Fixed rate 10yr mortgage 6.59%

abbeywindows

Yep, that's correct and let's get it out of the way, I now know it wasn't the best decision I ever made. However we signed up around 6yrs ago (looking like conservatives coming into power = presumed high interest rates) and having a family I wanted to have a balanced payment each month.

Short story short, I then suffered a pay freeze, conservatives got in and everything went up in price bar interest rates, which went down quicker than a Chelsea striker. ( unless your a helpful Chelsea fan and then of course I meant Man Utd :-)

Now with four years left, we still have a £5400 ERC if we want to get out of it. Now I appreciate this is my mistake, but if I think about when we took it out, we were told, that this would be to secure Halifax for the money they would have made. However with plummeting rates, they've actually made a fortune(to me) on us over the past 6 years. How can they therefore still demand another £5400???? ("Because you signed up to it" would not be a useful answer right now).

I was wondering if there is any precedent set around mis-selling or whether or not any of you think there is anything we could possibly do in this scenario. I have no issues with paying something I signed up for (I obviously do), but I do think there should be some room for manoeuvre.

The mortgage advisors were clearly poor at advising, but I just don't have a clue on where I would start with this one.

Any assistance at all would be greatly appreciated, especially if you are a Halifax CEO who is feeling generous :-D

tkane

Halifax are not making a 'fortune' out of you - they will have borrowed a sum of money to pay for your house outright (minus your deposit) at whatever the prevailing interest rates were at the time you took out your mortgage.

However in your particular case it sounds like it would be worthwhile just paying the £5400 depending on the size of your loan and potential benefits. You are stuck on a very high fix for another 4 years - you can remortgage now for half that amount so you could potentially save a lot more than the £5400 penalty you will have to pay.

abbeywindows wrote: »

we signed up around 6yrs ago (looking like conservatives coming into power = presumed high interest rates) and having a family I wanted to have a balanced payment each month.

abbeywindows wrote: »

I was wondering if there is any precedent set around mis-selling.

The mortgage advisors were clearly poor at advising.

To me it sounds like you knew exactly what you were doing 6 years ago.

somethingcorporate

Do the sums - depending on your LTV I am sure you could save a packet on paying the ETC and moving to a better rate.

Unless you have a complaint better than "the interest rate went down and we secured at a higher rate" then you're wasting your time looking at the missale angle.

LeoTLion

To be fair to mortgage advisors, they only advise, the people engaging them make the decisions. If you told them you wanted a long term fixed rate mortgage then that's what they would have looked to get you.

mrginge

The bank of england set interest rates not the conservatives and as explained above Halifax make a margin based on what you borrowed at the time, regardless of what happened to rates after that.
You wouldn't for example expect them to come after you for more money if rates had gone up to 15%.

Babbawah

abbeywindows wrote: »

Yep, that's correct and let's get it out of the way, I now know it wasn't the best decision I ever made. However we signed up around 6yrs ago (looking like conservatives coming into power = presumed high interest rates) and having a family I wanted to have a balanced payment each month.

Short story short, I then suffered a pay freeze, conservatives got in and everything went up in price bar interest rates, which went down quicker than a Chelsea striker. ( unless your a helpful Chelsea fan and then of course I meant Man Utd :-)

Now with four years left, we still have a £5400 ERC if we want to get out of it. Now I appreciate this is my mistake, but if I think about when we took it out, we were told, that this would be to secure Halifax for the money they would have made. However with plummeting rates, they've actually made a fortune(to me) on us over the past 6 years. How can they therefore still demand another £5400???? ("Because you signed up to it" would not be a useful answer right now).

I was wondering if there is any precedent set around mis-selling or whether or not any of you think there is anything we could possibly do in this scenario. I have no issues with paying something I signed up for (I obviously do), but I do think there should be some room for manoeuvre.

The mortgage advisors were clearly poor at advising, but I just don't have a clue on where I would start with this one.

Any assistance at all would be greatly appreciated, especially if you are a Halifax CEO who is feeling generous :-D

The way I see it is : You made a choice at the time based upon your own reasons. At that moment in time, the choice you made was good for you.

How is it not a good choice for you today?

How have your reasons changed?

If it wasn't a good decision on your part back then, how can anyone be sure that you can make a good decision today?

P.S. I took a savings bond out with Halifax approx 6yrs ago that pays me 5.9percent. I don't regret my decision.

abbeywindows

LeoTLion wrote: »

To be fair to mortgage advisors, they only advise, the people engaging them make the decisions. If you told them you wanted a long term fixed rate mortgage then that's what they would have looked to get you.

Thanks LeoTlion, I'd have thought that they may have pointed out that maybe my reasoning wasn't sound (as someone has done below your post). I've never claimed to be a finance guru, which is why I relied on and paid for the advice of those who were supposed to be.

I simply wanted to be secure and looking back now I can obviously see it was a mistake, but this was the recommendation so that's what we went with.

abbeywindows

mrginge wrote: »

The bank of england set interest rates not the conservatives and as explained above Halifax make a margin based on what you borrowed at the time, regardless of what happened to rates after that.
You wouldn't for example expect them to come after you for more money if rates had gone up to 15%.

Fair point. My political/financial knowledge was and still is pretty poor. However that shouldn't exclude me from wanting a mortgage, I just need adequate advice in doing so surely?

amnblog

You have what you wanted - security of payment.

You were not seeking the lowest rates with the highest risks.

mememe44

You said in your OP you thought interests rates were going to go up so you decided to fix to protect yourself.

You got it wrong.

No one can advise you what will happen with interests rates as no one actually knows.

You can't now claim you were missold given you knew exactly what you were doing at the time.

If interests rates had gone up to 15% would you be insisting you were missold what would be a lower rate then?

abbeywindows

Babbawah wrote: »

The way I see it is : You made a choice at the time based upon your own reasons. At that moment in time, the choice you made was good for you.

The choice was made based on my own reasons and advice given, those who don't need advice would 't go to an advisor would they?

How is it not a good choice for you today?

It's not so much about the choice, but about the advice leading to it.

How have your reasons changed?

Technically yes they did, interest rates went down, cost of living went up and my pay was frozen along with many others so put together, things couldn't have got much worse from a financial point of view, with no thought provoking questions from the bank or advisors?

If it wasn't a good decision on your part back then, how can anyone be sure that you can make a good decision today?

They can't that's why, I get backing from an advisor.....seriously, am I the only person to pay an advisor for adequate advice? I don't think that's too much to ask.

If I went into a supermarket and asked for Gluten free products, I would expect someone to know where they were, how much they were, what different products they offered etc. so why wouldn't I expect some expertise from a financial advisor?

As I've said, I know it was a bad decision 6 years on? How did they not see potential problems and at least make me aware of potential pitfalls

P.S. I took a savings bond out with Halifax approx 6yrs ago that pays me 5.9percent. I don't regret my decision.

I'm pleased for you, I hope you continue making money out of them, at least someone is :-)