Issue with unfavourable changes to mortgage after bank migration to a new system

Goldiegirl

I'm guessing Halifax too, as they migrated their mortgages on to a new platform earlier this year.

Although I used to work there, I left nearly 4 years ago, so I'm not familiar with the current platform.

However, I'm wondering if any of the mortgage is on a fixed rate. i.e part on a fixed rate and part on the standard variable rate.

This sometimes used to create issues, because people would think that their further advance was on interest only and /or on the variable rate, but there was a ranking protocol, which meant that interest rate products and the interest only part of the mortgage were allocated in a set order.

So a customer might think that his further advance is the part of the mortgage that is on SVR or interest only, when in reality it was the home purchase part of the mortgage was on the SVR and the further advance was on the fixed rate

As I left so long ago, I can't remember the details, but I'm wondering if this may have some bearing on what is going on here.

I wouldn't expect a branch advisor to know much about that side of things.

BooJewels

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What have your annual mortgage statements said these past few years.

What I expected. I had two interest rates that were applied - the standard variable rate on the smaller interest only bit (was 7% in 2008 last time we changed anything - it's now 3.99% and various interest rate letters in the meantime confirm this) and a fixed rate repayment basis on further advances we'd taken over the years.

I still have those two running on the same terms (now they put all the separate bits in sub accounts so you can see the details) - except that the capital of the endowment mortgage was split in January, the bulk remained as it was on interest only - it was supposed to be at 3.99% with 6 months to run (from January, until now) - it's now showing as fixed at 6.49% with 7 years 7 months remaining (i.e. 8 years from Jan).

The remainder - a best guess at the worst case shortfall figure - was put onto a repayment basis - on the fixed rate of 6.49% which was applied to some additional borrowing we took - thinking consolidating borrowing into one place over one term would be simpler (and cheaper).

I think that is perhaps the catalyst to this problem as you suggest Goldiegirl - the interest only part has been swept along with the same terms as the additional borrowing and change of part of it to repayment terms - either done wrong when it was set up in January or inappropriately migrated onto the new system shortly after.

So most of our borrowing is now on fixed rates - except this little pocket of 25 year old SVR interest only capital I'm hoping to repay.

BooJewels

I just thought that I'd update this thread as I am actually no further on from my last post.

I saw the local adviser I'd mentioned, after her holiday and she tried to fix it then and was unable. We paid in the amount of the capital that were were due to repay from the endowment mortgage and she did some ridiculous money-shuffling to pay an amount off each sub-account to avoid early repayment charges.

The subtlety of the argument that we weren't actually responsible for such charges when the account concerned was at maturity and we were just paying what we owed, when obligated to do so and it should simply pay off the appropriate sub-account and close it - no shuffling should have been necessary.

There was a lot of phone, email and letter to and fro trying to sort it out - but any changes seemed to make it worse and not better. So she opened an official complaint (actually re-opened the same one she'd already started a month earlier, then she thought she'd fixed it, but hadn't) on 2nd August on our behalf.

16 weeks on and it looks like we're back in the queue to be even looked at. I spoke to a chap 3 weeks ago who was allocated to handle our issue and he was going to put it to the technical team to re-build our mortgage from last time it was known to be right, which should straighten out any human or computer induced errors. He said that would take 5-6 days and he'd write to me with the results and a compensation offer. But that same day he was seemingly allocated to 'another workflow' before he'd taken any action and our complaint was automatically put back in the queue to be given to a different compliant handler, without the courtesy of us being advised. I only found out because I'd made a note to ring him today if I hadn't heard anything.

My frustration and irritation is now off the scale - it's 5 months to the day since I first put the issue in writing to the local adviser. Not one member of bank staff has done what they said they were going to do - they never return phone calls they promise, they don't send documents they promise, they doubt my honesty and I can't even get a straight answer as to what my mortgage payment will be this month. They wrote to me with one number, which I could see straight away was wrong (mortgage plus buildings insurance, both of which were incorrect), my on-line banking shows a different figure, made up of 2 different mortgage and insurance figures, so I checked with the local branch and they gave me third number, which is close to what I think it should be - allowing for the fact that the mortgage is already wrong as per the initial problem.

Is it normal for such seemingly simple issues to drag on for so very long - the list of their misdemeanours is growing daily? Short of going into a large bank and having a loud and embarrassing tantrum in the middle of the floor on a busy Saturday - fun though that might be - I'm not sure what more I can do to get their attention.

Thrugelmir

Make your complaint official. Escalate from there.

BooJewels

It was made official on 2nd August - but they have so many - despite the 8 week requirement for a resolution - that it's 16 weeks today and no action as yet.

I've registered a complaint with the FOS, but their queue is 12 weeks at present - so I have 9 weeks there to either supply details in writing, or close it. As they say it might take up to 9 months to investigate, that's not going to get me a solution any time soon. I just want my mortgage accurate. If I made a mistake or underpaid, they'd deal with that somewhat more expeditiously.

What else can I do to 'escalate' from there?

Thrugelmir

BooJewels wrote: »

What else can I do to 'escalate' from there?

Very little. One imagines that your case is awaiting someone with the necessary "expertise" to handle it. I appreciate that time passes. However detailed investigations consume a considerable amount of man power and resources are limited. Front line staff simply don't have the knowledge to resolve your issue.

BooJewels

I did say this in my earlier post:

BooJewels wrote:

I spoke to a chap 3 weeks ago who was allocated to handle our issue and he was going to put it to the technical team to re-build our mortgage from last time it was known to be right, which should straighten out any human or computer induced errors. He said that would take 5-6 days and he'd write to me with the results and a compensation offer. But that same day he was seemingly allocated to 'another workflow' before he'd taken any action and our complaint was automatically put back in the queue to be given to a different compliant handler, without the courtesy of us being advised.

I don't think it's waiting for someone with appropriate expertise to oversee the complaint at this stage (i.e. it's simply been returned to the queue), just someone to be available to even speak to me about it, they have a massive backlog with huge amounts of complaints in process - apparently. I've just leap-frogged back in time to where I was 5 weeks ago.

I don't necessarily expect the 'complaint handler' to be able to fix a matter of this nature, but I do expect them to be able to delegate it to the people who can. Hence he was garnering details to do just that. So instead of being allowed to at least set the ball rolling, all his open cases were automatically placed back in the queue. It may be the easiest way to close that door, but not the most customer-friendly.

All of which suggests to me that as a bank, they're either getting a lot wrong for customers - if they're not and it's just the expected level of routine complaints, they don't have the right proportion of staff to deal with them and it doesn't sound like their systems are overly efficient for handling what they have in progress either, if the modicum of progress we had made has just been dumped.

BooJewels

Thrugelmir wrote: »

However detailed investigations consume a considerable amount of man power and resources are limited.

I hope you're not expecting me to feel sorry for them, I'm not asking them to do me a favour, just undo their own errors and make my mortgage correct.

I doubt they would give me five months to get around to it, if I were the party in error, or I'd underpaid my mortgage. My resources are even more limited than theirs and I've wasted a lot of them on this to date.