Bank of Scotland - Overpaying a Tracker Mortgage?

[antomack]

A friend of mine has been told by BoS that she cannot make overpayments to her tracker mortgage either monthly or lump sum without paying a fee. How can this be as it's a variable rate mortgage and thus should be open to any overpayments one wants to make.

 

[jquinn]

With the wholesale rates the way they are, I would have thought they'd be delighted to let her make overpayments. Is she sure its a tracker?

 

[kceire]

im on a tracker with bank of scotland and the girl on the phone said i can pay in lump sums no problem.

she did tell me that you cant really increase your monthly payment as such, but you can decrease your mortgage term yjus increasing your payment and shortening your mortgage time.

better off throwing whatever your friend wanted to pay extra into a spare account and lodge the lump sums every 6 months or every year.

that way you control how much extra goes in.

 

[Wollran]

Hi There,

We had a similar experience with BoSi. We re-mortgaged in March 08 to avail of a better LTV rate, and once it the mortgage was all drawn down etc, we went about making monthly overpayments. Like you, we were told that we would incur charges for doing this. Because we had used a broker to get the mortgage, I went back to them with a very strongly worded letter, and they dealt with BoSi on our behalf and we now make montly overpayments each month, without incurring charges. We have also made one-off overpayment by cheque, without incurring a charge.

My advice is to persevere, it is possible to do it.
Wollran