Halifax mortgage entry fee comes under fire
August 22, 2008
Leading high street lender Halifax has recently come under fire after announcing that it has introduced a mortgage entry fee on its mortgage products amounting to around £245. New borrowers taking out a mortgage will not be charged this fee, and many officials have expressed anger that the bank is fleecing people financially at a time when mortgages are already very expensive and hard to come by.
Many have accused the Halifax of making up for the old exit fees by replacing them with the mortgage entry fee, stating that the bank is just looking for new ways to get more money from consumers. The new fee has been called a mortgage account fee, and effectively means that the bank no longer offers any fee free mortgage products. The new account fee will even be charged to those that pay higher interest rates on their mortgage.
One industry official said: ‘Halifax reduced exit fees right down from £175 to around £50 or waived them. But at the time that all this was happening Abbey was pilloried as it introduced an administration fee for mortgage customers. ‘
She went on to state: ‘The Halifax got the halo effect but now all the furore has died down it is trying to get under the radar and come out with a more expensive fee. HBOS has waited until the exit fees debate has died down before sneaking in a more expensive charge. I urge HBOS to scrap this decision.’
The fee will be applied at the point when the mortgage has been completed and funds have been released. An official from the Halifax said that the fee was being charged to cover ‘the setting up, routine maintenance and closing down of the mortgage account’
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