Delayed payment of matured endowment

Old_man

Having changed from a 100% endowment to a 50% repayment many years ago we have been looking forward to our main endowment policy maturing.

We received a letter from the Prudential advising us of the maturity amount and that they were contacting the C&G to arrange payment. Having moved from the C&G about 20 years ago I contacted the Prudential who advised that they would need to request a letter of no further interest from the C&G.

A couple of weeks later I contacted the prudential again, they had not heard anything from the C&G. When I queried they advised that they could only communicate via letters and that they could not call the mortgage lenders. I asked for the contact details for the C&G whom I rang.

The C&G could not find my mortgage details, possibly because we took the mortgage out with a smaller building society who they had bought. I was advised to write a letter too their head office as there was no other way of contacting them. Letter sent recorded delivery.

Another couple of weeks and I contacted the Prudential again. They had received a letter from the Halifax on behalf of the C&G, but it did not reference the original mortgage account number, just my current account number. They could not accept this and they had resubmitted the request to the C&G. I spoke to the Halifax and asked them to resend the letter with the original mortgage details on, which they agreed too.

Another week and we had a letter from the Prudential saying that everything was Ok and asking us to complete a form and provide payment details, yippee we thought almost there.

Another week and no cheque, so I called again. The Prudential said, sorry our error, the 2nd letter from the Halifax still did not reference the original mortgage number and that they would have to request the letter again from the C&G. We were now getting very frustrated with the delay and the ongoing interest payments and time and agrivation. I called the C&G and was passed around a number of departments with no one claiming to be able to help. After over an hour I called the Halifax who apologised and offered to send the letter out again with the error corrected.

Another week and I called the Prudential again. The letter from the Halifax was still incomplete and not acceptable. The prudential were completely unhelpful, the computer said no and would not do anything, apart from send letters to the C&G which were not being acted upon. I have spent the last week on the phone to the C&G who now say that they can pass the information to their back office who will then generate the required letter, to date this has resulted in another letter from the Halifax on behalf of the C&G with the incomplete details.

I continue to try, but am massively frustrated that I am having to spend days of effort to justify being paid the endowment policy that We have spent 25 years paying with no missed payments and getting back less than it should have paid out. And for the now almost 2 months I have had the cost of interest on this amount on a standard mortgage rate (not on a reduced rate at the moment so that I could pay off the lump sum).

In this modern, digital age how can the C&G not be able to correctly track down a mortgage account reference from one of the companies it bought and promptly provide a letter of no further interest? Why can the Prudential not talk to the C&G rather than sending letters that are repeatable ignored? Why can the Halifax send out a letter without all the required information multiple times?

I suspect that there are many other people in this same situation out there. If you have found a way of cutting through this red tape and also getting compensation I would like to hear from you.

TrickyDicky101

Firstly, I have no direct experience to draw on (I'm too young to have my own endowment and my parents were strictly in the prudent repayment camp).

That said, I would strongly consider writing to one of the financial agony aunt/uncle columns in your national newspaper of choice. This kind of dispute is made for the media as it should be easy to resolve but has the potential to cause embarrassment to the company responsible until resolved. You should be due some compensatory payment for the time taken to settle your account if nothing else.

happycamel_2

Try a written letter of complaint to both parties, along with Tricky's advice above. That will start the clock ticking as to when you can take it to the Ombusdman.

kingstreet

When the original mortgage was repaid, the solicitor handling the redemption should have resolved the issue by having the policy re-assigned to the policyholder as part of the process.

This would have involved the lender providing the required reassignment notice which is probably what is having to be done now, withe the "no further interest" letter being used instead.

Trying to do this years later is fraught with issues as many lenders have been swallowed up and taken over several times. Legacy systems are kept running for some time afterwards, but as far as the lender goes, it no longer has a relationship with the borrower.