Their OWN deal offered us 2 year fixed rate 4.49% their fees were £849 NOT £2,380.78!

I feel that our case sums up perfectly the tricks and lies that they are using to not have to pay what is rightly ours; i.e. they also valued our house at £20k below the buying price of two years before, so that the Loan to Value was a lot lower than it should have been, I am aware the values had dropped around that time however we had carried out extensive work during this time also their 2009 offer had the buying price as the purchase value which I think was accurate.

I would love to hear your comments on our case please.

TheMightySwordfish

A perfect example of them using any means to get away from the fact that they owe you for their mistakes and should be answering to the courts over this and not on a case by case basis. Complete underhandedness even at this point.

Ninth_attemp_at_user_name

Hi, Do you suggest I go back to Sandander or straight to FOS or FCA?
Thanks

ANDYMARS

ANDYMARS wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

I had a letter from Santander last week informing me of the cap margin error from 2008.
I took out my mortgage in 2007 and it was a 5yr fixed deal with a 2 yr tie in to the SVR. As part of the mortgage we had our solicitors fees paid.
At first I thought it was a good deal but I was kicking myself later for taking out a mortgage with a 2yr tie in.
Anyway we moved house in April 2012 before the 5yr fixed term ended the following August.
I asked Santander several times if we could get out of the ERC but they would not let us, so we ended up paying it in the end at £3200. This meant we had less money available for a deposit so the only deal we could get was with the Skipton on a 95% mortgage at 5.99%.
I have filled in the questionairre in the hope that I can get my ERC back because if I had of known we could have delayed our move until the August and not paid the ERC!

Had a reply to my complaint and as predicted they have fobbed me off! They say that 'on the balance of probabilities' that we would not have been able to delay our house move from April to August (when the ERC free window would be in effect). they also say that if we had waited till August to sell up there would be no guarentee that a buyer would be found and a sale completed within the 3 month ERC free window.
So thay are assuming that if we did not sell up from August to November that we would have stayed on our mortgage with them on the capped SVR rate instead of switching!!!! No way would we have done that since we could have gone elsewhere on another banks SVR which would have been lower than Santanders cap margin rate.
Any suggestions in what I should say when I call them up to argue against this?
If I cant get them to change the decision over the phone then it will be going to the FOS :mad:

Thrugelmir

ANDYMARS wrote: »

Any suggestions in what I should say when I call them up to argue against this?

Your choice to sell the property when you did. You could have ported the Santander mortgage to the new property to avoid the ERC's. Then remortgaged at a later date.

Contracts are binding on both parties for good reason. There's no changing the terms when circumstances have changed, and no longer suit one party. Tough but fair.