Mis-sold?

richardtpas

Hi all,
I’m new to the forum but I have a burning question.
For many years I’ve had my mortgage with Barclays (originally through Woolwich). We’ve always been extremely happy with our deal - BUT when we took it out, we were told we HAD to have a ‘further advance reserve’.
In truth, we have used the advance to invest in our home and lifestyle, but I’ve recently been wondering if we should seek compensation for being mid-sold this loan?
It’s by far the most expensive mortgage debt that we have despite being the smallest balance and I can’t shake the feeling that being told we HAD to have one can’t have been the right thing?
Any advice/suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
Richard

Peelerfart

Hi and welcome,

I've very vague recollections about Woolwich and further advance thing. Maybe someone with more experience will be along to update more.

My first thoughts however are, HAVING to have and HAVING to use are completely different things, irrespective of what you used it for.

richardtpas

Hi,
Yes, I think that’s fair. It’s not something I’d usually think of doing - it was our homie to use it as you are rightly pointing out. It’s only really now that we’re in a position where we are only able to service the debt (pay the interest) that I’ve started to wonder whether it was ethical to insist on us having a credit facility which we hadn’t asked for.
I probably won’t pursue it - just something I’ve been wondering about.
Thanks for your response.

richardtpas

*choice to use it

Thrugelmir

You "applied" for the product. No one held a gun to your head and forced you to sign the agreement. The product is above board and used wisely offered great flexibility. Personal responsibility cannot be absolved with hindsight.

richardtpas

I imagine that!!!8217;s true of almost everyone who was !!!8216;misold!!!8217; PPI and other products. But understand your perspective and generally agree. Like I!!!8217;ve said - it!!!8217;s just something I wondered about. Thanks for your input.

richardtpas

Don’t know where all those weird numbers came from! Sorry

comeandgo

richardtpas wrote: »

Don’t know where all those weird numbers came from! Sorry

Don't worry, it's a MSE site fault they won't rectify. Happens with Apple products.

AnotherJoe

comeandgo wrote: »

Don't worry, it's a MSE site fault they won't rectify. Happens with Apple products.

It happens with any computer using a particular character set. Some using Windows are reporting it as well. The way to stop it on an Apple product is to switch off "smart punctuation"

dunstonh

Yep, you get it on windows 10 when pasting text that contains apostrophes etc.

AnotherJoe

richardtpas wrote: »

I imagine that's true of almost everyone who was "misold" PPI and other products. But understand your perspective and generally agree. Like I've said - it's just something I wondered about. Thanks for your input.

It isn't analogous at all because either those people that were missold* PPI weren't even aware they were getting PPI, or in other cases they were lied to that it was necessary.

In the case of the Woolwich/Barclays product, I dont know if you were lied to about it being necessary, but even if you were it was your choice to use it, there was no fee, AFAICR, for getting it.

Its like complaining that B&Q gave you a free saw when you bought a hammer, and then you sawed the legs off the kitchen table and now complain it was their fault you did that.

I had the same offset mortgage as well but didn't splurge out on a bunch of stuff "just because i could" which appears to be your argument.

* not everyone who had PPI was missold it, believe it or not.