Cancelled cheque

imranwhite

I had an endowment policy with Lloyds-TSB which I started when I took out my mortgage with them in Sept 1994. When I was advised to change in 2000 to a repayment mortgage (still with Lloyds-TSB) I stopped paying in to it. I forgot about it in fact until this September. When I remembered about it, I phoned them up to find out if they could still trace it, and if so how much it was worth. They told me (eventually!) it was now with Scottish Widows (a subsidiary of Ll-TSB). I talked to Scottish Widows who did (after quite a bit of fussing) finally find it on their system. They told me it was worth £2,300, and that due to its age I could cash it in without penalty. Good I thought! :j They said initially that they would send me a check for that ammount. Then they discovered that I was in arrears with my mortgage by £4,700. They said that the money would now go towards reducing the arrears, and that I had no choice in the matter.:rolleyes: Fair enough I thought. A while later however (and with no further meaningful contact between me and them) I recieved a cheque for that ammount in the post. Fantastic I thought, they have obviously decided to pay me anyway!:beer: I cashed the cheque into my Barclays current account planning what I would do with this unexpected windfall. However, a few days later the cheque came back with "orders not to pay" stamped on it. :eek: Scottish Widows had stopped the cheque without any explanation or reason. I phoned them up, and finally (and this took quite a few calls) found someone able to tell me why. They have apparently put that sum of money directly into my mortgage account to reduce my arrears (without telling me of course), and also stopped the cheque which they had sent me in error (again, they did not think me worthy of being notified of this intention at all). I am livid,:mad: as by stopping the cheque, they have severely affected my cashflow, as this was money I had reasonably expected to be available for me to spend over christmas. Also, as someone pointed out to me, as I have it in writing that my arrears could be reduced by £120 per month (which I have been sticking to my making extra monthly payments), what right have they to decide what best to do with my endowment money. What if the endowment had been with an unconnected financial service provider, would they have been able to touch the money then? I have had so many problems this year with my bank's greed, incompetence and dishonesty, that I want to sue them or something. Would I be within my rights to take this further? How much compensation should I ask for for all the bloody hassle? Can someone please advise as I am at a loss for what to do next. I don't just want to shrug my shoulders and say "oh well, I suppose that's just my bad luck". Thank you in advance, David.

imranwhite

Just checking something here.

neverdespairgirl

imranwhite wrote: »

I am livid,:mad: as by stopping the cheque, they have severely affected my cashflow, as this was money I had reasonably expected to be available for me to spend over christmas. Also, as someone pointed out to me, as I have it in writing that my arrears could be reduced by £120 per month (which I have been sticking to my making extra monthly payments), what right have they to decide what best to do with my endowment money.

I don't quite understand - are you still £4k plus in arrears on your mortgage? If so, why were you planning to blow £2k over Christmas, wouldn't it be better to use that to pay off your arrears?

maninthestreet

Of course they shouldn't have sent you the cheque, it was a mistake, and they corrected it by putting a 'stop' on the cheque.
It's far better for you that the £2,300 was used to reduce your mortgage arrears - £4,700 in arrears is not something to take lightly. How many monthly payments does that constitute?