Bnks life insurance

john.williams

Just wondering if anyone can advise me. I got a mortgage in 2004 and the Halifax said i needed life insurance and building and contents. I also asked for critical illness just in case.  I ve just discovered that they have been charging me for the life and critical illness but did not complete the policy paper work. They are now saying they have no record of the policy and they dont know where the money from the direct debit has been going. They have put it down as a complaint. All these years,  and  all through the pandemic, we thought if the worst was to happen,  at least the other half would have been looked after. Any ideas what my next step would be regarding trying to get some of my money back, if thats possible.  thank you in advance

Aretnap

The route to getting your money back is to make a complaint in the first instance - which it sounds like is already happening. If you're not satisfied with the bank's response to your complaint then you can in turn complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service - but take these things one step at a time.

What's your preferred outcome - do you want your money back, or do you want the policy to be reinstated (or instated, I suppose) as if it had actually been commenced properly in 2004? If the policy would have expired soon anyway and you are both in good health then getting your money back (plus interest!) sounds like the perfect outcome. If the policy would have had years to run and you now have health conditions which would make it difficult to get a new policy then getting it reisntated might be better - and that might be more complicated. Do you have any paperwork of your own from 2004 to show exactly what you were buying (or what you thought you were buying)?

Obviously if one if you had died or had a critical illness over the last 19 years then things could have been very messy - but thankfully that didn't happen, and you won't get extra compensation (on top of your premiums back or the policy being reinstated) because of something that might have happened but didn't.

dunstonh

Any ideas what my next step would be regarding trying to get some of my money back, if thats possible.

The step is done.  Now you wait.

Its a fairly straightforward case.    If they say there is no policy and they confirm the direct debit is theirs then its a refund of premiums plus interest.   If they find the policy (which is a possibility as they have been doing a systems change and/or it may be that some data is wrong that means it wasnt found by the call centre worker - e.g. DOB wrong way around, old address (that happens often), misspell in the name etc), then they sort the incorrect data and you get no refund.

2004 was still pretty much paper mandates.  And for a payment to be coming off your account would suggest a policy does exist as the mandate and payment instructions get linked to the policy.   D/Ds don't just set themselves up. Someone has to key it.  And these things are cross-balanced.  It's not like a standing order.  So, chances are there is a policy and it will boil down to how good the person is at finding it or how bad the errors were in setting it up.

john.williams

Thank you for the replies. i dont want compensation or anything more than i have lost, but i do feel that if i have not had the insurance then i should get back the money that they took. i know that may sound greedy but if you dont supply a product you should nt get the money for it. i have had no problems with the Halifax upto now and would recommend them because i m sure this is just a clerical error.   many thanks for helping me with your replys

DullGreyGuy

There will be no question of refund plus interest if the insurance isnt in place and if there is no option to now put it in place. If it does exist and its an error when they say they cannot see the policy then obviously everything is as it should have been and you were covered the whole time so its just token compensation for the period of concern whilst they couldn't locate it.