Are Reassure a scam company?

barryd999

It feels like it to me. Long story short. They took over my FMISA from L&G on September the 7th and it was due to terminate on the 9th October after 20 years.  After many calls and filling in forms they paid my policy half but not my wife's.  Every time I call them its another hour of my life lost on hold to get nowhere. on the 2nd of November I finally got through to someone higher up who informed me that they had messed up the paperwork and had my bank account details mixed up with my wife's as someone had attached the wrong scan to her file.  She assured me it would go through by Tuesday or Wednesday this week at the latest.

Still nothing so another hour on the phone today only to be told it was going through and would be authorised in a few working days. This has been going on for a month now.  I used the time on hold to file an official complaint to the Ombudsman and when I informed the lady on the phone that I had done that and could she put me through to the lady I spoke to on the 2nd of November as she had promised me a complaint reference number suddenly she said the line was breaking up and she could not hear me.  This is odd as up until now it was working fine and I could hear her. 

So, I have no faith that we will receive this money (its a fair sum).  Are they just totally incompetent or is there a scam going on here?  They even had the wrong mobile number down for me. The one she read back in case of a need to call me back was just some total random number I had never heard of.

If they are not a scam company, please, do not touch them with a barge poll.  Anyone else had issues with them?

dunstonh

Are Reassure a scam company?

That is a pretty ridiculous thing to say about a major insurance company in the UK.

 I used the time on hold to file an official complaint to the Ombudsman a

You cannot go to the ombudsman directly like that.  You have to have put a complaint with the company first.  The FOS will just send it on to ReAssure.  Although it sounds like they have taken your call as a complaint anyway.

So, I have no faith that we will receive this money (its a fair sum). 

Again, a pretty ridiculous thing to say.    

  Are they just totally incompetent or is there a scam going on here? 

They have just taken over L&G's unwanted life & pension book.  It was almost inevitable that there would be issues.   They will be frustrating for those suffering issues but there is a world of difference between clerical issues and a scam.

If they are not a scam company, please, do not touch them with a barge poll.  Anyone else had issues with them?

ReAssure don't retail hardly anything nowadays.  So, most will not be buying anything from them.  Plus, they are in the process of being bought by Phoenix.   

barryd999

dunstonh said:

Are Reassure a scam company?

That is a pretty ridiculous thing to say about a major insurance company in the UK.

 I used the time on hold to file an official complaint to the Ombudsman a

You cannot go to the ombudsman directly like that.  You have to have put a complaint with the company first.  The FOS will just send it on to ReAssure.  Although it sounds like they have taken your call as a complaint anyway.

So, I have no faith that we will receive this money (its a fair sum). 

Again, a pretty ridiculous thing to say.    

  Are they just totally incompetent or is there a scam going on here? 

They have just taken over L&G's unwanted life & pension book.  It was almost inevitable that there would be issues.   They will be frustrating for those suffering issues but there is a world of difference between clerical issues and a scam.

If they are not a scam company, please, do not touch them with a barge poll.  Anyone else had issues with them?

ReAssure don't retail hardly anything nowadays.  So, most will not be buying anything from them.  Plus, they are in the process of being bought by Phoenix.   

As I said, I officially complained to the senior advisor on the 2nd of November and informed her I would likely be contacting the Ombudsman if it wasnt settled by Tuesday or Wednesday as she promised. so its been logged (or so she said).  As I also said they managed to pay one of them (again after many phone calls and pushing) but have just come with excuse after excuse and then I learn that they themselves cocked up the scans of the bank statements etc and oddly had a random phone number, presumably for another client on my file. I dont know who they are from Adam. They could well be pulling a fast one for all I know but as you have assured me they are above board we will just have to go with totally incompetent then.    

dunstonh

As I said, I officially complained to the senior advisor on the 2nd of November and informed her I would likely be contacting the Ombudsman if it wasnt settled by Tuesday or Wednesday 

You cant do that.   You either have to wait until the complaint has been rejected by ReAssure (assuming you would accept an upheld complaint) or 8 weeks have passed before you can access the FOS.

They could well be pulling a fast one for all I know but as you have assured me they are above board we will just have to go with totally incompetent then.    

I have had a lot of experience with various Reassure companies and they are frequently sluggish or don't provide the information requested requiring extra work to get it.  

slopemaster

I also feel this is beyond just incompetence, and looks more like a deliberate attempt to slow down paying anything out.

I was dissatisfied with the admin of my pension after the transfer from Legal and General so I decided to tranfer the whole lot to Vanguard. (and actioned this 6 weeks ago) They eventually got back to Vanguard after several reminders to say they do not do electronic transfers so I have to fill in paper forms. But I cannot get them to send said forms.

When I phoned, they said (after the obligatory hour on hold) that a letter had been sent to me a month ago saying that they are "unable to process" my transfer request because it "may be a scam". As I have not received such a letter, I said they should e-mail me a copy. They said that they would.....in "10 to 15 working days"! I asked for a complaints address but was just given the general customer e-mail which they will doubtless ignore. I will send a complaint in today so that I can go to the regulator in 8 weeks.

The internet is full of complaints from ex-L and G customers, eg 91-year old unable to pay 2 months rent while struggling to get "instant access" bonds paid out. It really is unfortunate that warning people to avoid them is ineffective because you don't get any choice if your pension is transferred to them. But surely the regulator should look into this?

slopemaster

I'm also wondering if they've moved to Latvia?

My last letter from them, which arrived 5 weeks after the date on the letter, was postmarked Latvia, although there is only a UK address on their website. And (co-incidentally?) the person in the call centre had quite a pronounced east european accent.

dunstonh

The internet is full of complaints from ex-L and G customers, eg 91-year old unable to pay 2 months rent while struggling to get "instant access" bonds paid out.

That is one of the problems with internet reviews.  L&G have never done an instant access bond.  So, clearly you cannot get something out of a product that never existed in the first place.

It really is unfortunate that warning people to avoid them is ineffective because you don't get any choice if your pension is transferred to them. But surely the regulator should look into this?

ReAssure are about to be bought by Phoenix.   Phoenix have a much better reputation but even they wont be able to fix things overnight.

slopemaster

dunstonh said:

The internet is full of complaints from ex-L and G customers, eg 91-year old unable to pay 2 months rent while struggling to get "instant access" bonds paid out.

That is one of the problems with internet reviews.  L&G have never done an instant access bond.  So, clearly you cannot get something out of a product that never existed in the first place.

It was on the "Which" site, and the case was passed to the regulator, so it must have existed - though perhaps it wasn't ex-L and G as they said it was?

ReAssure are about to be bought by Phoenix.   Phoenix have a much better reputation but even they wont be able to fix things overnight.

I was wondering about sending a copy to them direct also, but the complaints section on the Phoenix website send you round in circles and only gives contact details for "lifetime mortgages"!

dunstonh

It was on the "Which" site, and the case was passed to the regulator, so it must have existed - though perhaps it wasn't ex-L and G as they said it was?

Complaints never get passed to the regulator. Anyone trying to do that just finds the regulator forwards them back to the company mentioned.

L&G are an insurance company.   Not a bank. Only banks can offer instant access bonds (it requires a banking licence and deposits permissions from the FCA).   L&G did retail onshore investment bonds (in case the person got the "bond" bit confused but they involved investments and those needed to be sold and settled before they could be paid out. The typical timescale on legacy investments like that was around 2-3 weeks (modern versions are much quicker though).

So, either it was someone confused over what they had or someone mixing L&G up with another provider.   

I was wondering about sending a copy to them direct also, but the complaints section on the Phoenix website send you round in circles and only gives contact details for "lifetime mortgages"!

Phoenix haven't got to the stage of integrating L&G yet (the lifetime mortages bit comes from an earlier purchase from an L&G subsidiary).      So, at the moment, ReAssure is the complaint point.

slopemaster

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/01/vulnerable-reassure-investors-left-waiting-months-for-funds-after-lg-takeover/

"Which? has reported life and pensions firm ReAssure to the regulator after hearing from vulnerable customers who have struggled to release investments, following its takeover of Legal & General’s Mature Savings business."

Of course I bow to your superior knowledge of financial products. It does seem that the "Which?" journalist is a little confused, as they refer to "investments bonds" "savings" "investments" and "instant-access bonds" all referring to the same case! However, it still seems that there was an inordinate delay and that a vulnerable customer was treated shoddily.

Thanks for the info on Phoenix; I have sent my complaint off to Reassure

MalMonroe

I would just like to add my twopennorth in that I'd like to just warn people about criticising or slagging off any named companies on this site.

Although it says at the outset that this site is not monitored by admins 24/7, other forumites could report threads which contain adverse comments and/or what a company considers to be libel or any other negative comments to that company. 

I was recently a contributor to a thread that contained adverse comments about a named company and someone reported the thread and the company threatened legal action against the site. Although the thread was removed, obviously the comments had already been seen. I have heard nothing further (as yet!) so I am hoping that no further action, although threatened, was taken.

Please just be aware that if you do make adverse comments about anyone, or any company, there is a risk that they will be reported, the site will be sued and the forum will have to be closed. (Oh, and individual commenters could be sued as well.)

I'm not trying to scare anyone, just speaking from personal experience.