Halifax close and pay off homeowner loan

MalMonroe

Hello!

So sorry you've experienced a bit of a chilly response from some quarters. Just because you're a siberian teddy doesn't mean that you should be subjected to anything like that, especially as we are reputed to be 'a friendly community of MoneySavers sharing our experiences and tips to help each other out'.

I think this is great news and wish more banks would do the same for loyal customers. 

But I also think that if you have any doubts or queries, you could phone the Halifax just to confirm that what they say is real. 

I do hope it is! We could all do with some good news. And hopefully we'll all be happy when good things happen to other people, too.   

siberianteddy

Thank you so much for the further comments. Much appreciated. Feel far less of a pariah now! I do believe that the sharing of information for consumers is really vital, and from what I have seen elsewhere on this forum - having read a few other sections - this is a helpful, useful and (mostly!) friendly arena. 

I have contacted the Halifax by phone but have not been able to get any specific information. So, I am now writing to them with a request for an explanation and some background to the decision and how it came about. 

To add to the details so far, for those who are interested - this loan was added to my mortgage term 16 years ago ( not 20 years ago as member Farfetch assumed ), and according to the letter from the Halifax “only a small number of secured loans like yours remain”. Whether that statement is a clue to the reasoning behind this decision may be revealed later I guess. It does, or rather did (now it’s closed) have PPI attached to it (a requirement of the advance) but that PPI has not been the subject of a claim by me. 

It could take a while to get a reply I imagine, but I will keep you posted. In the meantime, if anyone else hears of similar loan closures like this , or has further comment or info, I’d be interested to know. 

Once again, thanks for the positive comments and warmer welcome that followed my initial blasting! 

Take care all. 

sourcrates

Occasionally Banks tend to run audits on themselves, to make sure their actions within a set time period have conformed to policy, sometimes they may identify an issue, or find an anomaly that may put them in contravention of that policy.

It may be the interest rate they charged you was too high, there may have been other compliance issues identified, I don`t know, it`s anyone's guess, but as you say, banks do not normally write off debts without good reason.

I suspect if you asked them, their response would be to re-iterate that it was a "commercial decision" taken in the best interests of all concerned, and that would be as far as they would go explanation wise, you mention the PPI being a requirement of the advance, well it wasn`t, it never was, it was always totally optional, although they may not have told you that, the official line was to flog as many PPI policies as possible, and if they have to blatantly lie to you to achieve that goal, so be it.

So, you could go on picking through the ruins looking for answers, but that seems to be reason enough on its own, even though the time for making a claim has now run out, the Halifax of 30 odd years ago is clearly still very much in conflict with itself today for past, let's call them misdemeanours, when it comes to compliance.

I have seen this before with various financial institutions, when they audit themselves and identify historic bad practice, they immediately go into damage control mode, as in "nothing to see here" and the result is the kind of refund you have received.

fatbelly

Linked to this?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6400030/had-a-loan-refund-cheque-or-part-of-your-balance-written-off-out-of-the-blue-let-us-know#latest

M8219

Hi,  I have had the same thing happen, 15 years into a 25 year secured homeowner loan I got a letter to say they loan had been closed with no reason or explanation.