My ten minute call got me a £275 pay out (Mortgage Exit Fees)

Member Name: koshkha

Product:	Mortgage Exit Fees
Date:	05/12/07 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick and easy and the law's on your side

Disadvantages: If you don't ask, you won't get

Once upon a time in the land of mortgages clients and lenders built long term relationships. There wasn't much difference between most of the lenders and people tended to get their mortgage with the building society they'd saved with as kids or the bank they got their salary paid into. And once the two were 'wedded' together, they tended to stay together - in sickness and in health and through good and bad times. Separating the two parties was like trying to split the atom - people were faithful and loyal and often got ripped off royally for their pains.

Then things got more exciting. You couldn't organise your mortgage through real people in real branches - you ended up sending your paperwork to faceless nameless people in far away places like Leek in Staffordshire (in my case). The personal touch was eroded. Building Societies turned into banks and life got more competitive. If you were a good borrower, didn't have too high a loan-to-value ratio, had good credit ratings and the nerve to shop around, you could save a small fortune by switching your mortgage between lenders and renegotiating good deals every couple of years. Only suckers paid Standard Variable Rate - wise guys shopped around.

Eventually the lenders started to get wise to this and, just like broadband suppliers who withhold your transfer codes to try to stop you leaving, they introduced increasingly punitive Mortgage Exit Administration Fees (MEAF) in an attempt to dissuade you from leaving them or to punish you if you did. These fees were sometimes considerably more than in your original mortgage contract.

Fortunately for us poor borrowers, the Financial Standards Agency got wise to the lenders tricks and came down on them like a tonne of bricks in Jan 2007 and ordered them to justify their increased charges. Martin Lewis of the website Moneysavingexpert.com has spent a lot of time and effort this year publicising just how easy it is to claim back unreasonable fees and encouraging people to do just that. He provides templates for letters you can send, indications of what you are likely to have been charged and lots of reassurance that even if you don't know what you are doing, what you paid, possibly even where you live, you can make a claim quickly and easily.

I've been following this debate for ages whilst resolutely and stupidly doing absolutely nothing about it. Last week I finally cracked and got my act together.

Our Circumstances
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In spring this year we moved our mortgage from a two-year discount deal with Britannia to a lifetime 'offset' deal with Woolwich/Barclays. I have nothing against Britannia and given the option would prefer to borrow from a mutual building society but they had nothing interesting to offer in the way of deals and I'd pretty much set my heart on an offset mortgage. As we bank with Barclays, it made sense to look into what they could offer through their relationship with Woolwich and they had a deal that was ideal for our circumstances.

We had no early redemption clause on the Britannia deal BUT they wanted a shocking £225 in MEAF - or £75 per sub-account. For complex reasons best known to themselves and not requested by us, Britannia ran our loan in three separate pots. I wasn't happy but there wasn't anything I could do so we paid up and left.

On Monday last week I spent an hour or so reading through the postings on Martin Lewis's site and working out what I thought I was due as a refund. His table indicated that I probably would have originally signed a contract obliging us to pay £50 in MEAF and so I ought to aim for getting back £175. Nice little bonus in time for Christmas I thought. I read through his enormous message board of people telling others how easy it is and how happy they were and then I picked up the phone and called the Britannia contact number on Lewis's website.

The lady I spoke to was new to the business and not too sure what I was talking about so I spent several periods on 'hold'. She then told me that I would probably be due some kind of refund and she'd handle the enquiry for me. There would be no need to write in and I should hear within 4 weeks. I told her - being assertive and trying to set my expectations out clearly - that I thought I should be due £175.

Two days later a letter arrived saying they were looking into the enquiry and then on Saturday a cheque arrived for £275. It turned out that they'd also spotted that when we moved house in 2004 we'd been charged £150 in MEAF and again, that should only have been £50 so they'd refunded an additional £100. I don't know about you but when it comes to moving house there are so many unexpected expenses that it's hard to keep track. The letter said that if I wasn't happy I could go to an ombudsman. Not happy? I was thrilled to bits.

I called the customer feedback line to say 'Thank you' and the poor guy on the other end of the line was so shocked that he admitted he'd 'not been trained to deal with compliments' and was so used to being shouted at that he wasn't sure what to say. But I think he was pretty chuffed anyway.

And finally.....
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My advice is that if you have a mortgage, have moved house or switched lenders in the past 5 years or so, give your lenders a call. You might not be owed anything but if you are, most will pay out quickly and cleanly and some - like the Britannia - might surprise you by going further than you expected. They know they are in the wrong - in fact, the FSA had already told them that before we were charged £225 back in spring - and they will almost always pay out. BUT - and it's a big but - YOU HAVE TO ASK. They won't give you anything if you don't.

And if you don't have a mortgage, tell your family and friends who do. My ten minute phone call got me £275 back in just a few days. It's probably the best return on a phone call that I've ever had.

Summary: Go for it - you have nothing to lose