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Bank Of Scotland/St Andrew's Group
GJM41
Posts: 5 Forumite
Not sure if this topic has been covered but it's just a quick heads up on Bank of Scotland/St Andrew's Group's Sickness, Accident and Unemployment policy that was widely sold in the 2000's via Bank of Scotland/Halifax branches.
I was sold a policy in April 2002 when we had arranged an appointment with the bank to sort our bank accounts. The policy was linked to our Bill Payment bank account, it's called a Bill Protector I think and was not a PPI policy in the way that most people associate them. Basically it covered the bills if I was off sick, had an accident or made redundant but I was only aware of the policy when I noticed the direct debit payment coming from our account a few months later. Once I had the policy I decided to keep it as it's one of things you feel it would be typical to cancel and then need it, although I always meant to get round to sourcing a better value product as I always felt it was quite expensive at the time.
I tried to claim via a claims company without success a few years ago, basically BOS said they couldn't find any record of this policy and kept knocking out the claim, due to the claims company not following things up properly the claim was eventually time barred as they never responded within 6 months.
Long story short, In November last year after watching Martin Lewis say there was now a time limit on claiming I took one last go at it through MSE and signed up to Resolver and put the claim into St Andrew's Group, after 8 weeks they hadn't responded so I escalated it to the FOS who initially stated that the claim was time barred in 2012 and there was nothing else they could do. I went back to them and asked them to reopen the case as basically the sale had never been investigated as BOS claimed to have no record of the policy. Again they came back saying unless there was extreme circumstance there was nothing they could do. This time a sent them the policy document with the agreement and policy number and also a copy of my bank statement for that month with the direct debit coming for that month's payment. This time they replied saying they will reopen the claim as the bank has a case to answer in light of the information I sent.
So after a bit of toing and froing between the FOS and BOS for a few months I got a letter from the bank at the end of August to say that they had upheld the complaint and I was getting a payout of £10,105.26p and two cheques arrived on Saturday morning, one from Halifax/BOS and one from St Andrew's for their share of the claim.
So I'd urge anyone sold a stand alone Sickness, Accident and Unemployment policy to seriously consider putting a claim in, just because it's not linked to a credit card, loan or mortgage doesn't mean you a) can't claim and b) wasn't missold. And also, give the FOS all the information you can, I got knocked back twice before they looked at mine. Just because a policy doesn't say PPI doesn't mean it's not a payment protection policy.
I was sold a policy in April 2002 when we had arranged an appointment with the bank to sort our bank accounts. The policy was linked to our Bill Payment bank account, it's called a Bill Protector I think and was not a PPI policy in the way that most people associate them. Basically it covered the bills if I was off sick, had an accident or made redundant but I was only aware of the policy when I noticed the direct debit payment coming from our account a few months later. Once I had the policy I decided to keep it as it's one of things you feel it would be typical to cancel and then need it, although I always meant to get round to sourcing a better value product as I always felt it was quite expensive at the time.
I tried to claim via a claims company without success a few years ago, basically BOS said they couldn't find any record of this policy and kept knocking out the claim, due to the claims company not following things up properly the claim was eventually time barred as they never responded within 6 months.
Long story short, In November last year after watching Martin Lewis say there was now a time limit on claiming I took one last go at it through MSE and signed up to Resolver and put the claim into St Andrew's Group, after 8 weeks they hadn't responded so I escalated it to the FOS who initially stated that the claim was time barred in 2012 and there was nothing else they could do. I went back to them and asked them to reopen the case as basically the sale had never been investigated as BOS claimed to have no record of the policy. Again they came back saying unless there was extreme circumstance there was nothing they could do. This time a sent them the policy document with the agreement and policy number and also a copy of my bank statement for that month with the direct debit coming for that month's payment. This time they replied saying they will reopen the claim as the bank has a case to answer in light of the information I sent.
So after a bit of toing and froing between the FOS and BOS for a few months I got a letter from the bank at the end of August to say that they had upheld the complaint and I was getting a payout of £10,105.26p and two cheques arrived on Saturday morning, one from Halifax/BOS and one from St Andrew's for their share of the claim.
So I'd urge anyone sold a stand alone Sickness, Accident and Unemployment policy to seriously consider putting a claim in, just because it's not linked to a credit card, loan or mortgage doesn't mean you a) can't claim and b) wasn't missold. And also, give the FOS all the information you can, I got knocked back twice before they looked at mine. Just because a policy doesn't say PPI doesn't mean it's not a payment protection policy.
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Comments
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Not sure if this topic has been covered but it's just a quick heads up on Bank of Scotland/St Andrew's Group's Sickness, Accident and Unemployment policy that was widely sold in the 2000's via Bank of Scotland/Halifax branches.
I was sold a policy in April 2002 when we had arranged an appointment with the bank to sort our bank accounts. The policy was linked to our Bill Payment bank account, it's called a Bill Protector I think and was not a PPI policy in the way that most people associate them. Basically it covered the bills if I was off sick, had an accident or made redundant but I was only aware of the policy when I noticed the direct debit payment coming from our account a few months later. Once I had the policy I decided to keep it as it's one of things you feel it would be typical to cancel and then need it, although I always meant to get round to sourcing a better value product as I always felt it was quite expensive at the time.
I tried to claim via a claims company without success a few years ago, basically BOS said they couldn't find any record of this policy and kept knocking out the claim, due to the claims company not following things up properly the claim was eventually time barred as they never responded within 6 months.
Long story short, In November last year after watching Martin Lewis say there was now a time limit on claiming I took one last go at it through MSE and signed up to Resolver and put the claim into St Andrew's Group, after 8 weeks they hadn't responded so I escalated it to the FOS who initially stated that the claim was time barred in 2012 and there was nothing else they could do. I went back to them and asked them to reopen the case as basically the sale had never been investigated as BOS claimed to have no record of the policy. Again they came back saying unless there was extreme circumstance there was nothing they could do. This time a sent them the policy document with the agreement and policy number and also a copy of my bank statement for that month with the direct debit coming for that month's payment. This time they replied saying they will reopen the claim as the bank has a case to answer in light of the information I sent.
So after a bit of toing and froing between the FOS and BOS for a few months I got a letter from the bank at the end of August to say that they had upheld the complaint and I was getting a payout of £10,105.26p and two cheques arrived on Saturday morning, one from Halifax/BOS and one from St Andrew's for their share of the claim.
So I'd urge anyone sold a stand alone Sickness, Accident and Unemployment policy to seriously consider putting a claim in, just because it's not linked to a credit card, loan or mortgage doesn't mean you a) can't claim and b) wasn't missold. And also, give the FOS all the information you can, I got knocked back twice before they looked at mine. Just because a policy doesn't say PPI doesn't mean it's not a payment protection policy.
A) Can you confirm exactly how many policies were sold?
Can you confirm if you are suggesting to those customers who were not miss-sold that they should also being putting in a claim and committing fraud? 0 -
So I'd urge anyone sold a stand alone Sickness, Accident and Unemployment policy to seriously consider putting a claim in,
I am not sure urging anyone to commit fraud is a good idea.I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.0 -
I haven't a clue how many policies were sold but speaking to people I know in the financial services these type of policies were sold in large numbers.
Sorry if it's been misunderstood, I'm not urging people to commit fraud I'm just trying to point out that there's policies that aren't labeled 'PPI' which could be open to a PPI miss selling claim. It's not fraudulant if you knew what you were buying and signed up for it then there's nothing to claim on but Martin Lewis said himself if you have PPI chances are you were miss sold it. All I'm saying is to look at how the policy was sold to you, just as you would with any other PPI policy.0 -
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I'm just trying to point out that there's policies that aren't labeled 'PPI' which could be open to a PPI miss selling claim.
And plenty that are PPI and not missold. You can still buy PPI plans today. Most regular premium standalone plans were not classed as missold. Many were self bought by choice. Yet your words encouraged "anyone" with a policy to complain.It's not fraudulant if you knew what you were buying and signed up for it then there's nothing to claim on but Martin Lewis said himself if you have PPI chances are you were miss sold it.
If is fraudulent if you attempt to get money from another through deceit. Plenty of PPI was missold. A good proportion of it was not.I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.0 -
I just re read your post and in it you say you were happy with the stand alsone monthly product but were planning to change it to a cheaper version. And that you had since been paying it for [if I read it right and you were still paying it up to last year?] and hadn't cancelled it...
I'm not seeing where it was missold.Non me fac calcitrare tuum culi0 -
Geniunely didn't mean to misslead anyone I just thought I'd share my experience and make people aware that not all PPi policies labelled as such and that the likes of ASU policies my well have been missold as well.
Maybe a poor choice of wording to 'urge' people to do it but I wasn't meaning to try and make a false claim just that anyone can ask the policy seller to review how it was sold.
I posted in good faith and didn't mean to appear to mislead anyone.0 -
Geniunely didn't mean to misslead anyone I just thought I'd share my experience and make people aware that not all PPi policies labelled as such and that the likes of ASU policies my well have been missold as well.
Maybe a poor choice of wording to 'urge' people to do it but I wasn't meaning to try and make a false claim just that anyone can ask the policy seller to review how it was sold.
I posted in good faith and didn't mean to appear to mislead anyone.
ASU / PHI etc are almost certainly not miss-sold, particularly any that require medical tests / declarations and there is virtually always a need for them.
Yes PPI has different names, doesn't change the product or complaints processSam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness:
People are rich because they spend less money. A poor man buys $10 boots that last a season or two before he's walking in wet shoes and has to buy another pair. A rich man buys $50 boots that are made better and give him 10 years of dry feet. The poor man has spent $100 over those 10 years and still has wet feet.
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In my case I wasn't asked any questions or referred to a doctor or asked to do a medical, if they had they'd have discovered that I was off work for 8 months the previous year with health issues. So it also wasn't pointed out that those previous health issues may not be covered by the policy.
If they were selling them without going through that process then that would be one reason they were missold, selling a policy without gaining all the facts. I've never discovered what reasons they decided it was missold but neither the bank nor St Andrews Group fought it with the Ombudsman so all three clearly felt it had been missold.
Anyway, just wanted to point out to people that if they have a Bill Protector or other ASU policy it would be worth looking at how it was sold. Sorry again if that's brought out some scepticism in people.0 -
In my case I wasn't asked any questions or referred to a doctor or asked to do a medical, if they had they'd have discovered that I was off work for 8 months the previous year with health issues. So it also wasn't pointed out that those previous health issues may not be covered by the policy.
If they were selling them without going through that process then that would be one reason they were missold, selling a policy without gaining all the facts. I've never discovered what reasons they decided it was missold but neither the bank nor St Andrews Group fought it with the Ombudsman so all three clearly felt it had been missold.
Anyway, just wanted to point out to people that if they have a Bill Protector or other ASU policy it would be worth looking at how it was sold. Sorry again if that's brought out some scepticism in people.
Your policy is a PPI policy which doesn't need medical testing/records, one reason why it was quite poor for loans/CC. It was not an advised sale and doesn't matter about these problems.
Proper ASU/PHI policies required medical checks etc hence why they were far less likely to be miss-sold
Banks have a scatter gun approach to refunds, it may have been below their auto-pay limit, it may be they found other failings, you will never know.Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness:
People are rich because they spend less money. A poor man buys $10 boots that last a season or two before he's walking in wet shoes and has to buy another pair. A rich man buys $50 boots that are made better and give him 10 years of dry feet. The poor man has spent $100 over those 10 years and still has wet feet.
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