The Woolwich rates for watsing YOUR time.

[Bhumpf]

Hi all,

I have recently closed my mortgage with the Woolwich early and not only successfully avoided the Final Payment Charge of £275, but also successfully claimed my own administration charges for the wasted time and effort in trying to get the matter resolved. I managed this without recourse to the courts (although this was threatened) but I did involve the Financial Ombudsman who wrote to Barclays/The Woolwich and its this that finally forced a response and a settlement.

I maintained that I was exempt from the Final Payment Charge because I was closing the Mortgage because of the incompetence and deceit I believed I had been subjected to in there dealings with my Account.

12 months ago, I challenged the new charge - the " Final Payment Charge" of £275 because this replaced the "early redemption charge" of £95 which was in force when I took out the mortgage. I made the challenge on two counts, namely that the charge was being increased far in excess of the inflation rate, and that I couldn't see where the costs to that level would be incurred. after several letters and telephone calls I finally received a letter saying that if my mortgage ran to the full term it would not incur the "Final Payment Charge". I accepted this at the time. Two of the items meant to be covered by the charge were the reassignment of any life policy and the preparation of a redemption statement.

When my life policy matured I discovered that the Woolwich hadn't even taken a charge on my life policies in the first place but were wanting to charge me for the release of the charge anyway.

Because of this and because the Woolwich could not or would not follow my instructions I advised them in writing that I wanted to close my mortgage without penalty immediately (on 17th Nov 2006) because I could not and would not have any further dealings with a company such as theirs.


With regard to my own administration charges against the Woolwich in my discussions to get a settlement I applied and was paid the following rates :-

Letter administration charge ( applied per letter - incoming and outgoing and to such items as statements and rate change letters that arrived after my account should have been closed ) £25 per item

Telephone Call Charge ( also applied to incoming and outgoing calls ) £10 per item

During this process I was advised that the maximum they would be prepared to pay for time would be £10 per Hour to a maximum of £100 per day.

I personally did not ask for time based charges because I had allowed for my time in the other charges, but these were figures given to me when I advised that my hourly rate when in employment was £20 per hour.

I provide this information to help anyone involved with Barclays / The Woolwich; I wish others success.


P. S. Another ploy I used was to copy the later stages of my correspondence to Deanna Oppenheimer, Barclays Bank Ltd, Chief Executive of UK Retail Banking at 1 Church Place, London E14 5HP. This got me a letter of apology from Peter Dixon, (Customer Relations Manager also at the above address, Tel No 020 7116 4237. ) acting on behalf of Ms Oppenheimer.

regards,

Bhumpf