Can anybody here answer an INFURIATING mortgage settlement question please?

[WendyWeber]

Our A&L mortgage finishes this month (hooray) - the final amount due, on 28 June, is £7.26. We have had NO communication about this from them, I had to ring them early in May to check that I wasn't imagining it & get the figures.

Today I've been informed that they won't be taking £7.26, they'll be taking the normal amount - £260.79 - and keeping it for 10 working days against the risk of our bank (also A&L ) clawing the money back???? WTF?

And then it will take them 4 more working days to refund the difference from their A&L coffers into our A&L account - so they will have had our money for THREE WEEKS for no good reason that I can see.

When I rang I asked to speak to a supervisor and after 10 minutes on hold gave up.

Is it me or does this really really suck? Where do I complain?

It sucks and happened to me recently too. Not sure if there's anything you can do about it though?? Perhaps ask moneysavingexpert?

how are you btw

I'd send them a cheque or cash and cancel the DD

Hi, DG - am fine thanks, hope you and the darling girl are too .

Mmm, I wondered about Martin - might email Moneybox too. And the Guardian's money questions page. It might be normal procedure but (unless they also refund the interest accrued) it's bloody dishonest; and £260 is a relatively small amount, I bet many people's monthly payments are well into 4 figures

The dimwit girl on the phone seemed surprised that I minded!

(Which bank was yours with?)

you have to complain firstly to the compnay inlvoved and then if you don't get a reasonable response form them, you can take it to the FSA and their ombudsman

Won't it be too late, Kazza - it's due in 3 days & I seem to recall being advised not to try cancelling DDs within 4 days of due date?

Yes, I would cancel the direct debit and send them a cheque for the balance. If you can, go into the branch and pay the mortgage up early. Bear in mind though direct debits usually take 10 days to go through or something so they may have already requested the money.

Now you have said that it will be too late. You will just have to grin and bear it really.

Mine was Abbey, I switched to C & G. I didn't know they were going to take a payment but I rang them as soon as I noticed. They didn't offer an explanation only that it would be refunded after 10 days. I must admit to not being a*ed to ask them anything else , it all depends what sort of mood i'm in at the time.

Or not grin and bear it, BGD

A long time ago we borrowed a smallish extra amount (£4K) from Nationwide who we had our mortgage with at the time. It was a mortgage loan, but separate from the main one and over a shorter period, and on a repayment basis (the other was endowment)

When it was nearly paid off - maybe 3 or 4 months to go, can't remember exactly - interest rates went down. The payment due on ours for the last few months went UP!!! I never did understand why, and again there seems to be sod all you can do, esp when they quote arcane mathematical processes at you.

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A&L haven't even caught up with same-day BACS payments yet though, Orinoco

Can I quote you btw?

sounds like its worth a try - good luck

I will ring in the morning and see if I can cancel the DD but I bet they will say oh no, you should have rung by appointment last week.

can't you do it online?

Can you not just cancel the Dd via their telephone or internet banking, and then pay the princely sum over the counter, on the due date, in cash, or does A&L still hover in the 1980's without real time banking???
Why all this phoning up mallarkey?
who needs martin, eh?
Lucky bugger, paying off mortgage

I'm not sure, DG - it appears in the list of payees but not in the list of DDs (I always thought that was a bit odd).

I've deleted it from payees anyway, but will still ring to check if it's gone or not.

(They'll probably put a black mark on our credit rating )

I HATE BANKS!!!

Not lucky exactly, milge - we've been paying one since Oct 1983 - I think it's time we stopped

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Oh thank you, Orinoco, that's wonderful!

I will ring them tomorrow with that page in front of me!