How do you know if a company is ok?

rose11

Hi, My boyfriend has had a letter from Caledonian Limited, I haven't had chance to ask him why the've sent it, but how it reads they must of rang him. They have sent a letter of authority for him to fill in and sign to allow them to do a free valuation and review of his current pensions. Before he gets rounf to doing it, can anyone tell me if this company is ok, or how I can find out if it is. Thanks for your time.

rs65

Google FSA register.

Do they show a FSA or FCA registration number on their letterhead?

rose11

Thankyou very much for your help. I've just had a look on the search part of FSA register. and it says that they are Currently authorised , also the company that is on the form he has to fill in, is authorised. I can't see any registration number on the caledonian one but the other one has got a number, though just says company registration number, but its too long to put in the search box!

dunstonh

They have sent a letter of authority for him to fill in and sign to allow them to do a free valuation and review of his current pensions.

Tell him to withdraw it and tell his provider to disregard and cancel the authority.

They are not authorised or regulated by the FSA (there is no company of that name on the FSA register). They have no permissions to carry out the activity they are saying they are going to do.

What Typically happens next with these cold calls is that they will say the pension is not good or words similar to that and then they will promote an unregulated scheme to transfer into. Often mentioning some bonus or incentive (which can be unlawful under pension legislation)

Never ever ever deal with unregulated companies in regulated areas. Currently there are many pension scams which use unregulated companies to transfer money into unregulated schemes that typically result in financial loss or even breaching HMRC rules.

edit: FSA register appears to be returning nothing at the moment but not sure it is working tonight. So, it could be that they are regulated but the list is down.

rose11

Thats what worried me, something like that. Thanks, he's working away for a few days so I will tell him when he comes home. I've just realised the search I did doesn't say they are authorised! I will show him this and hope he cancels it as soon as possible!

jamesd

rose11 wrote: »

but how it reads they must of rang him. They have sent a letter of authority for him to fill in and sign to allow them to do a free valuation and review of his current pensions.

Easy way to start: if they phone you, you don't want to do business with them, because:

1. That's the way scammers tend to operate.
2. The UK regulators ban authorised and regulated UK companies from cold calling for investments, including pensions.

So a call guarantees that you're dealing with a firm you shouldn't be dealing with.

If he had actually filled in and returned a form he should also phone all of his pension and other companies that he told the firm about and tell them not to accept requests for information or transfers without phone contact with him in person on a number he provides, as an anti-fraud check.

There are scammers who'll go so far as to send out couriers to get signed forms then take away the only copy that the consumer has. They then use those to do transfers into dodgy schemes, having used the courier to deprive the person of enough time to check things out decently. See courier and it's almost certainly a scam.

jamesd

Your boyfriend can get a free review of his pensions here. From people with no interest in making money out of him.

robatwork

/quote random internet person

It's a scam, it's always a scam

/quote

rose11

Thankyou again to everyone, you've all been really helpful.:D I will get him to read this and as you said jamesd ,he can get a free review on here .

action_jack

anyone heard of a company called pure global marketting?

dunstonh

action_jack wrote: »

anyone heard of a company called pure global marketting?

Not a regulated company and only registered with companies house earlier this year.

You dont ask why you want to know about this company but as this is the pensions forum we can say that they hold no regulatory permissions to deal in pensions.