Partially successful mortgage move

GordonH_2

Well, I moved my mortgage from Bank of Scotland to Lloyds TSB and reduced it by £60 per month.

BUT, the mortgage was redeemed on the 17th and the bank took a payment on the old mortgage on the 22nd. I bank with the Bank of Scotland as well so its the same bank.

"No problem" I thought, I will phone the bank and ask them for the money back.
The mortgage department were very cagey and said they would find out "IF" they could send the money back (its £450 so I really do need it back).
After an hour goingbetween the banking side and the mortgage side of the bank the best they could do was agree to send it back, but it would take 10 working days to reach my account.

Yes, thats two weeks to send me my money back between two accounts at the same bank.
I have run out of steam trying to speak to a supervisor.
There is noone who can do anything and they are not offering me 10 days interest on the money either.

I am glad I have finished with Bank of Scotland for my mortgage, and now I need to find a new bank to move the current account to.

Of course what they don't realise is that my business also banks with them and as it has no debts its quite easy to move bank.
This is going to cost them dear in the long term.

Rikki

Good For you.

payless

whilst not uncommon for a payment to slip thro' between date redemption figure obtained and actual redemption, can't see why they took a payment so long after redemption
- unless it was s atnding order ( which you would have to have cancelled yourself)

Joe_Bloggs

I got charged a monthly payment nine days after ending an Intelligent Finance mortgage (HBOS) and remortgaging with Nationwide. The staff at I.F have a two week backlog in receiving money and actually doing anything about it. These delays are similar for the Nationwide, so they tend to cancel out. I got the full amount of the overpayment and interest nine days later, via a chaps transfer. I had to make an extra large payment to Nationwide, two days later, to cover interest from the completion date and and a normal mortgage payment.


The IF. overpayment was taken by direct debit. To cancel the direct debit could have harmed my credit reports. If funds are tight it might be an idea to request £1000 or so more than the mortgage balance or save up to avoid cashflow problems.
J_B.( The state beyond completion is discharge.)

MarkyMarkD

You aren't going to get an adverse report on your credit for cancelling a DD AFTER redeeming the mortgage. It's their mistake taking the money, not yours in paying it. If they DID credit agency report it, you could demand for them to remove the report.

Ian_W

If the OP's payment was by Direct Debit, aren't the terms of the DD Guarantee such that the Bank, not the recipient of the payment, should repay soonest, if a payment is in error? Bank should then chase recipient for return of the wrong payment not the account holder?

In this case, if I'm right, RBS banking arm should refund ASAP and chase their own mortgage section for return of wrongly taken money. I know I've certainly made LTSB honour the guarantee when a wrong payment was taken. Call centre at first told me to chase the company but when I pointed out DD T&C's they refunded straight away.

Just a thought.

Joe_Bloggs

My overpayment went into my mortgage and eventually showed as positive balance . There was nothing I could do with this money despite repeated telephone calls. Eventually it was chaps transfered back from where it was taken despite my request to move it to my IF. current account. Once this was done I was considered discharged from the IF. mortgage. I did not lose a penny of interest but it was a confusing time.

@Ian W it is so easy to confuse HBOS, BOS, RBS. The latter is the Royal Bank of Scotland which is no relation to the Bank of Scotland as far as I know. RBS took over Natwest. Halifax and BOS are HBOS that run IF. These banking relationships are giving me a headache.

@MarkyMarkD
I should have requested a payment holiday, in time, if there was a possibility of an overpayment and if it would not have affected the redemption quote. I was given conflicting advice whether to cancel the DD or leave it. As there was no evidence of my redemption payment altering the mortgage balance (two weeks delay etc) I decided to let the DD continue.

J_B.

GordonH_2

Yes, it was direct debit.
I did try to claim under the DD guarantee but they told me the form would have to be filled out by me in my branch, which for historical reasons is a long way from here so it was not possible to do that and the cost of taking a day off work would have been more.

My experience with BOS since the merger with Halifax has been very poor. It was just about bearable before but now I have my mortgage moved it will be relatively easy to change bank.
I need to start researching which one.

I have to say though that the change of mortgage was very little work for a saving of £700 - £800 per year.
I used a local broker (because I have to self certifiy my income) and the new bank paid for everything.
I can recommend doing it.

Ian_W

Gordon,
Experience with LTSB & DD guarantee was different. Yes, they did tell me to chase it myself with the 3rd party at first but after pointing out DD G and [hint, hint] expected MY bank to look after MY interests and honour it [implied - or why bank with THEM?], the money went back in the account the next day. Never asked to fill in any form.

It was just a thought, if you hadn't explored that avenue. If you're not getting the service from BOS you expect, don't blame you - get shut!!