Reclaiming Meaf Charges

chris1994

Thanks Martin, great show. The wife was sceptical about the ease of reclaim and thought they would put all sorts of obsticals in the way, she contacted her old company and in 2 mins they said they were sending a cheque for £100.

MarkyMarkD

andyw76 wrote: »

Does anyone know if this works for re-mortgages within the same company where you get charged an admin fee of £150-£175??

MEAFs are only charged when you redeem your mortgage.

Switching products with the same lender is not remortgaging and doesn't involve the redemption of a mortgage; hence MEAFs are not involved and the FSA's ruling on MEAFs is irrelevant.

Any lender can charge any fee they choose to set for a product switch; equally well any borrower can avoid paying these fees by staying on their original product or remortgaging elsewhere.

There's no basis for getting a refund for a fee which you voluntarily chose to pay in exchange for a switch of product which you voluntarily chose to make.

jo_b_2

chris1994 wrote: »

Thanks Martin, great show. The wife was sceptical about the ease of reclaim and thought they would put all sorts of obsticals in the way, she contacted her old company and in 2 mins they said they were sending a cheque for £100.

Great result and welcome to MSE! :wave: Hope it's the first saving of many!

curly_cabbage

I really enjoyed Martins new show and because he verbally explain the MEAF thing i realised that maybe we were owed money too. So check the info required on here and called Halifax first, they wanted my roll number and when i took out the motgage and when we closed it down and within minutes they said i was owed £50 (Very pleased), the secound mortgage company we had been with was Nationwide, they don't deal with this on the phone so using Martins letter tenplate filled in the detail for both mortgages we had with them sent recorded delivery yesterday, check they have been delivered (Which they were this morning) so now we'll just have to wait. Not too sure how much were owed but going by Martins table on MSE site it may be around £180 total for the two, which including the £50 from Halifax would be a nice windfall for 10 minutes effort.:j

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Thanks from me too Martin, I consider myself to be a 'black belt mse er' but i never thought i would qualify for the meaf, I rang anyway and she said she'll look into it, just witin nw so many thanks from DH

Sunnyday

I rang Abbey yesterday as our fee should have been £50 and we actually paid £225.
They are sending some paperwork out to be signed and if they agree we are owed it then we should have £175 on the way.
They reckon it should take about a month from reciept of the signed paperwork, there was no mention of interest though and i never really thought about that i think i`ll put a note in with the papers when i return them.
Anyone else had dealings with Abbey?
SD

MarkyMarkD

curly_cabbage wrote: »

... so using Martins letter template filled in the detail for both mortgages we had with them sent recorded delivery yesterday, check they have been delivered (Which they were this morning) so now we'll just have to wait...

A little pointer for others. Posting these claims by recorded delivery is just a waste of your money - use a normal stamp. You'll get an acknowledgment very quickly; send the letter again if the acknowledgment doesn't arrive.

lilac_lady

If your mortgage ran its full term, does a meaf apply?

MarkyMarkD

It depends on the lender and the contractual terms.

There's no reason why, legally, it shouldn't. It isn't a penalty for redeeming early, it's a fee for ending your mortgage agreement which can therefore apply at any time.

But many lenders "let you off", either contractually or by discretion, if you are close to, or at, the end of your original term, or charge a reduced amount in these circumstances or if your balance is very low when you redeem.

Beate

Sunnyday wrote: »

I rang Abbey yesterday as our fee should have been £50 and we actually paid £225.
They are sending some paperwork out to be signed and if they agree we are owed it then we should have £175 on the way.
They reckon it should take about a month from reciept of the signed paperwork, there was no mention of interest though and i never really thought about that i think i`ll put a note in with the papers when i return them.
Anyone else had dealings with Abbey?
SD

Loads of people, myself included. Dealings with Abbey are very straightforward and quick but you will not get any interest back. Btw, there is a whole board about mortgages and MEAF's here if people want to discuss it in more depth: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=15