was my life assurance misold

Josip

I bought a house in 2002 as a single lady with no dependants, I took my mortgage with Britannia and was advised to take out mortgage protection and set up a decreasing life assurance policy which I did. It wasn't until 2012 and sold my house that I rang up the insurers (Phoenix Life) to find out a little bit more about what the policy was (I was a little clueless at the time so just paid the £23 monthly premium without much thought). I was told that I would get a lump sum paid out in 2027 (I can't remember the figure but know it was significant enough to carry on paying). It wasn't until I started discussing it recently with a new partner that he thought it seemed strange to be getting a payout at the end! I managed to contact them and was told there is no payout with this type of policy but could see that records showed that I was misinformed in 2012. After picking my chin up off the floor I questioned what they'd do about this error and was told they'd pay back any premiums since this phone call plus interest, which was in the region of £800! When I said I would expect compensation they said as a sorry they'd pay back £1,000! I said although I couldn't remember how much I'd been told as a payout at the end of 25 years I know it was a lot more... Possibly £20,000! I've asked for a transcript of the phone call! I stated that I also believed I'd been missold in the first instance as I had no partner or dependants and the beneficiary would have been my parents who would just have sold my house anyway in the event of my death! I'd really appreciate any advice regarding this and what I should do?

agrinnall

I think you mean misbought rather than missold. You need to take responsibility for your actions.

The offer to refund premiums since 2012 seems reasonable to me as there is no chance that a monthly premium of £23 would have been anything other than life cover.

[Deleted User]

Certainly sounds like you've had a good result with the refund.

I think expecting 25 years of life assurance, plus a 20k payout from premiums of just £6,900 would be....ambitious.