Yorkshire Building Society to refund £8.4 million
17/02/2014
The Yorkshire Building Society will refund a total of £8.4 million to nearly 34,000 of its customers after an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ruled that the building societies procedures were not thorough enough, as thousands of customers were wrongly charged for missing their mortgage repayments.
Under current regulations, a company can only charge its customers who are in arrears by two months or more. However, thousands of Yorkshire, Chelsea and Barnsley Building Society customers were charged as soon as they missed a payment.
To reduce any delays in customers receiving their refund, the building society has announced all borrowers who were charged late fees since January 2009 will receive a refund, rather than just those who were charged incorrectly. As a result, Yorkshire Building Society has announced that they will refund an average of £247 to a total of 33,900 customers.
Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA was quoted as saying: "This is a very important reminder that firms must take responsibility for any wrongdoing and make sure their customers get a fair deal."
Need advice?
If you need to ask a financial questions then please contact our financial advisers online or over the phone to get help with your query.
Share this..
Related stories
Alistair Darling risks his political career for Scottish jobs
Alistair Darling may well be in the final throws of his time at the Treasury but he is literally risking his future political career by lobbying for HBOS jobs to be retained in Scotland. In amazing scenes we now have the Chancellor of the Exchequer lobbying for the retention of jobs in Scotland after the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB. However, maybe it has something to do with the up and coming...
Read MoreFingerprint recognition technology to be used by banks
Two major high street banks have announced that they will introduce fingerprint recognition technology to their smartphone applications as a method of allowing their customers to access their account information. The applications, which will work with the standard technology installed on some of Apple’s smartphones, must be activated with security information and will be made available to cu...
Read MoreWill the overdraft fee saga mean the end of free banking?
Over the last 48 hours it has emerged that the UK Supreme Court will this week rule on the eligibility of the Office of Fair Trading to clarify whether banks have overcharged customers with regards to their overdrafts and certain fees. This is a vital element of the ongoing overdraft fee saga and there is a feeling that if the UK Supreme Court rules in favour of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) th...
Read MoreNo Explanation Bank Account Closures ‘Unjust’
Banks that close customers’ accounts without explanation have been said to be acting against the natural rules of justice, according to the chairman of the Financial Services Authority’s Consumer Panel, Adam Phillips. However banks currently close customers’ accounts and refuse to provide an explanation upon doing so, in order to follow anti-money laundering laws. The issue was first h...
Read MoreAre packaged bank accounts really worth it?
As many elements of "free banking" start to disappear from the UK financial scene there are concerns that some packaged bank accounts are not worth the extra money. The vast majority of UK banks offer a service which, for a small payment per month, will give the customer access to a range of insurance policies and other services at "at no extra cost". These include amongst others, travel insurance...
Read More