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[MSE Martin]

This thread is especially to report your successes taking on the banks/insurers to get compensation for missold endowments.

The aim is to show others that it is possible and it works.

Please report your successes here, if possible in the format

Bank/Provider:
Compensation:
The story: (just a few sentences)

• Read the article
  Act now on missold endowment (includes when and how to claim at no cost to you and without giving a claims handler a cut!)

Please don't use this thread for general discussion on endowment misselling compensation - go through the article's discussion links for that.

[AndrewSmith]

Bank / Provider: Abbey National
Compensation : £4500
The Story:

This is the endowment belonging to my other half Kim. She and her ex-husband took the policy out for their first mortgage, then took a second endowment to 'top-up' on a subsequent move.

Took approx 8 weeks from start to finish, and the policy(s) are still in force with 7 years till maturity.

She used the info from this site to find out how to approach the Abbey without engaging the services of 'specialist' companies.

She has said she is happy to offer blank copies of the letters to anyone who wants them.

[YorkshireBoy]

Bank/Provider: Yorkshire BS (Clerical Medical Policy)
Compensation: £2,800

Bank/Provider: Yorkshire BS (Norwich Union Policy)
Compensation: £200

The story:

Just rang up YBS and said I was unhappy about the projected shortfalls on 2 of my 4 endowment policies. They sent me 4 forms out and suggested I 'claim' on all 4 policies!

Forms very easy to complete, with only basic information requested...

Salary at the time
No of dependants at the time
Attitude to risk
Savings/pension provisions

Despite having a healthy 20% surplus on the other 2 policies, they still treated them as 4 individual claims and didn't attempt to aggregate them.

My £3,000 cheque was received within 4 weeks of the initial phone call.

[Hitman]

Hi all, I havent been on here for a while but just wanted to report my successful claims and to say thanks to all the community on here for their help and support. I had 3 claims 1 of which was rejected (it was started in 1984) but 2 have been compensated. Both of the compensated policies were sold by Abbey 1 of which was their own Ab Nat Life and the other was Standard life. The compensation seems to have been calculated by comparing the difference between the value of my endowment and what my balance would be had I paid by repayment if that makes sense? Anyway it amounted to £2,200 and £1500.00 so I am pleased that the balance has been redressed thanks again

[Tina D]

Provider: Abbey National Life
Compensation:£4100.00

I cant believe it, I would never have thought I would be entitled to anything. It was because Martin started most emails with his 'nagging' about being missold endowments that I thought well what have I got to lose. We took out the endowment in Sept 1994, changed mortgage provider in July 1998 and sold endowment in Sept 1998. I used the Which complaint letter and 1 week later received a form from Abbey. After spending the morning filling it in (very painful) I sent it off. That was 2 weeks ago. This morning I received an offer of £4100.00. Thankyou so much Martin, it genuinely is a case of 'if it wasnt for you......'

[Fix Rate]

Bank / Provider - Norwich Union

Compensation - 5k

The story - A letter came through highlighting in red the policy would underperform. Have i taken action it said. Heres how to complain it said. That together with always reading on this website you should always complian was enough for me!
I phoned up as instructed they took down details sent through forms. I filled them in as best as i could and with relatively no hassle i have an offer of just over 5k in about 6 weeks.
This basically amounts to the money i have paid into the thing for the past 16years. Happy.

[Kantankrus Mare]

Provider...... Nationwide Compensation £2500

Provider......Standard Life Compensation £2500

Story......When I first discovered this site over a year ago I read up on everything I could get my hands on to do with Endowments and Mis-selling.

I finally took the plunge and wrote to both companies explaining how I felt that we felt we had been mislead when an endowment mortgage was recommended to us when we were young and clueless.

After filling in some forms the companies sent us and patiently waiting for what at the time seemed an eternity we received our compensation!!

I wouldn't have had the knowledge to do all this without this site and for that I will be eternally grateful so a big thanks to Martin and the many knowledgable helpful people on here.

Thank you all so much!!

[supersub]

Lender: Abbey National
Compensation: £2,200 (two policies)

Our policies were from 1983 and 1987. I complained about the first and it was rejected by Abbey. Then the Abbey was heavily fined for its treatment of complaints, so I appealed - and slapped in a complaint about the second policy. They accepted both and offered a total of £2,200. Not a fortune, but £2,200 more than I would have had if I hadn't complained.

I keep urging colleagues to complain but they say they can't be bothered. The way I look at it is this: if someone asked me to do a job that would pay me £2,200 for (at a guess) two hours work, I'd jump at it, wouldn't I? So what's the difference?

[Ahmed]

Took out the policy in 1993. Followed Martins advice and sent the letter from the CA site and have been offered £5,000 top up, caash or value if policy and shortfall, not vsure which one to go for

[charliesnanna]

I took out policy with Scottish Amicable in 1991, upped the premiums in 2002 when told it wouldn't pay the mortgage in 2010, complained a few weeks ago after prompts from this site, and have been offered £3,707 in compensation.
I was offered a "Deal or No Deal" situation where they said if I wasn't happy with this I could have it recalculated but the amount could go up or down! I dealt! (the policy had been taken over by Prudential)

[mintymoneysaver]

Friends provident through Yorkshire building society (1989)
£2100
simple form to fill in, compensation came within a couple of weeks.

LEGAL AND GENERAL THROUGH A BROKER (1993)
£ 1431
A bit more complicated.Sold by a broker, but following advice on here just wrote to Legal who sent us a more complicated form to fill out.They rejected our complaint so took it to the ombudsman.Just had letter to say Legal have now agreed to our complaint and are waiting to find out how much compensation we will get.Taken about 3 months from start to this stage.
edit to say now received offer of £1431 from Legal.

Thankyou Martin, and which letter!


Both of these policies were actually cashed in in April last year, so don't let that put you off applying.

[EdInvestor]

This thread is especially to report your successes taking on the banks to get compensation for missold endowments.

For once I feel sorry* for the banks. The insurance companies bear a much bigger part of the blame for the endowment debacle, since not only did they sell around half the policies, they also grossly mismanaged the investments themselves,which bore such high charges that many of them never had any chance of doing what they said on the tin. So a double ripoff.

*But only a little bit

[Cappsy]

Bank/Provider: Standard Life through broker
Compensation: £4000
The story: The broker who sold me the endowment was owned by the same company I work for. The broker was sold but misselling liability stayed with our company. I was a little aprehensive about claiming however the situation was too serious to be put off (£16k shortfall). Informed and ecouraged by this forum (hearty thanks) and using the Which standard letter I went ahead. The claim wasn't contested.

[Lintonandy]

Allied Dunbar

£5500.00

Having read articles on misselling i looked into it.

I had taken out a policy to mature at £110K in 2000. I received a letter in 2003 to say it had an expected shortfall of £11k. I thought sod this and cashed it in and got a repayment mortgage. Earlier this year after hearing about the misselling I thought I'd give it a bash (other half thought I was mad). I got hold of the financial ombudsman gave a few details a few letters back and forth and lo and behold money. Would just like to say thanks to all who work and advise on this site - without which I wouldn't have bothered chasing this (now after woolwich for bank charges!)

[Jorayner]

Bank : Standard life sold via Stimpson/Black House agency - claim against Bradford and Bingley
Compensation:£9855.89

Endowment was £76000 taken out in 1988.

Took a while to find the right people to complain to, but when Standard life finally dug the papers out of archive and proved that Lloyds sold the policy it was clear.Bradford and Bingley bought the business so the complaint was with them.

Took about 4 weeks from this point.

Surrender value of SL policy measly £28862, but have just had £3000 in shares also( We paid £19,700 in premiums).

Will now swirch to repayment of £37,000 with 8 years left. This is affordable to us, so in 8 years we will hve cleared this part of the morgage , rather than have a £25,000 shortfall due to the underperformance of the SL policy.

Quite chuffed. Martins drip drip drip nagging approach finally worked , and I kicked it all off with a letter from endowment action.

Thank you - the future is bright rather than a big cloud hanging over us.

[colyoung33]

Bank:Co-op
Amount:£4500

FAirly simple to do . 1994 policy for 25years at £40k. claimed in 2004 due to misselling of the endowment as a poor choice and also the value of life insurance.
I have just recently sold my endowment policy and was offered 7.5k by cis and the usual endowment purchasers (AAP etc) offered me 8K (upped to 8.3K) but a company called Integrity bought it for 10.5K, therefore making me another £3k.

So possibly my endowment was not the worst investment it could have been.
To find these people who buy your policy type traded endowment policy sale into a search engine and get quotes from them all.

Colin

[hethmar]

Well we have 5 different policies going back to 1984.

The first two were through Cheltenham and Gloucester and totalled £10k. Just had a FINAL offer of £320 for that - does that sound fair??? They give 14 days to accept.

The third was direct with Standard Life - no reaction from them yet.

The last two were through a broker who is now out of business. We are going through a claims firm simply cos I cant get my head round to sorting this myself with so many variations etc. The agent says he is tracking down the firm that the IFA was working for but is not hopeful

[uoschemist]

Bank Nationwide/Standard Life

Amount £2500

Story

I had hesitated for ages before taking the plunge after reading on Martin's site about how easy it was. And it was a doddle. I followed all the instructions from the Which? website (links from Martin's) inculuding a draft letter where you just fill in the blanks. Nationwide responded almost immediately, sent a very nice letter back with a questionnaire for us to fill in. The questionnaire is a bit complicated but it just asks for details of the mortgage and the endowment policy and why you think you are due some compensation.

In a couple of weeks they replied to say we were due compensation, they would work out how much and then a week later got the cheque.

It really was simple.

It is all due to Martin and his website. So thanks again.

[mccluggage]

Provider: Barclays bank, endowment provided through Clerical Medical

Amount of comensation received: £5500

It was only after reading your email that I downloaded the standard letter and sent it off. I was worried that, because I had been divorced since the endowment was taken out I wouldn't be eligible, but it was very painless, and has reduced my mortgage by that amount. I am so very grateful.

Kathy

[clairejc]

I am glad I have the opportunity to share my success with y'all!
Big thanks to Martin and Norwich Union....

I claimed for endowment mis-selling in March,based on my original mortgage taken out 10 years ago. I recently moved, and reviewed my finances. With all the publicity re mis-selling I was sure I had a case. I used the 'claim letter template' on the 'Which' site, and contacted my lender.
Despite the fact that
1. I had been sold the policy by an adviser (who could not be traced) and
2. The mortgage still had 15 years to go, and
3. I had not been told that the investments would not pay it off (unlikely though)
4. My new mortgage was part investment/ part repayment to cover the shortfall..............

......within about 6 weeks I was awarded £6100!! It was quick and easy, and I highly recommend it.

Claire

PS I also rang the AA the other day threatening to cancel my membership (too expensive with a reliable car!) They said as I was a valued customer they could knock 30% off my premium if I stayed with them. No haggling, or begging either. AMAZING!
Martin's book is one of the best £7.99's I have ever spent, and I continue to review ideas to save money and reduce my paid work hours, to free up time for other (moneymaking!) projects!!