Thankfully it is an online facility as I wouldn't like to have to go and deal face to face with customer services although being able to deposit money elsewhere ie a sister branch would be a move with the times!

I took out a mortgage with them at the beginning of 2006. In June, my circumstances changed, and as a result I contemplated selling my property. However, having experience in the mortgage industry, I was worried about early redemption charges. Rather than sifting through numerous documents, I phoned IF to find out if early redemption charges would apply, a call which my family remember me making. The member of staff I spoke to said that there was no early redemption charge on the type of account I had. I can explicitly remember the relief and excitement that this news brought. Upon hearing this, I decided that I would sell my property rather than staying there or letting it out. The sale went through. However, when I received the money from the sale, it was c£2,000 less than I thought it would be. Upon investigation, it turned out that there was c£2,000 early redemption charge applied on my account.

When I phoned IF on 7th December, I was told that there was no record of my call, which has put me in a situation that it is my word against theirs.

While I accept as it currently stands IF are legally correct, morally I don't feel the company has acted with integrity. While I have tried to narrow down the time frame of the call and provide the telephone number it was made from, they have made little or no attempt to help me track it down.

If you do opt to do business with IF (Intelligent Finance), please be sure to get any advice they give in writing!

Unless you want to spend hours on the computer and phone sorting it all out, I would not recommend IF. I regret moving the mortgage to them. We may save a few quid, but at a cost of lots of stress and hassle. Definitely not worth it in my view.

I have an offset mortgage with the company for over six years. When I tried to withdraw my savings IF Mortgage refused to realease them. The company charged me £300 just to make an application to release my savings built up as a reserve on my mortgage then called in the beilifs. I would not recommend any one to take a mortgage wih IF or the Halifax.