UCI Bank - Help!

Has anyone heard of UCI bank?  I have had a mortgage with them for 2 years, foisted on to me by the mortgage advisor who sold me the mortgage.

I have been contacting them over 6 weeks now, phone calls (not cheap from the UK) and dozens of emails to try and talk to somone to discuss lowering my repayments, now that the interest rates have come down.  Everyone around me seems to have lower payments except me and now I'm finding it very difficult to service this mortgage.  If I try to switch to another lender, the set up costs are over 5000 euros.

Can anyone help in trying to contact these people.  They don't have offices, they are faceless people at the other end of a telephone!  I can't seem to move forwards.

Thanks Justin.  I've been given the number 902 155551 which gets me through to a centre of some sort where I'm constantly told that someone will get back to me.  This has been ongoing since October.  I've been using that email address, but without a single response and I've just tried the fax number which is just ringing out.

If it was the other way round, where the bank was trying to get hold of me, they would be taking steps to have me hunted down, hung, drawn and quartered no doubt!  Lawyers are telling their clients discuss their situations with the lenders, but what can you do if the lender won't talk to you?

I am a client of Santander, but as usual, they wash their hands of the affair by saying that, UCI is a seperate entity and they cannot do anything.

So much for customer care.

Talk about customer service....

I just phoned up someone who I know works at UCI.  He told me that individual interest rates are only reviewed in general every 6 months.  So when you ring up you need to ask when the next review for your account will take place, but there are 6 month intervals between interest rate changes, so you your payment will only change depending on the rate at the time of the review of your mortgage account.

Hope that helps.

Justin

UCI not best known for customer service - this in a country where banks generally not fantastic on customer service levels - especially over the phone or to a call centre - many of them filling the hoiurs that get them through the day!! As a broker in this market we discovered a long time ago that the one body that was likely to do best out of a UCI mortgage was UCI and stopped using them a long long time ago. Too many grey areas on how interest charges would be applied and general lack of transparency - many brokers that could not place business elsewhere (owing to less than desirable procedures and practices) used them as it was easy (apparently) to pass off fraudulent documentation with them. During 2005 and I think 2006 as well they were the mortgage lender in Spain that wrote the highest amount of business in the non resident market - they had a team of business development managers continually trawling round estate agents offices and brokers with the lure of free holidays and gifts owing to the volumes of business placed through them - "10 completions equals a holiday to China" was one incentive I recall (guess it was at the expense of providing a client with good advice and most appropriate product for their needs.

Hi,i also have a mortgage with UCI,and am beginning to wonder what happens when repossesion proceedings start.Other than loosing the villa do i end up going to court?

Its a slow process and usually takes between 2 and 3 years. Ultimately the case will be presented in court and to all intents and purposes the property will then be owned by the court for disposal (almost like a child being a ward of court). I guess in theory you should be present for the hearing but in reality if you are back in the UK they would be hard pressed to force you to return - I dont think this is covered by European Law yet.