Endowment Policy Claim

[myster]

Hi,

 

I am due to put in an endowment policy claim and a mortgage claim. The solicitor is charging £895 for a mortgage claim (for interest rate through broker) + 25% of the claim that is awarded. With the endowment policy its £495 + 25% of the claim that is awarded, any advice on what solicitors/claim firm are worth using? Is this expensive or reasonable in terms of charges?

 

I dont know who use, any advice based on experience from other CAG users?

 

I apoligise mods if this thread is in the wrong place or if I didnt find anything in previous posts as I did search! thanks.

 

Cheers

 

Moh

[Killerschick]

Hi Moh,

I don't think anyone on CAG would ever recommend using a claims manager, solicitor, etc to bring your claim. It's a complete rip off especially with the kind of figures you are quoting which are extortionate. If you must use a third party you might be able to find someone to act on a contingency fee basis i.e. they pay the costs up front but take a percentage o any settlement. If they are charging an up front fee that suggests your claim might not be very strong and they are trying to get their profit at the outset.

As far as the endowment claim is concerned you might be out of time as you have six years from when the policy was sold or three years from when you found out there was a problem. You might still be able to claim even if you are out of time but you will need to explain why you didn't act sooner e.g. the mortgage company's letter never got to you etc. There's more info on the Ombudsman website:-

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/mortgage.htm

or you can call them on 0845 080 1800.

Claims relating to interest rates are rarely successful, don't know what grounds you are looking at there e.g. broker selling fixed rate inappropriately, rate increases, miscalculation etc but there are appeal cases on most of these issues which have unfortunately gone against the consumer. I would be vary wary of paying someone a huge fee to mount a case which has little prospect of a return and if you happen to have a good case then there are probably CAGGERs out there who can help you through without you getting ripped off.

KC

[patrickq1]

i am about to make a full claim for the difference of 29000 against Standard life i will start a new thread that you can follow, i have documents from standard life relating back to 1982 in it they promised a windfall of 48,000 minimum payout, so i am holding them to their promise they just sent a letter this week of payout in a few years will be approx 24000, i will not accept and shall be holding them to their promise otherwise i shall then instigate action against Halifax for their recommendation and no offer of alternative , the halifax gave me no option it was a demand put upon us so we shall also be holding them jointly responsible for our losses....we shall see it will be a very interesting time over the next year or so as i can imagine that is how long the legal matters will take as we all know they will obfuscate for months and use any excuse to get out of their promise ?

patrickq1

[patrickq1]

hi Myster just thought i would let you see this if your with standard life

http://ifasok.co.uk/Downloads/BWhmp28203%20(1).pdf