Endowment payout

jillpstudfarm

Back in 1989 I bought a house with an endowment mortgage through a broker who no longer exists, I don't remember the name, but the mortgage lender was Woolwich.
I have moved houses many times over the years, all the subsequent ones with repayment mortgages.
I have recently received a copy of a letter sent to Woolwich (now Barclays) asking them to confirm that they no longer have any interest in the policy, which I paid off some 20+ years ago.
I have paid the endowment for the whole time.
After hearing nothing else I rang Phoenix Life and they said that they cannot pay out to me without confirmation from Woolwich / Barclays that they have no interest.
I then rang Woolwich and got a very unhelpful gentleman in an Indian call centre. After explaining my problem he said he could help me, with a lot more cajoling I managed to get him to at least log onto my record to have a look at the history. He even said that they have no record of me having any mortgages when I have had 3 mortgages with Woolwich / Barclays, the last of which I paid off in 2012.
He continued to insist that he couldn't find anything, he said that as Barclays took over Woolwich in 2000 they only transferred records of active mortgages, not ones paid out.
He suggested that I go to a branch and get them to ring the loan centre, my nearest is 25 miles away which would necessitate taking a day of work as the loan centre doesn't open Saturdays.
I then rang the branch and they said that even if I went in they wouldn't be able to get any more details than the call centre and even admitted that the call centre were probably trying to fob me off.


I spoke to Phoenix Life again and asked what I do now.


They said there is nothing I can do, but they won't pay out unless the Woolwich confirm that they have no interest in the policy anymore.


This is in excess of £50k, so does anyone have any idea what I do now.

TrickyDicky101

Perhaps raise a complaint to Barclays? It is likely the complaints team have experience of similar problems and will know what to do/who in Barclays to contact.

davidmcn

You could always try turning it around and get Barclays to confirm that you're not a current customer and therefore there's no reason why they shouldn't release their interest in the policy.

Socajam

I am sure that you are not and will not be the first customer to have this problem.
My situation was different from yours.
With my Halifax endowment mortgage, when I converted to repayment I kept the endowment, but continued to pay monthly.
After the mortgage ended I was sent all the papers to sign and had to show that Halifax had no interest in the mortgage. Once everything was sorted out, the money was deposited into my bank account.

I also had a couple of savings with Woolwich and had to look through my old accounts to find the correct phone number to call Barclays in order for them to pay out.
This was the address I used for my Woolwich accounts that were taken over by Barclays:

BNY Mellon House
Ingrave Road
Brentwood
CM15 8TG
Tel: 0870-606-6486

Or you could write to the:
Financial Ombudsman Service, which will be able to decide whether the search has been conducted properly.

dunstonh

After hearing nothing else I rang Phoenix Life and they said that they cannot pay out to me without confirmation from Woolwich / Barclays that they have no interest.

That is quite normal.

it was a requirement back in the 80s to have this but lenders stopped needing it in the 90s. Back in the 80s, people didnt change their mortgages so it was never an issue.

They said there is nothing I can do, but they won't pay out unless the Woolwich confirm that they have no interest in the policy anymore.

Forget phoenix. They are correct in their stance. They cannot pay it out without Woolwich/Barclays stating they have no financial interest in the policy.

This is in excess of £50k, so does anyone have any idea what I do now.

If you spoke to an experienced worker at Barclays they would likely have resolved it easily. However, many of the call centre staff are young and inexperienced and wont be aware of legacy issues.

As you have hit a dead end with the call centre, you now need to raise it as a complaint. The complaints team will have had a number of these over the years and will sort it. Its a shame that is how banking is nowadays but with people not willing to pay for quality, we get the service we are not paying for.

So, contact the complaints team and tell them that you had a mortgage with Woolwich and the endowment policy noted Woolwich has having the financial interest and that Phoenix will not pay the maturity unless Woolwich confirm in writing that they have no financial interest in the policy.

That letter goes to Phoenix and you will get your maturity.

Ian011

Socajam wrote: »

Tel: 0870-606-6486.

Usage of a premium rate 084, 087 or 09 number for contact by customers has been a breach of FCA regulations since 26 October 2015. This number is likely to no longer be in use, and if it still is in use it should not be.

Socajam

Ian011 wrote: »

Usage of a premium rate 084, 087 or 09 number for contact by customers has been a breach of FCA regulations since 26 October 2015. This number is likely to no longer be in use, and if it still is in use it should not be.

I had no idea.
My letter was dated years before this became a problem

daveyjp

I had similar with Santander. It really isn't an unusual request and the letter arrived within a couple of days.

Raise a formal complaint with Barclays.