Hello all, wondered if i could get some advice please? My parents took out an endowment mortgage with National Home Loans (now Paragon) back in 1985, they changed mortgage company some years later. They dont have any documents any more but i said to mum it might be worth seeing if there is any claim she could make on mortgage exit fees. They struggling financially at the time and she cant remember what fees etc they paid. I wrote on her behalf, no account number or anything just gave her name, address and year of mortgage and asked for exit fees refund. I thought it was a bit of a long shot but to my surprise got a letter today with a cheque for £40, which is fab! The reason im asking for advice is that they have written this covering letter: Thank you for your recent letter, regarding your request for a refund of fees incurred during the redemption of your loan has been reviewed in light of the recent statement made by the FSA. The statement made by the FSA however relates only to loans regulated by the FSA. Unfortunately your loan does not fall under the jurisdiction of the FSA and therefore there is no obligation to refund the amount requested. We regularly review the fee tariffs and the level of fees reflects the administrative and operational costs involved in servicing mortgage accounts. However as a gesture of goodwill we will refund the amount of £40 which equates to the amount charged at redemption of your loan. I'm just wondering why they would pay out a goodwill gesture if they didn't have to? Are they just being genuinely nice and she should think herself very lucky and take the cheque? Is it worth SAR-ing them to see if theres anything dodgy on the account? I dont know what exactly, just being a bit suspicious i guess Thank you

Im also just starting out with HFC (Beneficial Finance) so good luck to both of us!!

Excellent! Thanks for the advice, SAR will be in the post tomorrow!

Oh he doesnt remember doing anything like this (though it was Household Bank back then so maybe different?)

Hi thanks for the speedy replies! Ive had a look through the paper work, and have got the loan credit agreement: Credit Agreement Also got the 6 page PPI policy which details what is and isnt covered, as well as a 2 page "personal loan key features" also unsigned (i guess they have the signed copies) Key Features Page 1 Key Features Page 2 Its more annoying because immediately after my husband came home and told me he had taken out this loan I was at the interest rate and told him to cancel and get something cheaper (they literally dragged him off the street and talked him into getting the loan - hes not very good at saying no when pressured!! ) He called the next day to cancel but they said he couldnt cancel it, i think this is probably wrong so they have really annoyed me all these years! I know he wouldnt have taken the PPI if he had known he didnt have to, though it does state it is optional in the contract so im not sure if we have a chance.

Hi all! I am thinking of starting a claim for PPI on my husbands behalf. He took a loan out with HFC back in Dec 2004 with PPI - however he was pressured into taking the PPI and the salesperson implied he would need it to be accepted for the loan. He also has congenital glaucoma which means he needs hospital treatment and medication and time off work from time to time, I guess this wouldnt be covered by the PPI if we needed it but nothing was said about this when he took out the PPI, so does that help our case? He tried to cancel the PPI a while ago and was told they would have to open a whole new loan and the payments would be more than he is paying now. We have copies of the contract which he was given when he took the loan, but there are no signatures anywhere. Do you think we have a chance of claiming it back? I've printed out a letter requesting a refund for the above reasons but havent sent it yet! Thanks!!

Hi thanks for all the speedy replies! They posted out the forms to us and we signed them at home and posted them back. I hoped we might be able to just cancel, especially as we havent had any 'actual' money from them. On the phone they stated that they were under no obligation to give us any cooling off period....maybe they were just fobbing me off.

Hi everyone My husband and I recently applied for a secured loan for £30000 through Norton Finance - who got us the loan with Endeavour Personal Finance (part of Beneficial I think) Its a debt consolidation loan. We signed the paperwork and sent it off. The next day we found out theres a chance my husband will be made redundant in the next couple of months so we thought it best not to carry on with the loan (at this point we didnt even know if the application had been accepted anyway). We got the cheques through a couple of days later and phoned up straight away to ask if we could cancel the loan. They said its usually their policy to charge 6 months interest to cancel the loan and there is no 'cooling off' period, but if i write in and ask explaining the reasons they may consider not charging it. I cant find anything in the T&Cs about cancelling, it just says the agreement is binding from the time of signing, and that by cashing the cheques I confirm that I fully understand and accept the details of the loan. (We havent cashed the cheques) Can anyone advise if we are bound by their terms and if they state we must pay 6 months interest then we will have to pay it if we want to cancel? I have written to them asking nicely and explaining the situation with the redundancy etc so hopefully they may cancel with no charges. Obviously we got the loan because we are struggling financially and paying out 6 months interest would be crippling! Thanks!

Letter today, 5 days after LBA sent - got my hopes up but it was just a standard "Managing your money" letter and booklet

Hello Just a quick update - Got the usual standard letter last week and sent off my LBA on Monday. Just have to wait and see what happens now!

Hi Peaches yes they took the £5 straight away out of my account, but i'll be claiming it back! Well, i think i can claim it back anyway, not sure now you mention it! Im sure i can though... It just seems that the SAR letter can take so long, they can probably guess that youre going to claim your charges back so maybe they try to drag it out as long as possible, whereas my statements were back in a week after I just asked for them over the phone. I think one advantage of the SAR letter is that it is a formal request so if they dont send your info out or some of it is missing you can take action, whereas over the phone it might be more difficult.

Hello all thanks for your messages! Ive had my statements through now. I asked for them over the phone on 9th April and they arrived in full on the 16th, not too bad eh! Worked out the total amount ill be claiming is £980 Ive done the spreadsheet and prelim letter and will be sending them off recorded delivery tomorrow Best of luck to everyone!

Hello all! I just heard about this and have spent the weekend looking through the forums. Phoned Halifax today to get my statements, Getting them from when i opened the account in 1998. They said it should take 7-10 days so fingers crossed! (cost £5) If they send them on time seems like its easier to phone then write. Bit scared but gonna go for it, i dont think it will be a huge amount, maybe £1000 or so but worth it anyway. Good luck to everyone!