Serps Review

theolddairy

dunstonh wrote: »

I am not going to comment about the company in question but comment generically as I wasnt party to the conversation and dont know what they said....

There is a small handful of these companies around still. Most thankfully gave up after the FSA review. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]



That means it was not a mis-sale as your father is to blame.

However, the going by the FSA flowchart, the key point is whether you were aged under 45 at the point of contracting out. If yes, then you were not mis-sold. If no, then you were mis-sold.

Quite a few companies that still operate in this field do it not to find out if you were mis-sold but so they can find out your pension details and then tell you that you can transfer it to something cheaper or better. In the process they take around 5% commission on the transfer value.

Thankfully, that will banned within 16 months but for now, they can get away with it.



The basic state pension is unaffected by contracting out. Only the SERPS/S2P element of the state pension is affected and only in relation to the period you were contracted out.



What is it you are stressing about? Your lack of pension or the fact a cold calling company has spun some ideas in your head which are statisically unlikely to be the case?

I contacted "Give me my money" to see if my wife's rather pathetic opted out pension pot fell within the mis sold category and was assured that no fees would be taken (£199) until it was agreed by all parties that there was a claim worth following up on. Despite this promise they immediately tried to take the fee from my account (stupid of me to be to gullible enough to give them my account details I know). Today i have received an invoice stating clearly that no money would be taken for 7 days, a bit late really as it was applied for last night. Don't trust these people all they are looking to do is generate another market for themselves now that PPI claims are well underway and will only get less over the next year or so. Most of these companies originally started on the PPI bandwagon and have to charge a fee for Serps as the chance of success is soooo small.

theolddairy

I contacted "Give me my money" to see if my wife's rather pathetic opted out pension pot fell within the mis sold category and was assured that no fees would be taken (£199) until it was agreed by all parties that there was a claim worth following up on. Despite this promise they immediately tried to take the fee from my account (stupid of me to be to gullible enough to give them my account details I know). Today i have received an invoice stating clearly that no money would be taken for 7 days, a bit late really as it was applied for last night. Don't trust these people all they are looking to do is generate another market for themselves now that PPI claims are well underway and will only get less over the next year or so. Most of these companies originally started on the PPI bandwagon and have to charge a fee for Serps as the chance of success is soooo small.

honizz

Thats terrible if a company takes money after saying they wouldn't. I didn't pay a fee for mine until after I received compensation. I'm sure there must be something that can be done about that.

I mentioned companies names on here before and the post - actually the thread was removed so if I were you I would remove the names. I don't understand it but I have learned to not worry I just won't mention names.



I have talked to them since, infact I have got quite excited about my new plan, I pay closer attention to it. I remember during all the things I did I had a query about charges, I tried to mention it on here a few times but couldn't make my post make any sense so I didn't post it in the end, I did call them and they sorted it immediately. I would say if you have an issue to call or email the company, you never know.

For my own stuff I always do my own analysis before I make a final decision. Part of that was posting questions on here but I always take the answers with a pinch of salt because I don't know who I'm dealing with.

When I dealt with my Serps claim I didn't feel I needed to do much in the way of background checks because my sister had and had gone through the whole process. Because of her feedback I was happy to proceed.

I have been really ill myself lately (womens problems (I am ok now)and it made me realise a few things - If I have an issue with someone or something I fix it or deal direct to get it sorted. Also I always try to speak to the person in the company who can make decisions. If you have concerns just pick the phone up. It can't hurt, might not always work but usually in my experience it helps.

Hope you feel better soon

H

frankiesays

I opted out of SERPS at the appropriate time in the late 80's and opted back in a few years later when advised to do so. My serps contributions were paid into a "Sun Life" pension policy which is now worth approx £20k which is the equivalent of £756 per year (£15 per week) if I retired in 2018 when I'm 65.

Bearing in mind that I have a mortgage until I'm 68 anyway and that £15 per week won't buy me much in 6 years time I'm inclined to think I would be better taking out the £20k now and invest it in some alterations to my house which is likely to help the house grow in value faster than the pension will grow. Am I doing the right thing? Exchanging £15 per week for £20k now wile I'm 59?

jamesd

£756 a year from a £20k policy is a fairly good deal for an amount that is probably increasing with inflation and including a 50% spouse pension. It appears that there may be a guaranteed annuity rate attached to your Sun Life policy and those are usually worth keeping.

You can't take the money out now. The most you could get would be 25% of it and an ongoing lower income level. Taking 25% for home improvements is probably a bad idea, a mortgage is likely to be significantly cheaper than the cost of the lost income.