Santander letter asking for mortgage account fee from 2002

mcmastn3112

I have received a rather odd letter from santander telling me that when I took my mortgage out with them in 2002 I told them I wanted to pay the £225 fee upfront. Fair enough I thought, they then go on to tell me that they informed me at the time (I have no recollection of that) that their systems were being changed out and that their new system is up and running and they can now take the fee.......

So I can either pay by cheque, credit or debit card but don't worry because if I don't want to pay it now, do nothing and they will collect this at the end of the mortgage......

Now I have a few thoughts on this, the first one being that loyalty yet again never pays. The mortgage that this charge relates to would have only have been a five year fixed rate, so that expired at least 7 years ago, the glib phrase Santander used was that when I decided to remain with Santander this charge "refreshed".
Now it strikes me that had I shown no loyalty, did not currently have either a mortgage or bank account with Santander then they would have little or no chance of collecting their mistake from fourteen years ago.
What does the forum suggest I do, I have spoken to them and stated that I wanted a complaint opened and that they were not to take the fact that I am not paying this now as acceptance that I will pay at the end of my mortgage term.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

Mortgage_Mark_2

What did your original mortgage offer say?

mcmastn3112

I am not disputing the fact that there could have been a fee associated with the mortgage, I am disputing that I was told there was an issue with the system and that they seem to believe that they have the ability to recover their stupid mistake from 12 years ago because I still have my mortgage account with them.

Had I timed out the mortgage and gone elsewhere I doubt they could recover it.

pinkteapot

mcmastn3112 wrote: »

Had I timed out the mortgage and gone elsewhere I doubt they could recover it.

If you'd paid off the mortgage by going elsewhere, they'd have taken the £225 when your account was closed.

Santander do still currently have a £225 "account fee". When you take out a mortgage with them you choose to either pay it up-front at the start of the mortgage, or to pay it at the end. I'm pretty sure that if someone said they'd pay up-front and then didn't, they'd take it when the account was closed.

It's still worth asking them for proof that your mortgage was subject to this fee. Takes some more b*lls to try Malcnascar's approach which seems to involve insinuating to them that you paid it, when you know you didn't...

amnblog

The fee could have been paid upfront of when you redeem the mortgage.


You can pay them now or I suspect they will let you pay when you redeem.


Either way the fee will not be avoidable.


Head in the sand is not the approach.

mcmastn3112

For clarity I am not trying to duck out of anything. When I took out my mortgage in 2002 I requested, which Santander have acknowledged in writing that I pay the £99 fee. They have stated that they did not have a system in place to take this payment until now. I find this incredible to believe but their " we can now take payment" message does not wash with me because now they have increased from £99 to £225, which I feel is unreasonable and is not treating customers fairly. I signed up to 99 which I am happy to pay but do not see why I should be stiffed with £225.

Their letter states that I agreed £225 in 2002, which is not the case so I don't think this would stand up to any decent legal scrutiny.

So for clarity I am not trying to dodge a set up fee that I agreed, quite the reverse, I just don't see how they think they can ammend the amount upwards and claim that I agreed to this originally.
Incidentally they do not have the original 2002 signed documents so they are a bit stuck I would think if I go to the FCA

pinkteapot

Ouch!

We had a Santander mortgage for just six months (we remortgaged soon after moving). When we took it out, they said we could pay £225 up-front or at the end of the mortgage. We said at the end because, well, why wouldn't you postpone it? Our key facts simply said it was £225, not that it might increase. Had we known that we would have paid up-front!

For OP, it will depend on what the T&Cs said when the mortgage was taken out. Somewhere in there it'll say whether the fee was fixed at £99, or could increase over time. OP - you'll be bound by whatever you signed up to...

kingstreet

If the fee was £99 and you have made no changes to your mortgage, for example you have been on SVR since the initial product ended, you cannot be asked to pay more than £99.

If, during the mortgage term, you chose to change to another product such as a fixed rate, if the account fee at that time was £225, that would be the fee which then applied to your mortgage until the end of the term, or until you changed to another product.

At each product change, a key facts illustration should be provided and section eight confirms the costs and fees applicable should you proceed with that product.

Where lenders attempted to hike fees on unchanged mortgage accounts, they were ordered to repay the increase by the FSA some years ago, so the process has now ceased.