Halifax Mortgage Review

Overall Rating

I am writing to let you know what an absolute "shambles" Halifax have made in transferring my mortgage from one product to another.

It all started when I rang head office and asked them how I could pay my mortgage off over 6 years, and approximately how much would it cost per month.

I was set up with a meeting with Halifax in Lincoln to discuss my options. When I got there it wasn't a mortgage specialist that I was allocated to, it was an insurance type sort of person. She couldn't help me, so rang head office and got in touch with someone in the existing mortgages department at Head Office. She spoke to me on the phone regarding my request. Therefore, I had had a wasted journey and time out of work to go to this meeting for nothing.

I was assured that if I paid off £28k from my existing mortgage (by cashing in my endowments) and then paid roughly £563 per month, that my mortgage would be paid off in 6 years. She put me on a new product with a tracker rate of 4.99% and said it would cost me £249 to change to this. At this stage I was still being told that I would have my mortgage paid off in 6 years if I paid approximately £563 per month.
AT NO TIME WAS I TOLD THAT BY INCREASING MY PAYMENTS WOULD I GET CHARGED AN EARLY REPAYMENT CHARGE.

I was also told that I would get something in writing to let me know what I was on now, and what it would cost me moving to the new product at my old original value of mortgage left to pay off (£63k).
I was advised that once I received this I was to go into the branch and pay off the £28k. I was also asked to explain that I wanted to reduce my mortgage but pay the remainder off over 6 years.
I did this by writing a letter to Head Office, as well as sending a cheque for £249 to pay for the product move. I also stated that I wanted to move to a STRAIGHT REPAYMENT mortgage paying £563 per month to enable me to pay my mortgage off in 6 years.

I then received another letter showing the £28k paid off, but including the £249 in my new outstanding mortgage balance. Also the letter stated that I still owed £26650 in straight interest (my old endowment policy when I first set up the mortgage). I rang and queried this, and was told it wouldn't be there once the changes had been made on the system from my letter.

I was also told that ALL of this took place from 1st May and that the first £563 would come out on that date. It didn't! The same amount of £395 came out again. So once again I rang to see what was going on, and again, I was assured that the £563 would start from the next month, and I was given FULL assurance that my mortgage would be paid off in 6 years at this payment. AGAIN NO MENTION WAS MADE OF AN EARLY REPAYMENT CHARGE.

I asked for all of this in writing but it never materialised. SO, once again I rang and spoke to an Irish male, who again went through my details, and again the same things were assured to me with the promise that the details would be confirmed to me as from Monday 22nd May in writing.

I received a letter basically stating what I owed, and what I would incur if I paid my mortgage off early!! No mention of my payments, no mention of it just being repayment now, no mention of the amount I was to pay each month, and no mention of 6 years to pay it off etc!

Yet again, I had to ring their head office. This time I spoke to another Irish man who told me that none of my wishes from my letter had seemingly been heeded!! He said that the tracker I had been put on is incorrect for what I want, as I can only pay up to 10% more on my mortgage a month (ie now that I have paid off 28k it is only £173 per month), so he was telling me that if I paid more than an extra £17.30 a month then I would incur this early repayment charge!!

Also, the £26650 interest only charge is still on my account, so I was charged interest on this in May. I have also had nothing in writing to state that the £249 I paid to change my product was taken off my actual outstanding balance (this was initially added to my o/s balance, even though I assured them that I would send a cheque immediately (which I did and they cashed).

Altogether, I am completely disgusted with the absolutely incompetent level of service I have been given on this throughout the company. I have an independent Financial Advisor who wanted to move me to the Nottingham Building Society prior to me speaking to the Halifax about my options. The move was a straight £570 per month repayment to be paid off in 6 years. I gave the Halifax the benefit of the doubt in "better the devil you know", and was assured that they could more than match this offer as I have explained above.

However, they have COMPLETELY failed my requests and me.

I therefore want them to send me a cheque for £249 to repay my change of product. Then I want to be put back onto the old product that I was on. I will then go back to my financial advisor and request that I move to the Nottingham Building Society immediately, without ANY early repayment charges.

Once again, I cannot elaborate enough the level of incompetence that I have encountered, and the stress that this has caused me. I have now lost ALL faith in the Halifax, and I expect that the very least they can now do for me is to allow my requests above to be fulfilled so that I can opt out of the Halifax once and for all.