The heavy cost of seeing double

Need a copy of your bank statements or mortgage payments for your tax return or for a remortgage application? You could be in for a shock when you discover how much it costs to obtain simple duplicates.

A Jobs & Money survey this week reveals that Woolwich charges £25 for each mortgage statement requested, in sharp contrast to other lenders such as Halifax and Nationwide, where duplicate statements are free.

The increasing numbers of people remortgaging are always asked by their new lender for a copy of past mortgage payments made. Usually a lender will want to see two or three years' records, so the total cost for somone remortgaging out of Woolwich can be £75, while at Abbey National and Northern Rock the figure is £45.

A similar picture emerges if you need copies of bank statements. While Barclays and HSBC make no charge, Lloyds TSB demands £5 per sheet - so a couple of month's statements could set you back £30-£40.

How can some banks and lenders justify charges, while others offer copies for free? Woolwich is tight-lipped about its charge, the highest in the survey. In a terse statement it said: "We feel this is a realistic charge."

However, according to other lenders such as Nationwide, asking £25 for a single piece of paper outlining your payments is no longer acceptable in an age where computers mean that the true cost of a print-off is in reality a matter of a few pence.

Nationwide dropped a wide range of fees in June 1998, including charges for stopping cheques or for production of a mortgage deed. At the time, it said: "Every bank and building society has customers who are irritated by one service fee or another. As a building society we are not driven to maximise the profit we make out of our customers at every turn."

Yorkshire building society is now following Nationwide's lead, although two years' late. It currently charges £5 for a copy of a mortgage statement, but will drop the charge from next year. "It's all part of our ongoing commitment to mu tuality," says a spokeswoman.

However, while it is fair to say that non-mutuals (such as Woolwich, Abbey National and Northern Rock) tend to be the high chargers, there are non-mutuals which have dropped fees. For example, neither Cheltenham & Gloucester (part of Lloyds TSB) or Halifax make charges, even though both are quoted companies.

Cheltenham & Gloucester's largesse is all the more suprising considering that its parent company is the highest charger for copies of duplicate bank statements, at £5 per statement. A Lloyds TSB spokesman says: "There is quite a lot of work involved in obtaining statements which are archived and not available by a simple click of a computer mouse." It adds that its charges are currently "under review."

However, HSBC says it has no problems sending customers duplicate copies for free at the click of a mouse. Spokeswoman Victoria Lee says: "We have spent an awful lot of money in modernising our systems, whereas other banks may still be using old microfiche records which will make it more time consuming for them."

But if you are a user of a bank's internet services, do not rely on your web account as your filing system. Lloyds TSB on-line bank statements currently go back six weeks, while First Direct's on-line service holds your statement going back four months.

However, it is expected that on-line records of bank statements going back further than just a few months will be available to account holders as the web services develop and expand their technology.