Should I bother with chasing compensation?

office_2

As a first time buyer I was advised to get an endowment mortgage back in 1997. It was probably about 4-5 years later when I started to get letters saying I would need to increase the payments in order to ensure it would cover the property price.

I was under the impression as well I was tied in for 5 years so after 5 years I decided to change to repayment only to find out I was tied in for 7. I took the hit (approx 2k) and switched to a repayment.

The question is, I believe I was miss-sold the policy and it cost me money to change (after 5 years I owed more than I started with), but I surrendered the endowment over 4 years ago now when I changed it to a repayment.

The advisor was part of the estate agent, black horse if I remember correctly.

Sorry to go on, I would appreciate it if people think I still have a case and if so I would appreciate recommendations on someone to contact.

Thanks in advance.

magyar

You are quite possibly owed compensation for misselling. Have a look here first.

http://www.which.co.uk/reports_and_campaigns/money/campaigns/endowment_mortgages/index.jsp

dunstonh

It just goes to show how damaging the poorly set up projection system is. Any endowment is going to show shortfalls after 4-5 years even if it is performing well above target.

Switching to repayment basis after just 5 years means that the difference between endowment and repayment basis in that very short period is likely to be very small and indeed, the endowment could easily been the better option to that point. Repayment mortgages drop by very small amounts in the early years.

You can still complain if you believe you were mis-sold. However, dont expect to get much redress if the complaint is upheld as you may not be out of pocket or only by a very small amount. Its those that started theirs in the early 90s that seem to have the bigger differences.

office_2

Thanks all for the feedback. Will have to consider this, if I can find the documentation I may take this futher and definatley check the which site out.

Thanks again.