Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

mayb_2

Have you a record of the letters that you have sent - recorded delivery etc? If you can show that the company has been sent your letters and failed to respond, then in your place I would be sending a private and confidential letter to the Chief Executive of the company concerned. You should be able to get details on line or from the FSA itself. In this you should state that you will be making an complaint to the FSA if no response is received within - state the date you expect to receive a response.

If you haven't got a proof that the letter was sent and received then now is the time to send one recorded delivery to the same Chief exec in the same way -enclose copies of the former letters and ask for the company's final response to your claim. Once you have that then you can take it to the Ombudsman if you are not happy with the response. If they do not respond you can complain to the FSA who would ask them to respond to your letters - they will give you a reference and if you do not receive a satisfactory response within a stated time scale you must go back to the FSA quoting the reference. I assume if nothing is done from that point on then you should be able to send the paperwork to the Ombudsman and ask them to investigate your claim.

I have bypassed the letter to the executive and complained straight to the FSA before now over an insurance claim - it changed the attitude of the company concerned considerably.

dunstonh

Could someone please help/advise me on the next step.

Take your complaint to the FOS basically saying what you have here and they should take over due to non-compliance with the complaints process.

Norwich Union have no liability to you. So chasing them is pointless. Its the advising company that has liability (unless its a pre-April 1988 case).

MONSIEUR_3

dunstonh wrote: »

Take your complaint to the FOS basically saying what you have here and they should take over due to non-compliance with the complaints process.

Norwich Union have no liability to you. So chasing them is pointless. Its the advising company that has liability (unless its a pre-April 1988 case).

I will do, Thank you. for info, it was sold in 1992

dreamylittledream

Crazy_Saver wrote: »

How come it's just us two and dunstonh left to fight it out all alone these days.

Where's DOTW, Ed, Vinno etc.,:cool:

I think most of us may have moved on Crazy!

I've been out of regulated complaints and indeed FS for nearly a year myself.

The endowments issue is pretty much over now - there are few if any policies that are not timebarred these days...

mayb_2

It would be nice if we had all had our happy endings dreamy. There are still claims and questions being posted on here - also it is not possible to move on when the Ombudsman is still sitting on your case or your mortgage has yet to be paid.

treliac

mayb wrote: »

It would be nice if we had all had our happy endings dreamy. There are still claims and questions being posted on here - also it is not possible to move on when the Ombudsman is still sitting on your case or your mortgage has yet to be paid.

And as my recent case conclusion proves, it's still possible to achieve a satisfactory outcome - the ombudsman's upholding of complaint being almost as satisfying as the redress payment received.

dreamylittledream

I apprececiate that maybe - although sadly anyone who is starting their complaint now is unlikely to be successful (not impossible depending on the circumstances but certainly more likely then not now I'm afraid).

The final decision backlog remains long I believe but in terms of new cases coming into the FOS the volume is drying up.

too_much_debt

Hi

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place or not.

I received my Mortgage Endowment Plan Update today and for the first time since I've taken in out (1996) it says AMBER ALERT.

I was wondering if it is worth trying to claim being mis-sold it. There is a letter with it saying 'Do you think you have a valid complaint?' and it says to look below for the Deadline and under Dealine date it says 'Currently no deadline'.

I called up the form 'Complaint Letter Generator' and it asks to tick all the boxes which I think apply for why I think I was missold it, I have the original paperwork and it does have figures on what I will get when it matures based on 5% a year, 7.5% a year and 10% a year. It also has figures on if I cash it in early (which I have no intention of doing), plus it has 'What the deductions are for' and 'How much will the advice cost?' and it has figures for each one.

Obviously I have nothing to lose by filling in the form and sending it off, all they can say is no. Just wondered though as it was 13 years ago now, it is currently linked to our mortgage but might not be after next year when our fixed rate is up and OH wants to go totally Repayment, so then will just pay the premium.

Any advice appreciated as I'm not very confident on things like this and don't really understand much of this sort of thing.

Thanks in advance.

dunstonh

I was wondering if it is worth trying to claim being mis-sold it.

Its not a game where you can try it on. You were either mis-sold or you were not. Just because its fallen into a amber position in the interim, that isnt grounds for complaint. Indeed, current unit pricing (if unit linked) could be very good news for long term regular investors.

Obviously I have nothing to lose by filling in the form and sending it off, all they can say is no.

That isnt a good attitude. Some poor sod who could have done everything correctly is going to have a black mark put against their name even if the complaint is rejected. It could cost them money as well potentially depending on their authorisation status.

If you have a valid complaint then make the complaint. If you dont and are just trying it on then you shouldnt because there can be consequences for others.

If you do believe you have a valid complaint then its best not to use a template letter. Template letters have lower success rates then personalised letters. Whilst the reasons are not officially known why this is, its probably because many template letters include things that cant possibly have happened or are easily proven in favour of the advising company. So, in areas where there is no evidence one way or the other and a balance of probability decision needs to be made the ruling will usually go with the party that has been most credible. If you have listed things in your letter and most are easily rejected and one is a balance of probability decision then it would work against you because you were proven to be wrong on the other points.

too_much_debt

How do I know if I was mis-sold it I took it out 13 years ago, I didn't record the conversation with the guy and can't remember everything he discussed. Surely the whole point of the Endowment was that it paid off the total I borrowed, what was the point of it if I end up £10,000 or more down by the time it matures, if I have to save money somewhere else to cover the shortfall then it was a complete waste of time. I might as well just cash it in now and get what I can back, it won't be linked to our mortgage for much longer so I don't need to carry on with it to pay off a mortgage, so why pay another 12 years of premiums?

I really don't understand all this (as I said). My OH took a loan out a couple of years ago and he's just got his PPI back as they checked and said he had a case but he wouldn't have known that if he hadn't applied for it.