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My pensioner parents and santander savings !!!! up
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chocolady
Posts: 107 Forumite
My elderly mum and dad sold their old house a couple of years ago and took the lump sum from that to invest and use this to supplement my fathers work pension which is pretty small. This is the largest sum of money they have ever had in their lives and while not fools they are not particularly financially savvy.
In November last year they took this money and spoke to the financial adviser (known as a Specialist Savings Adviser) at their local Abbey branch in Braintree. The adviser told them they could invest their lump sum in a Fixed Rate Reward Saver which as long as it was untouched for a year would pay them 5% and a 1.5% year end bonus. They discussed their requirements at some length with the adviser with regard to their needing to keep some of this money back to use for day to day expenses and that they would tie up the rest of it in the aforementioned fixed rate account. The adviser opened a separate account for the day to day expenses and the fixed rate account with the bulk of the money was opened on 2nd December. A month later when they revisited the branch they checked with the same adviser that they were receiving these interest rates and that at the end of the term they should receive roughly £9000 in interest. The adviser reassured them that this was the case. They have scrimped and scraped pretty much all their lives. Throughout my childhood my dads work was pretty up and down and we only managed to afford one summer holiday in 20 years! They took their mortgage out late in life when my dads work situation stabilised a bit more so have rarely had any spare cash until now. They were planning a good holiday at Christmas with this money.
They received no correspondence in regard to their accounts and at the anniversary of the fixed rate account went into the branch to move the money but to their dismay were informed that their lump sum was invested in a completely different variable rate account. The interest at the end of a year was £4000! The lady who advised appeared to not remember the advice she had given them. There was a new financial adviser in the branch and when he heard of their plight he typed up a letter on their behalf but it was sent to the wrong department! When they received a response they were told nothing would be done about it but that they could write to the central complaints team in Milton Keynes and if they did not like the response from them then the next step is the ombudsman. To me it seems obvious that they would hardly tie up a large lump sum of money, not touch it for a year, in a variable rate account when they have asked for financial advice. The new financial adviser says that the account they mentioned did exist but that by the time they invested it had been withdrawn. As he said it was the advisers job to inform them of this and they took the account out in good faith. He said he could put any piece of paper in front of people and they would sign it as he was in a position of trust and I couldnt agree more! I honestly think some of these financial institutions can sense that old people trust them and are not au fait with all things financial so really dont take their situation very seriously.
Am in the process of writing a letter for them as they do not have access to a computer but has anyone got any advice for me when pursuing a case with the Abbey as I have personally found their customer service to be pretty appalling with just my own son's savings account recently, they paid me compensation for paying him the wrong interest on his account! Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
In November last year they took this money and spoke to the financial adviser (known as a Specialist Savings Adviser) at their local Abbey branch in Braintree. The adviser told them they could invest their lump sum in a Fixed Rate Reward Saver which as long as it was untouched for a year would pay them 5% and a 1.5% year end bonus. They discussed their requirements at some length with the adviser with regard to their needing to keep some of this money back to use for day to day expenses and that they would tie up the rest of it in the aforementioned fixed rate account. The adviser opened a separate account for the day to day expenses and the fixed rate account with the bulk of the money was opened on 2nd December. A month later when they revisited the branch they checked with the same adviser that they were receiving these interest rates and that at the end of the term they should receive roughly £9000 in interest. The adviser reassured them that this was the case. They have scrimped and scraped pretty much all their lives. Throughout my childhood my dads work was pretty up and down and we only managed to afford one summer holiday in 20 years! They took their mortgage out late in life when my dads work situation stabilised a bit more so have rarely had any spare cash until now. They were planning a good holiday at Christmas with this money.
They received no correspondence in regard to their accounts and at the anniversary of the fixed rate account went into the branch to move the money but to their dismay were informed that their lump sum was invested in a completely different variable rate account. The interest at the end of a year was £4000! The lady who advised appeared to not remember the advice she had given them. There was a new financial adviser in the branch and when he heard of their plight he typed up a letter on their behalf but it was sent to the wrong department! When they received a response they were told nothing would be done about it but that they could write to the central complaints team in Milton Keynes and if they did not like the response from them then the next step is the ombudsman. To me it seems obvious that they would hardly tie up a large lump sum of money, not touch it for a year, in a variable rate account when they have asked for financial advice. The new financial adviser says that the account they mentioned did exist but that by the time they invested it had been withdrawn. As he said it was the advisers job to inform them of this and they took the account out in good faith. He said he could put any piece of paper in front of people and they would sign it as he was in a position of trust and I couldnt agree more! I honestly think some of these financial institutions can sense that old people trust them and are not au fait with all things financial so really dont take their situation very seriously.
Am in the process of writing a letter for them as they do not have access to a computer but has anyone got any advice for me when pursuing a case with the Abbey as I have personally found their customer service to be pretty appalling with just my own son's savings account recently, they paid me compensation for paying him the wrong interest on his account! Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
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Comments
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No real advice, but there is a woman (Jessica?) who has a column in the saturday Daily Telegraph "Money" supplement who has had success with cases like this.
Good luck.Murphy was an optimist!!!0 -
Write a letter to the complaints department - but keep it brief. Leave out the background fluffy stuff, stick to the facts.
If you don't like the offer they make (and I'm pretty sure they will make one) take it to the financial ombudsman0 -
I know it's too late for your mum and dad, but never never never take out any such scheme with a bank or building society, no matter what fancy title the 'adviser' seems to have and how rosy the promises! They are basically salespeople who can only sell the bank's products. I'm sure they rub their hands with glee whenever they see babes in the wood like your parents coming through the door.
You do not get financial 'advice' from them, not like you would get from an independent financial adviser who can research the whole market.
Mum and dad have no access to a computer - have they tried their local library? Ours has computers that anyone can use and the library staff are very pleasant and helpful.[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Æ[/FONT]r ic wisdom funde, [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]æ[/FONT]r wear[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]ð[/FONT] ic eald.
Before I found wisdom, I became old.0 -
The person at the bank was NOT an adviser - they were a salesman or woman. Margaret Dibben at the Sunday Observer also has a great track record in putting these matters right, you could do a lot worse than contact her, since the one thing these banks hate is getting bad press.0
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Write a letter to the complaints department - but keep it brief. Leave out the background fluffy stuff, stick to the facts.
If you don't like the offer they make (and I'm pretty sure they will make one) take it to the financial ombudsman
I agree..."The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
Bertrand Russell. British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)0 -
Thanks for the kind people who have replied to my post. :cheesy: yes I know these people are not advisers and are tied to the Abbey. My parents however still seem to think that, despite knowing these guys work for the Abbey, because they have banked with them for many years they can trust them. I dont find staff at the Abbey very well informed when it comes to their savings products but to be honest tied or not if she is a specialist savings adviser for them she should be able to give good current information on their products to customers. I have the letter ready to send to the complaints department and will keep you posted about what happens from there. Many thanks for the posts about journalists to contact, very interesting, may well pursue that route too if I dont get anywhere with complaints. Will try the ombudsman eventually but have tried them once in the past for something and find laws are heavily weighted in favour of the banks so you are lucky just to get your money back in some cases!0
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[QUOTE=chocolady;28601775._Will_try_the_ombudsman_eventually_but_have_tried_them_once_in_the_past_for_something_and_find_laws_are_heavily_weighted_in_favour_of_the_banks_so_you_are_lucky_just_to_get_your_money_back_in_some_cases![/QUOTE]
Remember you can't go to the ombudsman until you have exhausted Abbey's own complaints procedure0 -
Thanks for the kind people who have replied to my post. :cheesy: yes I know these people are not advisers and are tied to the Abbey. My parents however still seem to think that, despite knowing these guys work for the Abbey, because they have banked with them for many years they can trust them. I dont find staff at the Abbey very well informed when it comes to their savings products but to be honest tied or not if she is a specialist savings adviser for them she should be able to give good current information on their products to customers. I have the letter ready to send to the complaints department and will keep you posted about what happens from there. Many thanks for the posts about journalists to contact, very interesting, may well pursue that route too if I dont get anywhere with complaints. Will try the ombudsman eventually but have tried them once in the past for something and find laws are heavily weighted in favour of the banks so you are lucky just to get your money back in some cases!
why not copy the journalist suggested with the letter making it clear to abbey that you have done so:
i.e. cc:mrs journalist0 -
No real advice, but there is a woman (Jessica?) who has a column in the saturday Daily Telegraph "Money" supplement who has had success with cases like this.
Good luck.
agreed, Jessica Gorst-Williams is well worth a try.0 -
In November last year they took this money and spoke to the financial adviser (known as a Specialist Savings Adviser) at their local Abbey branch in Braintree. The adviser told them they could invest their lump sum in a Fixed Rate Reward Saver which as long as it was untouched for a year would pay them 5% and a 1.5% year end bonus.
The adviser opened a separate account for the day to day expenses and the fixed rate account with the bulk of the money was opened on 2nd December....
They received no correspondence in regard to their accounts The new financial adviser says that the account they mentioned did exist but that by the time they invested it had been withdrawn.
If they had notification that the fixed rate account had been openend then this looks like a pretty straitghforward behind the scenes c*ck-up which should be easily fixed.But if they did not, could be more difficult.Which was it?Trying to keep it simple...
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