Life assurance charged for someone else's policy

flappy8

Hi All,
I've just found out that over a period of 9 years I have been charged for not only my policy, but for someone else's policy. I've paid £2655 over that time. so some of the money they have had for 9 years! They have offered a refund plus approx £140 which includes a 50 'sorry ' payment.
If i had invested that somewhere else (say average FTSE) I could have earned more.
Are they being unnecessarily mean? Should I push them?
Compound interest at 2% gives 2900....

Weighty1

In quite a lot of instance the financial ombudsman adds interest on at 8% to compensation payments. Personally, I think that's profiteering but I do think they are being a bit stingy offering what they are, unless the mistake wasn't totally theirs?

agrinnall

While I do think what they have offered is too low interest rates have been at rock bottom for the entire period at issue, so I don't think you stand much chance of getting anywhere near 8% out of them voluntarily. You could reject their offer and if they don't increase it to an acceptable level go to the FOS and hope that they do require 8%, but whatever is offered/ordered you have to remember that the interest isn't calculated on the full amount from day 1.

I would avoid any mention of return from investing in shares because that would give them the opportunity to play the "the value of your investment may go down as well as up" card and reduce the amount that they pay you back!

flappy8

Thanks for the replies. 2% compound interest figure I calculated is based on instalments, Ie not the whole amount for 9 years.
They have confirmed it is their error.
I really don't think its up to them to compare it with a low interest savings account. I have made significant gains on a property portfolio in that time, and with shares and if I had invested that money in my Aviva pension over that time I would have made far more!
I don't want to hang them, but I have spent ages on the phone with them trying to trace this and resolve it....

dunstonh

The statutory rate gets used for things like missale. The base rate+x rate gets used for minor errors.

They have confirmed it is their error.

Seems to be a combination of errors.

1 - They collected it under that sort code and account number - was it their typing error or did the real policyholder give it wrong
2 - The bank accepted the mandate without question
3 - You never mentioned anything for 9 years.

jonesMUFCforever

flappy8 wrote: »

Hi All,
I've just found out that over a period of 9 years I have been charged for not only my policy, but for someone else's policy. I've paid £2655 over that time. so some of the money they have had for 9 years! They have offered a refund plus approx £140 which includes a 50 'sorry ' payment.
If i had invested that somewhere else (say average FTSE) I could have earned more.
Are they being unnecessarily mean? Should I push them?
Compound interest at 2% gives 2900....

Just wondering how did you find out?