Santander Mistake. Advise needed

jacey45

Please can someone help. I was missold PPI in early 90s. I was told that the policy I was taking out had a life insurance element to it as well as all the other benefits.In 2012 I received a letter from Santander explaining the policy terms and conditions and I was really upset and very frightened to learn that there was no life element included in the policy.
I had taken the policy out with Abbey National and cannot remember ever receiving any information about the policy apart from the initial paperwork.
I contacted Santander by letter explaining my concerns that at the age of 57 with major chronic illness's (which I had never claimed on my policy) I was left with no life insurance and a large mortgage.
They were less than helpful and said they would give me my payments back plus interest but that the policy would cease.
I kept on paying for over 12months and in February this year I was going into hospital so I rang them to see if I would be covered. I was told that I wouldnt receive any payment got 56 days.
I decided to cancel the policy.
They were very prompt with the payment but when I pointed out to them that I had continued to pay premiums for a over 12months I was told that they had made a mistake on my refund and that they would be pursuing me for over £700.
I am terrified. I really dont know what to do. Please can anyone help.
I my initial claim the main thing I was concerned about was the fact I had been misled over the life element of the policy. I was going to pursue that through the financial ombudsman but because of bereavements in the family I did not have the strength at the time. Does anyone think I should do this now.
Please can anyone advise.
Thank you

dunstonh

Please can someone help. I was missold PPI in early 90s. I was told that the policy I was taking out had a life insurance element to it as well as all the other benefits

PPI is PPI. Life assurance is Life assurance. Multi-segment plans did not exist in the 90s. So, to have life assurance and MPPI, you would have needed two plans.

They were very prompt with the payment but when I pointed out to them that I had continued to pay premiums for a over 12months I was told that they had made a mistake on my refund and that they would be pursuing me for over £700.
I am terrified. I really dont know what to do. Please can anyone help.

An error does not give you entitlement to the money unless you had reasonable expectation. In cases of overpayment where you cannot afford to repay the overpayment, they have to agree a schedule of repayments over a period. Typically 12-24 months.

What was the overpayment error? (this is important). For example, Did they pay out twice? Did they use the wrong interest rate or not calculation the number of payments correctly? etc

I my initial claim the main thing I was concerned about was the fact I had been misled over the life element of the policy.

Unless you have evidence to show that a life policy was ever set to be put in place, that complaint is destined for failure.

I was going to pursue that through the financial ombudsman but because of bereavements in the family I did not have the strength at the time. Does anyone think I should do this now.

The FOS will consider overruling the 6 month time bar in cases of bereavement where the death was a direct family member and the period of delay is reasonable for the bereavement process. The longer that period has gone on, the less likely that reason would be acceptable.

You effectively won the key part of your complaint. You got the PPI refund. The other bit of your complaint doesn't seem likely to succeed. A life assurance application is much longer than a PPI application. It requires medical information, GP details etc.

Does your wife/partner remember any details that you cannot?