Following MI’s campaign for lenders to ditch their 0870 numbers, TMW and its parent company Portman Building Society switched to 0845. The lender said it had sent out e-mails informing brokers of the change.
However, TMW’s 0870 number is still in operation so brokers who are unaware of the number change are still being charged the premium rate.
David Wright of PC Mortgage Company, who has had several recent experiences of being kept on hold with TMW for over an hour, said he had received no information from TMW about its number change and it was still only displaying the 0870 number.
He said: “TMW is still making money out of its 0870 number. Its BDMs are still advertising the 0870 number. I’ve just checked another client’s file who went through TMW. Its offer was issued on 10 August 2005 and only has the 0870 number on it. It is bankrupting me with phone charges while making enormous profits on its own 0870 fiddle.”
Paul Howard, director of intermediary sales at TMW, said: “We introduced an automated call back service back in April. The 0845 numbers were introduced in July 2005 and we communicated them accordingly and have continued to publicise the numbers on all documentation since.
“It is normal practice across the Society to leave a number which is changing in use for a period of three months. An automated message is scheduled to be placed on the 0870 numbers shortly, informing callers that the numbers have now changed.”
