Received inherited backdated dividend payments Equiniti, can I contest £110 fee?

dunstonh

It is almost certain that Equiniti employed a tracing company (that is what usually happens).   Sometimes the tracing company will find someone quickly. Sometimes they will take ages.   However, the fee is fixed to the end investor.

£110 is not much nowadays.

Alexland

Robert_McGeddon said:

A total of £144.50 inc VAT isn't unreasonable for how helpful they have been in finding and assisting the OP.

Agreed that Equiniti have done very well in tracing the OP. They are to be congratulated on this point.  Is the £144.50 a finder's fee? My assumption was is was all/mainly for administering/paying uncashed dividend cheques - as has happened to me.  However. from the opening post, it seems Equiniti haven't been very clear with the OP as to what their fees relates to.

They would find it very difficult to specifically charge a 'finders fee' as no contract was established in advance and once information is known why would someone want to pay in that way so they likely do the work in the knowledge that additional services are likely to be purchased as a result which would need to cover the overall costs incurred.

Thrugelmir

Robert_McGeddon said:

Alexland said:

Robert_McGeddon said:

Opportunistic extortion, IMO.

Someone has to pay unless you expect them to do their work for free or other more organised shareholders to cross subsidise from companies paying higher share registration costs? They're not a charity, their charges are clearly displayed on their website and the right people in listed companies should know about such charges for extras.

Still disagree. As far as charging for uncashed dividend cheques is concerned the effort for a £10 payment or £1,000 payment (perhaps over several items) is the same. But they can't take a £100 "fee" fron a £10 payment. It seems to me that the charge is not related to their costs or efforts, only what their indirect customer can afford to pay.

A total of £144.50 inc VAT isn't unreasonable for how helpful they have been in finding and assisting the OP.

Agreed that Equiniti have done very well in tracing the OP. They are to be congratulated on this point.  Is the £144.50 a finder's fee? My assumption was is was all/mainly for administering/paying uncashed dividend cheques - as has happened to me.  However. from the opening post, it seems Equiniti haven't been very clear with the OP as to what their fees relates to.

The fee will relate to employing someone to perform the task. Provide them with a desk , a telephone. a computer, train them, pay for their pension, holiday and sickness entitlements. Cover the rent, rates, light and heating for the building. Cover insurance costs. IT systems and support. The list goes on.  

Robert_McGeddon

Thrugelmir said:

The fee will relate to employing someone to perform the task. Provide them with a desk , a telephone. a computer, train them, pay for their pension, holiday and sickness entitlements. Cover the rent, rates, light and heating for the building. Cover insurance costs. IT systems and support. The list goes on.  

Well, it may do. Equally it may not.

In the opening post the OP identified payment of uncashed dividends on 5 holdings over 11 years. My experience with Equiniti is they charge (what I regard as an OTT amount) to later pay them out - particuilarly as the shareholder/inheritor has no contractual relationship with Equiniti. As I said before, the cost to Equiniti of paying out £10 or £1,000 is the same - there is no differential due to cost absorbtion as the number is computerised and readily available. In the case of a finder's fee (if that is what is involved here) then a fee may be appropriate and may include absorbed overheads, although as Alexland pointed out there again is no contract with the OP for this (if Equiniti paid an external party to work on this then a justification is possible).

Equiniti's contract for registrar services is with the particular company paying the dividends, not the shareholder. I presume the service fee includes provision for uncashed dividends.

If I received a fee note from Equiniti for £110 described as "various" I would want a breakdown.

Alexland

Robert_McGeddon said:

Equiniti's contract for registrar services is with the particular company paying the dividends, not the shareholder. I presume the service fee includes provision for uncashed dividends.

I don't know why you would presume that as they are very open on their website they change shareholders directly for this as an extra service so if they are being dishonest and charging twice as it was already included in their contracted scope for their share registration service then it would be very obvious to the right people in the listed companies that buy their service.

https://www.shareview.co.uk/4/Info/Portfolio/default/en/Home/Shareholders/Pages/DivReissues.aspx

"Our standard policy is to deduct a fee for payments that are reissued. The fee levied for the reissue of a payment goes some way towards covering the administration costs involved in this process.  In general, the higher the value of the payment, the higher the associated administration costs. This is because of the increased security checks that must be undertaken. On some occasions, multiple payments may be involved as payments could be issued from different bank accounts. In these circumstances, a fee may be levied for each payment issued."

Thrugelmir

Robert_McGeddon said:

Thrugelmir said:

The fee will relate to employing someone to perform the task. Provide them with a desk , a telephone. a computer, train them, pay for their pension, holiday and sickness entitlements. Cover the rent, rates, light and heating for the building. Cover insurance costs. IT systems and support. The list goes on.  

Well, it may do. Equally it may not.

After a lifetime working in finance I can assure you it does. There's no magic money trees in this world. 

Robert_McGeddon

Alexland, Thrugelmir,

Thanks for your contributions, which I do appreciate.  I still disagree (which is a great attribute of a forum). Maybe I didn't articulate my thoughts clearly enough? No matter, I'll bow out now.