One Account

Mr_Chambers

I believe I was mis-sold an interest-only (The One Account) mortgage recommended by a broker. Has anyone had any success with claims against this company? I have paid them over £200k and not one penny off the capital of £160k.
Any help would be appreciated.



At the time of taking out the mortgage, my income was £50k and was advised the One Account mortgage was the most suitable for me.

I soon realised this was not a repayment mortgage but due the problems I had had obtaining my first mortgage in the late 70s when they were rationed I felt unable to question the advice.

I have made overpayments each month throughout the duration of the mortgage and am about to clear the balance.

foxy-stoat

Mr_Chambers wrote: »

I believe I was mis-sold an interest-only (The One Account) mortgage recommended by a broker. Has anyone had any success with claims against this company? I have paid them over £200k and not one penny off the capital of £160k.
Any help would be appreciated.

That is how an interest only mortgage works, I assume you have not been paying into a repayment vehicle/endowment policy to pay the capital when the mortgage ends?

What is the basis that you were mis-sold?

kingstreet

Mr_Chambers wrote: »

I believe I was mis-sold an interest-only (The One Account) mortgage recommended by a broker. Has anyone had any success with claims against this company? I have paid them over £200k and not one penny off the capital of £160k.
Any help would be appreciated.

Have you by any chance withdrawn every penny credited to the account?

That would give you the outcome you describe.

Thrugelmir

Care to elaborate OP?

minimike2

The One Account isn't an interest only mortgage per se.

Essentially you want to claim mis-selling because you couldn't control your spending and no doubt lived a lifestyle beyond your means though poor financial decisions leading to being unable to repay your flexible mortgage - which you should have been budgeting to pay down over its lifetime. I don't think the FoS will even get past the first line of your complaint.

Mr_Chambers

At the time of taking out the mortgage, my income was £50k and was advised the One Account mortgage was the most suitable for me.

I soon realised this was not a repayment mortgage but due the problems I had had obtaining my first mortgage in the late 70s when they were rationed I felt unable to question the advice.

I have made overpayments each month throughout the duration of the mortgage and am about to clear the balance.

getmore4less

shame you did not review the mortgage sooner the One Account has been known as a poor choice for years due to higher rates than the alternatives offset products.

can't see anything miss sold as you have used it the way intended, you pay in money and the balance goes down.

you get charged interest on the net borrowings same as any other mortgage.

Brock_and_Roll

Hi OP,


To me it seems the mortgage was desirable at the time and in being in a position to pay it off now in full, presumably around the time of your retirement, you appear to have managed the mortgage in the way it was designed for.


As you state, there were limited options at the time back in the days of mortgage rationing. The flip side of this is that the opening up of the mortgage market has been one of the key reasons why house prices have risen so much over the last 40 years - if you had not been able to get a mortgage back then, you would not be sitting on such a large tax-free capital gain now!


The issue here seems to be why you did not re-mortgage at any point over the intervening period? This would have saved you a lot of money in interest costs, but of course your failure to do so is not the problem of the mortgage company and it is very hard to see how you have a suffered any kind of loss as a result of taking their product.

foxy-stoat

Best thing you can do is sell up, it must be worth a lot more than £160K now, and buy a place outright more suitable to your budget.

minimike2

The story has changed somewhat since the original post and the later edit.

So now you are saying that you are about to repay it.

Still unclear as to exactly why you think it was mis-sold?

You were free to look for an alternative mortgage at any point. Why didn't you do this?

Your ability to obtain a mortgage (or not) in the late 70's has zero bearing on the advice you will have been given.

The one account is not a repayment mortgage, nor is it an interest only mortgage. It is just a big overdraft secured on your house essentially. You could have paid it off in any way you chose to - Had you repaid sufficient "payments" off it each month (i.e leave in it sufficient capital to pay it down) then it would have been fully repaid at the end of the term (as described in the original product literature).

You will have realised very quickly (and will have been told at the outset) what the interest costs were, so you will have known however much you were leaving in the account over and above this figure (in your case nothing) would not be enough to pay it off. I simply don't believe that you couldn't have known this if not from the very start, then at the latest at the first annual statement date (I may be wrong but I think they sent statements at least quarterly).

How long ago did you take it out and why are you only just starting to question it now?

Still nothing in what you are saying to suggest misselling, only mismanagement.

Mr_Chambers

The One Account mortgage was taken out in 2006. I attempted to query its suitability on receipt of the first quarterly statement with the original advisor but she no longer worked for the company. The person I spoke to said to change I would have to make a new application to another provider.
Its unsuitability has always been on my mind. At the time of preparing to pay the balance I was in conversation with others who questioned its suitability too.
The difficulty I had in the late 70s obtaining a mortgage despite enjoying a good salary has left its mark but I feel does not change my query.