Can you be mis sold an ISA.

mamabuddah

Not sure if this is in the right place.

About 15 years ago ( not too sure about the date) OH and I took out an ISA , we put in £3000 and paid in £100 a month on top of that. It was around the times when a lot of products were "going bad" .

After around 6 months into it we discovered that the product we had was worth less than even the amount we had originally invested.

We believed it was a savings product and we would certainly not get any less than we put in.

Perhaps we panicked but we closed the product after about 7 months and ended up with a good deal less than we put in.

We don't recall ever being told there may be those types of problems.

Now we keep seeing adverts on tv talking about were you mis sold an isa, but searching the forums here I can't see anything isa specific....where else could we find out about this, or has anyone on here had a similar experience?

The funny thing is, the ISA was taken with alliance & Leicester ( now Santander) and we still get documentation about the product saying there's still a few £££s in it...yet we closed it.

Atreyu107

Not enough information here...

An ISA is a tax-wrapper, not a product in itself. They come in two varieties: Cash and Stocks and Shares (S&S)..

From your post it sounds like you opened a S&S ISA. Are you saying you have no idea what the cash you put into it was being invested into?

ChopperST

I'm guessing considering you've made a loss this was a S&S ISA.

As you had a paper loss after 6 months investing you closed the account and crystallised the loss?

eskbanker

You may well have been missold the product (the investment within the ISA rather than the ISA itself) but if you became aware of this 14.5 years ago then unfortunately you're likely to be told it's way too late to complain about it, but there's nothing to stop you trying.

ChesterDog

It may also be that some dividends have been paid to you - from shares or funds within the ISA - after you closed the account. So some money might indeed have 'arrived' even after you closed it.

jimjames

mamabuddah wrote: »

Not sure if this is in the right place.

About 15 years ago ( not too sure about the date) OH and I took out an ISA , we put in £3000 and paid in £100 a month on top of that. It was around the times when a lot of products were "going bad" .

After around 6 months into it we discovered that the product we had was worth less than even the amount we had originally invested.

The funny thing is, the ISA was taken with alliance & Leicester ( now Santander) and we still get documentation about the product saying there's still a few £££s in it...yet we closed it.

Shame you didn't keep the whole amount there. By now I'd guess it would probably be worth somewhere between £6000 and £9000 depending what you were invested in.

dunstonh

You can be mis-sold anything. S&S ISAs though have a low mis-sale rate considering the volume. However, it depends on the assets within them.

We don't recall ever being told there may be those types of problems.

In multiple places, there would have been the warnings saying that you could get back less than you pay in.

Now we keep seeing adverts on tv talking about were you mis sold an isa, but searching the forums here I can't see anything isa specific....where else could we find out about this, or has anyone on here had a similar experience?

You would likely be timebarred from complaint. You have 6 years from the sale of the plan or 3 years from being reasonably aware of an issue to raise a complaint (whichever is longer). So, Santandar can apply a timebar to you.

Reaper

mamabuddah wrote: »

The funny thing is, the ISA was taken with alliance & Leicester ( now Santander) and we still get documentation about the product saying there's still a few £££s in it...yet we closed it.

As said above this will be dividends you were entitled to that arrived after you had withdrawn the capital. You need to ask to close it again to withdraw the last of your money.

Perhaps we panicked but we closed the product after about 7 months and ended up with a good deal less than we put in.

Selling an investment when the price is low is something that needs careful thought, certainly not something to do in a panic. Investments go up and down in value all the time. As long as it was well diversified you would almost certainly have done better to wait until it rose in value again.

G_M

It never ceases to amaze me how people buy things without the faintest idea what it is they are buying, or why.

No sympathy.

Ignore me - just a rant!

macman

If you cashed it in after just 6 months then you would inevitably have made a loss anyway, as the initial commission paid to A&L would have been deducted, and you failed to invest for long enough to reap the benefits.