halifax insurance letter underpayment added to mortgage

nobbyhughes

I recieved a letter saying I owed over £500 due to the same error regarding underpayment, I complained saying that it seemed unfair as there was nothing I could have done to prevent this and that if it wasn't for the fact that my mortgage was with the Halifax I couldn't realistically see how they would get the money. I likened it to my milkman realising that he had undercharged me for 3 years and asking for £500 to cover his mistake. The upshot was that they offered me £250 as a goodwill gesture, I thanked them but refused to accept it, 2 days later they offered me the whole amount, I accepted!
I would like to say that the Halifax were very good about the matter.

RadoJo

'This has been added to my mortgage and is now being charged interest I have the option to pay in full instead .'

I don't quite understand the issue here - from your original post it seems you were given the option to pay in full, then your later posts you claim that you weren't given the option to pay in full. Which is it?

Trying2Help_2

This may help to clarify;

* Halifax informed customers of new Insurance premium (I)
* DD for Mortgage+Insurance collected but Insurance amount not calculated correctly

* Mortgage interest rate increase, customers informed of new M+I amount ('I' still not calculated correctly)

* Halifax spot the mistake many months after it has happened

* Halifax send letter informing customers that they have backdated the miscalculation and taken it from customers mortgage account.

* Customer left with a larger mortgage debt than before.

* 'goodwill' gesture from Halifax to waive the interest on the mortgage 'underpayments'

BTW I refused the insulting initial offer of 1/2 the 'new debt'
I then refused on the phone the 3/4 offer and straight away they offered to reimburse the full amount. (Which I took!)

HTH

elly68

Thanks I am still waiting for halifax to get back to me they said they would have an answer by wednesday.

big_kev

just got my letter today but by the time i got it there were no managers available as they all finish at 2pm,i was told it would be better to phone back on monday as there were thousands of compaints already logged and it would be quicker.This story will be on watchdog if i dont get a satisfactory outcome on monday(as i told them),i find it disgusting that you trust a big bank to take care of all you financial buisness and they cant even update direct debit accounts -disgusting

valvalc

I also received this letter in October. When I phoned them to say I was not happy they offered 1/2 the money back. After mentioning MSE and Finacial Ombudsman they contacted me today to offer 3/4 of the money back. I stood my ground and eventually they agreed to full refund. So to anybody else who has received this letter complain, stand your ground and you won't have any extra added at the end of mortgage. :j :j :j

arlybarly

i also got a letter and complained about it, the reason being it was their !!!! up not mine and it goes back 3 years, they gave me the quote, i accepted and paid the dues owed. then they decide i havent paid enough and they were going to bill me. i am mad mad mad because i could have gone elsewhere for my buildings insurance but stuck with them as i have my mortgage with them. people who have changed insurance apparently havent got to pay it back which really peeves me.

if people can claim back bank charges then this should be the same, they ballsed up so why should i pay it.

JohnG

Just noticed this thread which brought back bitter memories of Halifax's disgraceful treatment towards us a while back now.

We started out with a Halifax Mortage back in the mid eighties and were quite happy until it went pear shaped following what was a misunderstanding on our part when we found ourselves caught within a fixed term mortgage (Long story).

Secondly, when we wanted to switch to a better mortgage rate, even though we would have to pay a hefty penalty, they wouldnt consider it as I was then self employed and my accounts werent considered sufficient even though i/we had being paying a very high rate for some time without default and had a house which would more than cover the relatively small mortgage involved (46,000).

Thirdly, when we managed to switch to a different lender we discovered that we had an outstanding insurance premium to pay the Halifax going back over ten years and, not only that, we had been paying interest on it for that time! I could not believe it!!

Their argument was that we should have realised it hadnt been paid at that time but, let me tell you, if you have ever seen their annual mortage statements you would surely agree they are extremely ambiguous and was no way you could tell if such a premium had gone thru.

My wife , who is extremely organised and punctual with such things would have sent a letter to our bank at the time to alter the standing order (A SO was what we were advised to use for payment by Halifax originally as opposed to a direct debit). Apparently this was not actioned by our bank and unfortunately, as it turned out for us, we did not pick it up through the monthly bank statements.

Note: We tried to get evidence from our bank but they didnt keep the records beyond ten years or whatever it was, and, even though we keep most our financial records I could not find the records for that particular year.

Even if we were at fault for not double checking our bank statements, my main issue is that the Halifax did NOT inform us once of non-payment of the insurance premium!

Their excuse was that it was not cost effective to inform their customers of such discrepancies!! :mad: Me thinks it's more to do with "Lets keep these things rolling as it's a "Little Xtra" towards our profit margin" !

It really makes my blood boil when ever I think about it.

By the way, we tried to go thru the ombudsman but they sided with Halifax which was also quite a shock. The inference is that we deliberately neglected to pay the premium but this is absolutely not the case - on my life!

I was so angry and upset I was seriously considering standing outside their premises with a placard to highlight the way they treat their "Loyal Customers"