PRUDENTIAL - Changes to Life Cover Rates

R0CKY

.... and today I got the cheque for £50.

Still very intrigued as to the true reason behind this, and the last person I would ask is prudential.

peterbaker

The news in this thread is indeed rather intriguing. I've been unable to discover any general information about it elsewhere on t'internet, and particularly not on the Pru's website, including the Pru's adviser website. We're talking "With-Profits" business again aren't we, where insurers make up the rules as they go along, and regulators and the High Court are 15 years behind the curve and will never understand what they are supposed to be judging and approving? So we've no chance of understanding :mad:

Many of the changes are retrospective too to suit their accounting needs. Using financial reassurance, profit and loss are smoothed between account years to present what looks like steady profits year after year to shareholders, and more than likely they can also use it to plug gaps in solvency requirements?

None of the changes they make with the schemes dreamed up and certified by their very highly paid actuaries are for the primary benefit of customers.

speedsister

Hi all - I too received a letter this morning saying I would be receiving a cheque for £50.00 - my husband was immediately cynical and so I googled it and found this thread which was really interesting reading. Anyway, I phoned Prudential to ask what their criteria was for deciding on amounts and in a nutshell it depends on the type of policy and level of cover that you had and this applies to anyone that had an account at Nov 13 because of some change in rates which meant that new customers at that date benefitted from lower rates!

Swickymindencov

My wife got a letter from the Pru today saying a cheque for £400 was on the way for this. Interestingly, this was a joint endowment policy (that matured last year), and I haven't received such a letter (yet). Watch this space....

bbellm

We have been offered a one off payment of £300 as a "valued former customer".


I called Prudential to ask how this had been calculated. They said they re-evaluated the cost of life cover in September 2016 and reduced their charges. They chose to backdate this to Sept 2013. They then calculated the impact of the changes, made an allowance for investment growth and rounded the results up.


The only question I wished I'd asked is why they chose to backdate the reduction in charges for life cover by 3 years to 2013? Why not more?


They say that there is no mechanism for querying their calculations or for challenging the data … but taking all this in good faith it's an unexpected bonus.

frank575

I too have just recieved a cheque for £1200, this is from a scottish amicable pension linked mortgage from the late 80's, the date of change on mine shows May 17 and again as a gesture of goodwill they went back 3 years, bit odd but grateful to have it, shame they couldnt have placed the money in the pension. It would be interesting to know what is really going on, could it be a ppi thing, I didnt think I was paying any life insurance in the monthly premium, there had been a waiver which I cancelled many years ago when I swapped the mortgage.

dunstonh

bit odd but grateful to have it,

Its not odd. It is a pretty standard with multiple firms doing similar.

shame they couldnt have placed the money in the pension.

Not really. If they put it in the pension you would not get tax relief. Whereas if you put it in the pension, you will get tax relief.

could it be a ppi thing,

Not even close.

chunkyferret

Hi. I’m in exactly same position as original poster. Received a letter from Pru, followed by a cheque for £50 in April ‘19. We did not cash the cheque for the same reasons. The letter only details one prudential plan we held but not the other where the premium was double the amount. We held two plans which were taken in 1996 and ended in 2016 (home purchaser endowment plans). One plan was £45 per month the other £85. This payment remained the same over the 20 yr period. It is a with-profit plan with life cover.
Now time has passed, interested in hearing whether it’s worth pursuing this further with the Pru.
The range of payments offered seems strange £50-£1500. Any advice very welcome, or feedback from those who did call the pru. Did anyone get their payment re-calculated? Many thanks. :)

johnsg

I've just had a cheque for £750 - hadn't been expecting anything.

I joined an Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme though my work in (approx) 1996 to provide me with some extra pension income - I decided to cash it in completely when I took early retirement last year.

The letter with the cheque says that they've looked at how much I was paying for life cover since December 2014 since the reduced(?) charges came into effect. As a valued former customer they'll give me a one off payment of £750.

To be honest, I don't really understand this and as there's nothing to sign to say I'm accepting some re-dress I'm happily going to bank and spend it. :beer: