Mortgage account fee launched by Halifax

The Halifax recently stirred up concern amongst consumers and industry officials by announcing the launch of a new mortgage loan fee. The £245 fee is known as a mortgage account fee, and is charged when the mortgage is completed and funds have been released to the borrower. However, the fee has come under fire by many concerned officials and consumers.

One official from the bank said that the purpose of the fee was to cover ‘the setting up, routine maintenance and closing down of the mortgage account’. 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 also said: ‘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.’

Some have accused the bank of replacing the old exit fees with the new mortgage entry fee, thus finding another way to get money out of consumers. The new fee means that there will no longer be any fee free mortgages available from the bank.