Endowment Misselling Complaint - Help

Jilly_Bean_3

Hi
My letter of complaint to the building society regarding being mis-sold an endowment has been rejected as I "haven't suffered financial hardship" according to their investigation as our endowment will show a small profit. I did not complain that I was suffering direct financial hardship but that basically we had been ripped off. In my book paying over £30,000 in interest on a £15,000 mortgage is scandalous and in the same league as loan sharking. The BS have not directly answered any of the questions I posed nor have they referred to the content of my original letter regarding mis-selling, attitudes to risk etc. The BS have not sent me copies of my mortgage file and refuse to deal with me and keep referring me to the ombudsman. What hope is there for me or do I have to pay for my ignorance? Is it true that unless I can prove financial hardship I do not have a case for complaint?

Janeryan

Try reading through the Endowment Mis-selling-Don't give up thread at the top of this forum on Endowments.

Also do give the Ombudsman a call and then let the Building society know that you have done that-apaarently if you actually make a complaint it costs the financial company involved about £350.00 just for the Ombudsman to open the envelope!


Finally they will only give you redress if the calculations show that you have been financially disadvantaged by having an endowment rather than a repayment mortgage-it's not as I understand it meant to be about getting compensation as such-just to put you in the same position as if you had never had the endowment.

Good luck anyway-I am at the ombudsman stage at the moment-see my comments on the other thread

dunstonh

They are correct in referring you to the ombudsman once they have taken their final decision. I am assuming that they have calculated what it would have cost you if you were on a repayment mortgage and found it would have cost you more and therefore you are not financially disadvantaged. This too is quite normal.

The complaint process is not there to provide you a windfall.

Its quite possible that your endowment is a good one. Not all are bad. I do come across good ones from time to time (i.e. 4% target growth rate).

Froggitt

Theres two issues here......firstly if your endowment on maturity will exceed the target amount, even if they find you were missold, you will likely get no compensation (although it is possible that you would have been in a better position with a repayment mortgage).

Secondly, your are complaining about interest rates charged.......there was no onus on anyone until recently to make sure that the type of mortgage suited your circumstances. There are still people on 10% fixed rate loads taken out years and years ago. There are also people on self-cert loans paying more than the standard rate. IMHO, you wont have much luck claiming mortgage misselling, which is completely different from endowment misselling.

Generally over a 25 year mortgage, you will pay pack about the same in interest (assuming current rates) as the amount of the mortgage itself.

It does sound like you have a very high rate of interest, but Im not sure theres anyone to point the finger at - however there was a recent case whereby rip-off mortgage rates/interest payments were annulled by a judge....try googling for it....was about 3 months ago.

scottishlizzie

Sorry Jilly Bean but you will get nowhere with the Ombudsman on this one.