Problem with Phoenix lost £600 when I transferred

Doglady95

I have just come onto the forum to see if anyone had any problems with Phoenix Life, I was advised by a friend to transfer my pension to another company as I would 'reap the benefits' later on, I have just been chasing everything up after realising that I hadn't heard anything from the new company so wrote to them, today I received a letter from the new company stating that Phoenix have refused all transfer requests and so the new application was cancelled.
I am not well versed in the world of finance but I do think someone should have let me know what was happening.
About to make a call now to Phoenix and ask their reasoning behind this.

atush

Is your friend a Financial Adviser? Is your friend going to pay you if you lose Money?

Dont take advice from friends, tell us what kind of pension is it and where you were trying to transfer it to?

And yes the new company should have told you there was a problem, as for Phoenix, there could be a reason they could not transfer out (ie you need advice as you were trying to transfer out of a pension that had Guarantees).

Get the facts before posting?

dunstonh

I was advised by a friend to transfer my pension to another company as I would 'reap the benefits' later on

Phoenix have some obsolete plans and they have some very good plans. Some plans have valuable guarantees. Did your friend do a proper analysis?

I have just been chasing everything up after realising that I hadn't heard anything from the new company so wrote to them, today I received a letter from the new company stating that Phoenix have refused all transfer requests and so the new application was cancelled.

Phoenix would not normally cancel an instruction like that unless they felt is was potentially fraudulent (i.e. the transfer instruction included a reference to a firm on their potential financial crime list).

In those cases, Phoenix would write to you. However, it could just as easily be Phoenix telling the new company that some forms were missing (such as the discharge forms) and they have no authority to transfer the pension and the new firm decided to cancel it. In those cases, you would expect the new firm to contact you.

agarnett

dunstonh wrote: »

Doglady95 wrote:

I was advised by a friend to transfer my pension to another company as I would 'reap the benefits' later on,

Friends Life have some obsolete plans and they have some very good plans. Some plans have valuable guarantees. Did your friend do a proper analysis?

Er ... who mentioned Friends this time, was it atush warning against them ?

Friends would not normally cancel an instruction like that unless they felt is was potentially fraudulent (i.e. the transfer instruction included a reference to a firm on their potential financial crime list).

I think Doglady95 was talking about problems with Phoenix Life, not Friends Life, but it is so difficult to tell them apart these days, isn't it, they've all been mixing it up with names we thought we knew to the extent that both companies have used the same names in the past. Must be a nightmare for financial advisers, but just think how the punters must feel :mad:

In those cases, Friends would write to you. However, it could just as easily be Friends telling the new company that some forms were missing (such as the discharge forms) and they have no authority to transfer the pension and the new firm decided to cancel it. In those cases, you would expect the new firm to contact you.

Quite. So back on the telephone we go, to try to work out who is doing what to whom ... and thus it was always so

Doglady95

Apologies for the delay in replying to your responses for which I thank you.

It was a friend who advised me, not a company called 'Friends', I trusted her as she was also working for an independent financial advisor who was helping me with a long standing problem with my mortgage company (taken out by my now, ex husband and I - National home Loans!!)
Things with the mortgage just never got sorted out via the friend and her boss, in fact, every excuse was given as to why it wasn't moving on, this trawled on for over two years!
I lost faith very quickly but due to moving home and all the hassle that goes with it, the new pension got pushed to the back of my mind as I thought everything had gone through.

After telephoning Phoenix on Thursday (21st), I was told that the final paperwork had never been completed and so the pension with them is still live, they had sent the paperwork out to be signed by me, which I did and sent on to my friend who was going to finalise everything, I have no idea where it went to, she never chased me up and I just assumed all was well.it was going to be transferred to
Quantum Global in Edinburgh, I'm think I may have had a lucky escape ��

On a plus point, I haven't lost anything, on a negative point, my trust in people has been knocked yet again, time to get hardened I think!

atush

the friend and her boss tried to scam you- she is no friend so I hope you sever ties with her and tell other friends not to deal with her firm?

Lucky escape as you say.

dunstonh

was going to be transferred to
Quantum Global in Edinburgh

Alarm bells. Some friend that was.

on a negative point, my trust in people has been knocked yet again

If you are going to use unregulated scammers then that is going to be the case. Use regulated and authorised individuals/firms and you get consumer protection.

atush

Yes, beware of who you befriend, and only take advice from regulated people.

Doglady95

Thanks all, I do believe I had a lucky escape.

agarnett

dunstonh wrote: »

Alarm bells. Some friend that was ...

Yes clearly not your favourite person. However, it is just possible that your friend was not initially aware of the doubtfulness of what was being sold to you and ultimately protected you by not letting the file get completed but was embarrassed to tell you the whole story.

Unfortunately the financial services industry over the years has used and spat out such people as losers in literally their millions in the UK. I am fairly sure I once read that Allied Dunbar (remember them - 'Allied Crowbar'?) got through 350,000 staff in the few short years they were in the limelight. A large proportion of innocents enticed with short classified ads suggesting they were embarking on management careers with high quality mentors, were encouraged very soon after joining to prostitute their morals and almost immediately start to sell to friends or provide their friends' details as warmed leads. Some of these gullible starters were of course able to sell regulated products to friends which may not have been quite so bad, but others like your friend may have found themselves mixed up in something more shady along the spectrum of mediocre to outright scam.

The ones you need to really watch are the "winners" who are still out there plying their long developed charm somewhere along the same mediocre financial services to outright scam spectrum - where exactly perhaps as always being a function of whether they ever eventually learned how to behave and shape up, or as of old, how badly they need the money, or how competent, or how well regulated, or how greedy they are.