Remortgages - Exit Fees SNEAKY RISE

romeczek

It seems that lenders are getting wise to mortgage tarts - creating attractive headline rates, but raising entry/exit fees. Hefty arrangement fees are usually prominently quoted but any rises in the hidden exit fees are unlikely to be discovered until you want to leave! NB nothing to do with redemption penalties.

A recent article by the Motley Fool http://www.fool.co.uk/news/comment/2004/c040915d.htm suggests that some lender's discharge fees have risen to as much as £300 (just for releasing deeds!!!)

I thought I 'd check my newest lender, as I remember that my last one had charged me around £50 to discharge the deeds. As suspected, Halifax have now bumped up their discharge fee to £200 >:( (deeds discharge £150 and mortgage discharge £50), double Martin's estimate in the MSE guide.

Note: It has been very difficult to find out the value of these fees, as they are not quoted upfront or on the lender websites. I'm also guessing that they can be (and have been!) increased at any point, making mortgage comparisons less reliable (albeit by a few hundred quid)

Should these fees not be quoted (and FIXED) at the point of taking out the mortgage?