Endowment morgages

nickylou_2

Hi, I took an endowment mortgage 22 years ago and was told that was the only mortgage we could have and we would have approximately £5000 at the end of the term. I took a policy with Alba Life/Britannia paying a monthly payment which was set up for us (this would what I was told would pay off the mortgage after 25years). A few years ago (more than 6 years) I had a letter saying that there was going to be approximately £2500 shortfall on my mortgage then a year or so later I had another saying the short fall had increased to £6000 and £8000 so I would need to transfer my mortgage or set up an ISA account to ensure I had the short fall at the end of 25 years. When I complained to the Alliance and Leicester about this they told me that this was the right mortgage for me at the time due to my earnings and there is nothing else I can do only to change my mortgage or make sure I have the money to cover the short fall at the end of term. I decided to switch companies and have a part endowment and part repayment mortgage then changed to a full repayment mortgage. As this was done before the 6 years is there anything I can do as I do feel I was mis-sold the original mortgage and was not informed of any other products at the time (I was 17 and very young so the advice I was provided was the best advice but obviously not). Please help - Is there anything I can do or do I have to just accept their answer when they said it was the best product for me due to the wages I was on at the time.

hcb42

I think you have long missed any timelines for complaint - no there is nothing you can do - you werent mis sold as such, it just hasnt grown at the expected rate - back then. it might indeed have been the best product for you because of your wages at the time - as a repayment might have been too expensive. It's not a huge amount to find however, and you are almost at the end now.

dunstonh

As this was done before the 6 years is there anything I can do as I do feel I was mis-sold the original mortgage and was not informed of any other products at the time (I was 17 and very young so the advice I was provided was the best advice but obviously not).

You already complained and your complaint was rejected. You have 6 months to appeal that complaint to the ombudsman. If you do not do so within the 6 months then you are timebarred from future complaint.

As it happens, in the scheme of things you are probably no worse off. Whilst endowments have been going into shortfall, they were typically cheaper on a monthly basis. If you take a typical £15pm lower cost over 25 years then that works out to £4500 less paid than a repayment mortgage. That may not be too dissimilar to your final shortfall (although you have already prepared for that by moving to part repayment).