Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Arguing with the Halifax
I'll get straight to the point: I moved house recently, and increased the mortgage in the process to cover the extra cost. A few days after moving, I received a letter from the Halifax stating that I owed about £2,000 in early repayment fee, which was a surprise to me. I phoned them up, and it turned out that I didn't have to pay it, because I was staying with the same company for my mortgage.
However, I wanted to know why I had been sent it in the first place. It had been sent to me before we actually moved (i.e. before the new mortgage came into effect) but due to moving house and slow mail over Xmas, I only received it after we'd moved. Anyway, the man at the Halifax said it was because at the time it was sent, there was no link between the old mortgage and the new mortgage (because they never exist at the same time - one ends, the next one starts immediately), so there was no way for "the computer" to know that I was staying with the same company for my new mortgage.
However, the Halifax must have know that it was me with the old mortgage and me that's getting a new mortgage, otherwise how else would they know to give me the money? Surely the fact that the name is the same on both mortgages, as is most of the other details (apart from the address).
The trouble with these arguments is that they get tedious very quickly, and even if I did convince the man on the end of the phone that their computer system could be better, it's not like the Halifax is going to suddenly mobilise an army of programmers to make it better.
Mortgage comnpanies seem to expect you to have a degree in Mortgage-ology. When I moved, all I wanted to do was increase my mortgage. Simple as that. But their process is paying off the original mortgage, starting a new mortage for the same amount at the same interest rate, and starting another new mortgage for the difference between the previous two, but at the current going interest rate.
Moving house, and in particular, getting a mortgage, is one of the most deliberately over-complicated and expensive things (where they add various miscellaneous charges - £50 to post you the deeds for example), and the sooner I can pay mine of the better. In this world though, we have no choice.
However, I wanted to know why I had been sent it in the first place. It had been sent to me before we actually moved (i.e. before the new mortgage came into effect) but due to moving house and slow mail over Xmas, I only received it after we'd moved. Anyway, the man at the Halifax said it was because at the time it was sent, there was no link between the old mortgage and the new mortgage (because they never exist at the same time - one ends, the next one starts immediately), so there was no way for "the computer" to know that I was staying with the same company for my new mortgage.
However, the Halifax must have know that it was me with the old mortgage and me that's getting a new mortgage, otherwise how else would they know to give me the money? Surely the fact that the name is the same on both mortgages, as is most of the other details (apart from the address).
The trouble with these arguments is that they get tedious very quickly, and even if I did convince the man on the end of the phone that their computer system could be better, it's not like the Halifax is going to suddenly mobilise an army of programmers to make it better.
Mortgage comnpanies seem to expect you to have a degree in Mortgage-ology. When I moved, all I wanted to do was increase my mortgage. Simple as that. But their process is paying off the original mortgage, starting a new mortage for the same amount at the same interest rate, and starting another new mortgage for the difference between the previous two, but at the current going interest rate.
Moving house, and in particular, getting a mortgage, is one of the most deliberately over-complicated and expensive things (where they add various miscellaneous charges - £50 to post you the deeds for example), and the sooner I can pay mine of the better. In this world though, we have no choice.
