Can We Claim On Surrendered Policies?

teena0410

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to know whether we could claim compensation on our endowment policies, even though we surrendered them a year ago? We ended up with four under-performing policies as we just 'topped up' each time we moved. We have no idea how to go about claiming and although it's very tempting to get one of those companies to do the chasing for us, it sounds like it could be fairly easy to do ourselves.

Many thanks in advance for your help,
Tina & Alan

toonfish

yes you can claim, but I'd advise undertaking the hassle yourselves and saving 25% of any redress you may be due

DawnW

I found this quite interesting, as we surrendered one last year, and have made one paid up, and we did not even HAVE a mortgage at the time they were taken out. They were sold on the basis of 'starting to save for a mortgage before you actually get one' with CIS. When the returns looked grim, we agonised about what to do, but in the end surrendered one and made the other paid up. They were large policies, one £129 pcm over 15 years (paid up) and £159 over 25 years (now surrendered). My husband works for a college, is low paid, and is obliged under the terms of his contract to live in the (somewhat grotty, though in a nice place) accommodation provided by his employers. We took the policies out when I became able to afford it when I started a teaching job after graduating as a mature student, and when our youngest child had started school - this was pre nursery availability, family tax credits, educational maintenance allowances etc - believe it or not it was harder for low paid workers then, (but at least I got a small student grant, most of which went on childcare!!) I would be interested to hear what others think, as I had assumed we would not be eligible for mis-selling compensation.

housemice

DawnW wrote:

I found this quite interesting, as we surrendered one last year, and have made one paid up, and we did not even HAVE a mortgage at the time they were taken out. They were sold on the basis of 'starting to save for a mortgage before you actually get one' with CIS. When the returns looked grim, we agonised about what to do, but in the end surrendered one and made the other paid up. They were large policies, one £129 pcm over 15 years (paid up) and £159 over 25 years (now surrendered). My husband works for a college, is low paid, and is obliged under the terms of his contract to live in the (somewhat grotty, though in a nice place) accommodation provided by his employers. We took the policies out when I became able to afford it when I started a teaching job after graduating as a mature student, and when our youngest child had started school - this was pre nursery availability, family tax credits, educational maintenance allowances etc - believe it or not it was harder for low paid workers then, (but at least I got a small student grant, most of which went on childcare!!) I would be interested to hear what others think, as I had assumed we would not be eligible for mis-selling compensation.

It's really hard to say what might happen if you complain. The fact that the policies are now surrendered/paid up has no bearing on whether you were mis-sold at the point of sale - all this may affect is the amount any compensation you could be offered if a complaint is upheld. I would recommend giving complaining a try - if you do it yourself it costs you nothing, and you never know what the outcome might be. You can use the consumer association letters from Which?, or simply write to CIS and explain that you were sold these endowment policies without having a mortgage in place, and would like to complain.

Good luck!

midfax

I used to be a tied agent for a major bank and also recently worked on the endowment miselling review team.
Where an endowment was sold in anticipation of a future mortgage the rule was that even if this might have been a good idea at the time, it is still deemed to be miselling.
you should visit the which website and look at the standard letter that they have, this asks you questions about the sale and used to work very well when I was reviewing cases. The majority of the claims were settled when we saw one of these type of letter.
However, you need to make sure that you are not out of time, a lot of companies are applying the rule that you should have complained within a set time frame.
Even if the company turn you down it is always worth your while going to the Financial Onbudsman (FOS) - I saw quite a lot of cases which were orignally turned down reversed by the FOS. They are however very slow in dealing with cases.
give it a try, you have nothing to lose!!!

DawnW

Thanks, I will give it a try.
Dawn