Has anyone dealt with Checkmy Ltd - re: lost pensions

donna066

Husband has contacted a company that has said they will check for any pensions he may have lost, I told him not to. They have phoned today and said that they have found a old Serps pension from 1978 and he is due money- But to get this money they want £99 - Currently i do not have this money and wont have for a while either- Husband is now panicking that they have said the price will go up unless he pays the £99 .  they won't tell him how much he has got or anything- but have got all his information apart from his size of trousers !  the reason he got this company involved was because he was just checking  and he doesnt have any information about any serps . Has anyone else had any dealings with this company? are they legit- or has husband landed us in major debt- Worried ???

wjr4

Look on the pensions tracing service rather than use a company like them 

83705628

donna066 said:

Husband has contacted a company that has said they will check for any pensions he may have lost, I told him not to. They have phoned today and said that they have found a old Serps pension from 1978 and he is due money- But to get this money they want £99 - Currently i do not have this money and wont have for a while either- Husband is now panicking that they have said the price will go up unless he pays the £99 .  they won't tell him how much he has got or anything- but have got all his information apart from his size of trousers !  the reason he got this company involved was because he was just checking  and he doesnt have any information about any serps . Has anyone else had any dealings with this company? are they legit- or has husband landed us in major debt- Worried ???

/
If they're using high pressure sales tactics like threatening to put the price up if he doesn't act immediately it's almost certainly a scam. Also it sounds like they are saying he can't get the money unless he pays them £99. That is not how pensions work, they don't charge you to access them.
You can get this information for free anyway via the pension tracing service https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

donna066

Further update- not that I knew this- they sent him 'signed letters' in PDF format that apparently husband had signed- err, no he never signed anything , so surely they cant go ahead?. I have email company and asked who has signed paperwork- interesting to see what they say ! 

[Deleted User]

Write this letter and within a few weeks there will be a reply with the details of which employer contracted out and if you left the company and had pensions refunded they would have those details as well. (I know I have done this and it is very detailed)
Then contact the employers pension funds to trace them 

To:

NISPI

National Insurance Contributions and Employers Office

HM Revenue and Customs

BX9 1BX

United Kingdom

Date

NI Number: xxxxxxx, DOB: xxxxx

I wonder whether you can assist me in providing details of when and from whom I was contracted out of SERPs and other additional State Pension Schemes.

Many thanks

83705628

donna066 said:

Further update- not that I knew this- they sent him 'signed letters' in PDF format that apparently husband had signed- err, no he never signed anything , so surely they cant go ahead?. I have email company and asked who has signed paperwork- interesting to see what they say ! 

/
I would say don't contact them at all except to demand that they delete your contact details as per Data Protection Act 2018 and if they contact you again by any means.
Unless, like me and Joe Lycett, you actually enjoy wasting scammers time in which case go ahead. I find it therapeutic.

dunstonh

They have phoned today and said that they have found a old Serps pension from 1978 and he is due money- But to get this money they want £99 

I would be on guard.    Whilst SERPS became available in April 1978, you could not contract out of SERPS until April 1988.   i.e. you couldn't have a "SERPS pension" in 1978.   (They were not called SERPS pensions either.  They were called appropriate personal pension plans).

Dox

donna066 said:

Husband is now panicking that they have said the price will go up unless he pays the £99 .  

Refer them to their own website: https://checkmy.co.uk and point out their fee is set at £99, payable only when they demonstrate they have 'found' a pension.

Better yet, delete the correspondence and follow the advice above. Just bear in mind that if your husband was contracted out by means of a personal pension (as opposed to an occupational scheme), NISPI won't be able to confirm who the personal pension is with.

donna066

update  this is the returning email we got 

Dear Mr L

We have looked into your query. Please note that you would have requested for our Company to look into your Serps through a social media advert. 

We then made contact with you through Check My Serps. You provided some information to our company to process the request.

 The documents were signed on 6th May 2020 during a telephone call with yourself. On this call, you requested we email the documents to *** @aol.com and you confirmed you received these from info@checkmy.co.uk, which is us. You signed the documents via your computer as you stated you do not have a touch screen device. 

Electronic signatures are not necessarily identical to wet signatures so they can differ. 

The above information may assist you in refreshing your memory. 

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us by return email. 

Kind Regards

** Have they got us by the short and curlies ????

They also sent us their rules and regulations .......-

This part worries me 

Fees--

7. Our Fees
We operate a no find no fee service. We will only charge You a Finding Fee at the end of the Pension Tracing Check, only once We have found
a Pension for you, which You did not already inform Us of. Regardless of whether we find one or more Pensions for You through Our Pension
Tracing Check service, We will charge You a fixed Finding Fee of £99.00. This will be inclusive of any VAT (if applicable).
We will not charge You if no Pension has been found, or if a Pension has been found, which You have already informed Us of.
Without exception all invoices must be paid in full within 7 days of Us informing You that We have traced Your Pension. If You go over the 7 day
period We reserve the right to charge You additional administration costs charged at £50 per hour for Our time up to a maximum fee of £150.
Once We have started Your Pension Tracing Check and if We inform You of a traced pension You will be liable to pay Our fees.  

It also states if we cancel we will have to pay £150 fees for cancellation 
 I just dont know what to do 

83705628

donna066 said:

update  this is the returning email we got 

Dear Mr L

We have looked into your query. Please note that you would have requested for our Company to look into your Serps through a social media advert. 

We then made contact with you through Check My Serps. You provided some information to our company to process the request.

 The documents were signed on 6th May 2020 during a telephone call with yourself. On this call, you requested we email the documents to *** @aol.com and you confirmed you received these from info@checkmy.co.uk, which is us. You signed the documents via your computer as you stated you do not have a touch screen device. 

Electronic signatures are not necessarily identical to wet signatures so they can differ. 

The above information may assist you in refreshing your memory. 

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us by return email. 

Kind Regards

** Have they got us by the short and curlies ????

They also sent us their rules and regulations .......-

This part worries me 

Fees--

7. Our Fees
We operate a no find no fee service. We will only charge You a Finding Fee at the end of the Pension Tracing Check, only once We have found
a Pension for you, which You did not already inform Us of. Regardless of whether we find one or more Pensions for You through Our Pension
Tracing Check service, We will charge You a fixed Finding Fee of £99.00. This will be inclusive of any VAT (if applicable).
We will not charge You if no Pension has been found, or if a Pension has been found, which You have already informed Us of.
Without exception all invoices must be paid in full within 7 days of Us informing You that We have traced Your Pension. If You go over the 7 day
period We reserve the right to charge You additional administration costs charged at £50 per hour for Our time up to a maximum fee of £150.
Once We have started Your Pension Tracing Check and if We inform You of a traced pension You will be liable to pay Our fees.  

It also states if we cancel we will have to pay £150 fees for cancellation 
 I just dont know what to do 

/
Email says the documents were signed during the phone call, which is impossible (verbal contracts are a thing but I doubt a verbal contract is enforceable for financial services) then says they were signed electronically. So your husband should have evidence in his sent email items of sending this signature to them.
If no such email exists, or they cannot send you proof that they received such an email, then the contract was never signed.
They have not actually "found" a pension for you therefore they have not performed the offered service so there is nothing to pay.
This sounds like a scam.
You don't have to do anything.
Anyone can send you an official looking letter saying you owe them money and if you cancel you have to pay them £150.
Contact them to demand that they delete your contact details as per the data protection act 2018 and any further contact will be considered harassment.
Also
NEVER
F****** EVER
 SIGN UP TO ANY  FINANCIAL SERVICE  ON THE BASIS OF A F****** SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERT!!!

Dox

donna066 said:

update  this is the returning email we got 

Dear Mr L

We have looked into your query. Please note that you would have requested for our Company to look into your Serps through a social media advert. 

We then made contact with you through Check My Serps. You provided some information to our company to process the request.

 The documents were signed on 6th May 2020 during a telephone call with yourself. On this call, you requested we email the documents to *** @aol.com and you confirmed you received these from info@checkmy.co.uk, which is us. You signed the documents via your computer as you stated you do not have a touch screen device. 

Electronic signatures are not necessarily identical to wet signatures so they can differ. 

The above information may assist you in refreshing your memory. 

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us by return email. 

Kind Regards

** Have they got us by the short and curlies ????

They also sent us their rules and regulations .......-

This part worries me 

Fees--

7. Our Fees
We operate a no find no fee service. We will only charge You a Finding Fee at the end of the Pension Tracing Check, only once We have found
a Pension for you, which You did not already inform Us of. Regardless of whether we find one or more Pensions for You through Our Pension
Tracing Check service, We will charge You a fixed Finding Fee of £99.00. This will be inclusive of any VAT (if applicable).
We will not charge You if no Pension has been found, or if a Pension has been found, which You have already informed Us of.
Without exception all invoices must be paid in full within 7 days of Us informing You that We have traced Your Pension. If You go over the 7 day
period We reserve the right to charge You additional administration costs charged at £50 per hour for Our time up to a maximum fee of £150.
Once We have started Your Pension Tracing Check and if We inform You of a traced pension You will be liable to pay Our fees.  

It also states if we cancel we will have to pay £150 fees for cancellation 
 I just dont know what to do 

If the finder's fee is fixed at only £99, they can't justify charging a £150 cancellation fee, since they won't have done any extra work to merit a 50% increase.