Borrowers accused of late mortgage payments by Northern Rock

August 8, 2008

Thousands of mortgage payers have been falsely accused of failing to pay their mortgage on time by ailing high street bank Northern Rock. The Rock, which recently became the victim of the first run on a British bank in 150 years, accused thousands of its customers of failing to pay their mortgages on time. The customers received letters stating that their mortgages were overdue and asking them to get the matter sorted out as quickly as possible.

In order to avoid any delays that may have been caused with postal problems the bank sent letters out to all of its customers, including customers who were not yet due to make a mortgage payment. One borrower who received such a letter despite his payment not yet being due stated that the still had to make another payment to resolve the issue. He explained that he had to make an additional payment on his card.

“I can imagine some people will be panicked into paying on their debit card, then the standing order will go through and they will have paid twice. It’s a cash-flow game and I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

Following the incident Northern Rock officials have apologised, and have stated that the intention was certainly not to get extra money out of customers. One official from the bank stated: “During December a pre-emptive mailing was sent out to all customers who pay by standing order due to the amended post days. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Northern Rock hit major problems earlier this year after it became widely known that it had taken an emergency loan from the Bank of England. Once this became public knowledge over £2 billion was taken out of the bank by savers in the space of just a few days.

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