Fighting for your money

Our £240,000 mortgage was turned down over a £285.85 fee that BT ‘waived’ five years ago

QWe are an American couple who first moved to Britain to make cheese. After being here for five years on a working visa, we recently obtained our indefinite leave to remain, which means we have the right to live and work in the UK indefinitely. So we decided to buy a house and applied for a mortgage, but were shocked to have our loan denied because of an adverse mark from BT on my wife’s credit report.

The saga began in 2016 when we found the BT Wi-Fi signal poor in our rural area. We decided to try Sky instead but quickly realised it couldn’t help us. We switched back to BT and because we came back, the company offered to waive the cancellation fee of £285.85.

For six months afterwards we received notices saying we hadn’t paid the cancellation fee. We complained several times and were told it was all fixed. A final email from BT in October 2016 assured us of this and we received no further bills.

So imagine our surprise when we applied for the mortgage and were told there was an adverse mark from a BT debt holding up our application. We have contacted both the credit agency Equifax and BT but both claimed that, as this account dated from 2016, it had been archived and they could not access it.

This situation has been compounded by us needing to vacate our current home imminently as the owner is renovating. This is putting us in the potentially costly situation of having to put all of our possessions in storage and rent an Airbnb until this is resolved. We are worried we may lose the house that we have agreed to buy. It seems our pleas are not being heard. – PK, Glos

AYou were busy making cheese in the dairy where you work when I called you. I wanted to get the lowdown on how this trifling sum, which you do not actually owe BT, was threatening to scupper plans to buy your dream family home.

You told me how worried you were that this hiccup, which was of neither your nor your wife’s making, could easily lose you the £240,000 mortgage you needed to secure the beautiful property you had set your hearts on.

It would be a struggle to find another that would suit all your needs, particularly because its bedrooms are unusually large for properties in the area, something you require because of your sprouting teenage sons, one of whom is already 6ft 4in tall.

It was time to prod BT into action. You showed me the email sent to you by the firm in 2016 that confirmed the fee had been waived and that you did not owe a penny.

It was clear evidence that you were blameless in this fiasco and the company should wipe out the debt immediately. You did consider simply clearing the debt yourselves to put an end to the ordeal but you were warned this was a risky move since it would have appeared as if you had indeed owed the money.

Just to be sure everyone who mattered was talking to each other, I also contacted Equifax, which said it was assisting your wife. It told me it needed permission from BT to amend the credit file but had so far failed to obtain it.

Equifax added that on Feb 9 it had requested an investigation into the accuracy of the data provided and that within two days BT had responded, frustratingly stating that the default information was correct. Your wife complained and provided the 2016 email as evidence, which Equifax forwarded to BT.

After I got in touch, BT finally got its act together on the basis of this evidence, realised its mistake and quickly credited the amount of the 2016 cancellation fee and cleared the debt on its records. A spokesman told me: “It now shows a perfect payment history from Jan 26 2016. We have also offered the

You considered simply clearing the debt yourselves, but were warned this was risky

couple a gesture of goodwill of £200 for the inconvenience.”

Your wife contacted me a couple of days later to say thank you for my help and added the pleasing words I was hoping to hear: “Our mortgage has been approved.”

More good news was to come because the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, then announced in the Budget that the stamp duty holiday would be extended, giving you more time to complete your house purchase and hopefully cutting a £16,000 stamp duty charge that was also weighing on your minds.

Your experience is a timely reminder for all would-be mortgage borrowers to check their own credit histories for potential mistakes before they apply for a home loan.

Anyone can do this free of charge and if an error is spotted it is possible (all being well) to get it corrected before a mortgage lender looks at it. There are three agencies that hold credit data – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion (formerly Callcredit) – and it is usually recommended to contact all of them.

Where is our £250 refund on a Samsung soundbar?

Q I have had a problem with a Samsung promotion, which promised a 50pc refund off the price of a Samsung soundbar if purchased at the same time as a Samsung TV. As this appeared to be a generous offer we chose a high-value soundbar for £500 with the expectation that we would get £250 back.

The TV and soundbar were purchased through John Lewis in October 2020 and I submitted a claim on the Samsung website. The claim could not be processed because you have to wait 30 days from the point of purchase so in November, after 30 days, I tried again.

I entered what I thought was the required information and the website allowed me to submit my claim, along with copies of the purchase invoices and photos of the items’ ID numbers.

After several days, when I had not received confirmation of the claim, I tried to contact Samsung. I selected an option to check a claim’s progress and got an automated message that said that, thanks to coronavirus and staff working from home, claims were taking longer to process and I should be patient. On Dec 2, when I had still not heard anything, I tried Samsung’s UK support chat bot. This failed to answer my concerns, but I did receive a message from someone who provided me with three phone numbers – all of which ended up with the previous “be patient” response.

Eventually, Samsung told me I would not be receiving the refund as I hadn’t filled in the claim form properly. Fair enough, but why hadn’t someone contacted me to correct the errors?

I looked at the terms and conditions and they said customers who failed to complete the forms correctly would be contacted by email or text to provide any missing information within seven days or the claim would be invalid. We never heard anything.

While Samsung could be legally correct in its refusal of the refund, I believe that its terms are unreasonable. – CW, Herts

Send your questions Write to Sally Hamilton, Telegraph Money, The Daily Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT. Please do not send original documents. Include an address, phone number and separate notes addressed to all organisations authorising them to talk to Sally. For full terms visit telegraph.co.uk/go/ consumerchampion. You can also email sallysolves@telegraph.co.uk

A You have had a frustrating time getting to the bottom of what went wrong with the Samsung deal. I spoke to the company on your behalf and it said it was sorry you had had such difficulty redeeming the offer.

After an investigation, a spokesman confirmed that as you had been informed previously that you hadn’t completed the whole form, the claim was deemed invalid.

But the spokesman told me that the company appreciated the steps you had taken to sort things out and the inconvenience this had caused. As a result, Samsung was more than happy to honour your claim. You tell me you have already received the £250 refund and are now appreciating your purchase at the price you expected to pay.

It is a pity customers must jump through such hoops. It would be more customer-friendly to have their discount applied at the time of purchase.