*ANYONE WHO HAS CHANGED MORTGAGE LENDERS IN THE LAST 6 YEARS MUST READ THIS*

[emmatomATO]

If you have changed mortgage lenders in the last 6 years you would have been charged an exit fee.

This should have been £50 but many banks/building societies charged up to £300. This has now been officially declared out of order and a phone call to your previous dealer will give you back anything you paid over the £50 plus interest.

It was that Martin money man on GMTV this morning who said all this and would you believe, one phone call to the Woolwich and I'm £100 + better off.

No iffs, no butts (like reclaiming bank charges), they just have to give it to you.

Tell everyone - I'm all for the small guy getting justice over the big ones!

it's great isn't it?

Result - £75 from the Halifax. emma you're a star

Is it also called the 'final repayment charge'??

thanks very much Emma - Halifax have a helpline set up just for this.
0845 1203033.

I re-mortgaged 14 months ago to Nationwide, can't find my paperwork anybody know their exit fee?

Sorry mis-understood, this exit fee obviously would have been the previous mortage lender, yes?

ZipadiSuzy - you need to be contacting the lender that you were with before you moved to Nationwide. They are the ones who will have charged you the exit fee.

ok....so we had a variable rate wirth a building society then last year got a fixed rate with the same BS - would this count?

probably not since it's with the same lender, but still worth a phonecall - check out martin's site (moneysavingexpert.com) he's done a link with the lenders, their phone nubmers and what they (might) be offering back to people

How did you do it via the phone - I phoned nationwide (£185) and they said it is not possible so I had to print out the template letter off the Guardian website form that Martin guy and send it.

just rang them
we just changed products so not applicable grrrr

i will have a look at the site later in more detail

I exited a mortgage with Cheltenham and Gloucester nearly 6 years ago, and was charged a penalty, iirc because I had had a fixed rate deal for a while (which was somewhat annoyingly higher than the variable for most of the term). This wouldn't be reclaimable would it? It was specified in the paperwork when I originally took out the mortgage.

Blimey! One phone call = £100 back from egg. No account number needed - straight into my bank account. Thank you

its not the early redeption fees/penalties you can claim back, just the exit charge/redemption fee/admin charge you get for redeeming any mortgage whether or not you are doing it early within an offer period (in which case you will get legitimate penalties) or not.

Who are you all phoning to get it done so quickly over the phone - what are you saying? anyone had any luck with nationwide yet?

I just used teh number on egg's website. Said I was enquiring abour whether I ahd been overcharged re exit fees. No problems at all, they obviously are getting used to teh calls.

Thanks for posting this! We changed about five years ago. I've just called our former lender and they're looking into it. They haven't said yet if we're eligible for a refund but Martin's website would suggest we are so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'd never have known about this if you hadn't posted. Thanks.

I have a question - how many of these lenders are likely to refuse you a mortgage in the future once you claim the overcharges back?.......

I had a mortgage with Natwest which we moved a while back to get cheaper rate, but now that we may move back to NW sometime in the future as they often have good rates...

I know that not a major concern as there are plenty of mortgage lenders around but maybe worth a consideration?

I am £50 up! Thanks for this! great thread!

highly unlikely that a provider would blackball you considerikng the amount of money you'd be paying back in interest for a mortgage

and bump again