Woolwich Mortgage Overpayments Help

Msteph12

I took out a mortgage with Barclays/ Woolwich last year. The only way to get the mortgage was to take it over 35 years, even though we could comfortably afford to pay more over less time. We were told that we could make an additional payment of 10% per year, which would then decrease the term left to pay off the mortgage, so that it would not be over the full 35 years.

We made an additional payment but rather than decrease the amount of time left, we received a letter saying that the monthly payments have decreased (By only £13p/m when we paid an additional 3.5k). I called the helpline to discuss this, and was told that this should not have happened, and that they would put the monthly payments back to their original amount and the term left to pay would crease.

Nothing has happened for 1 week so I called then again, and spoke to another adviser who said that they were still working on the task - this was fine. But she said something along the lines that the the repayments would remain at their new balance, but the additional £13 would be paid as an overpayment each month.

I'm not exactly sure what this means, and I dont see how this is going to benefit me significantly in the long run (I almost feel like we have thrown away £3.5k!). When we were originally sold the mortgage it was put to us in a way that we understood any lump sums would decrease the term of repayment. Does anyone have any experience with this and can explain how this all works? Many thanks!