In spite of repeated allegations and interrogation, Alliance & Leicester still hasn’t broken its silence regarding the high ‘switch’ fee it charges to customers, which is at least three times higher than what is charged by its contemporaries.
As the account closure fee, including deed returning costs and calls to conveyancers, A &L levies a colossal £295 charge, which is drastically high when compared to Nationwide that is seen charging £90 and Halifax that charges £115.
In fact, A & L charges are £100 higher than even the limit fixed by the Financial Services Authority for a typical account closure fee.
This is not all. Reports confirm that when A&L hiked the account closure fee in August, from £195 to £295, it did not deem it important to inform its 450,000 customers. The bank intended to just make it a rule for any borrower who planned to switch lenders.
Borrowers obviously were in for a big shock when they got to know of the huge fee while switching. Many have registered their complaints with Financial Mail which has planned further to convey all grievances directly to the mortgage director of A & L, Stephen Leonard on April 18.
It is being said that the rise in the account closure fee is A & L’s bid to raise some moollah, along with drawing a large number of customers offering lucrative mortgage rates. Despite losing around 100,000 borrowers per year, A & L is bringing home nothing less than £10m with its £100 fee rise.
Posted
on : Mon, 04 Apr 2005 00:00 GMT | Mortgages News
By : Salim Patel
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