Dizzy Posted February 20, 2009 Report Share Posted February 20, 2009 I've decided enough is enough... our pathetic Endowment Mortgage is not worth the paper it is written on so I'm getting rid I rang up the company and got their equally pathetic surrender value but this amount does also depend on the value of our units on the day that they actually click the 'surrender' button. Probably in their best interest to wait for a low day then The only place I can monitor the price DROPS seems to be via their own website but I want to check it elsewhere too just to make sure they are not pulling a fast one (which of course they probably are). Seems that I can only get rid of it through them too My Endowment plan (according to 'their' site) has a SEDOL[b/] code of 609991[/b] but when I type it into the stock exchange search field it doesn't exist .... Anyone know what I may have done wrong... other than signing up to con of having a 'wonderful' endowment mortgage in the first place of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted February 20, 2009 Report Share Posted February 20, 2009 Do not cash it in, you will lose a large chunk of whatever it is worth. Make it a paid up policy, don't pay any more premiums and draw the money when it matures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted February 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2009 What does that mean... sorry We've got another 7 years left on it and it's lost ?500 in the last week alone (according to the figures on THEIR website). It worries me that in 7 years time it will be worth even less than it is now... hence my idea of cutting our losses now. It was supposed to easily cover our ?57k mortgage PLUS it was supposed to give us a lot extra to have some fun with but is now only running at about ?13k ... and falling daily If we make it a paid up policy now like you suggest and we then don't make any other payments until it matures surely we could lose even more or finish up with nothing the way things are going Like I said I don't really understand it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 I was in a similar situation quite a few years back , not to the same degree of course, but I made a policy "paid up" and reduced my mortgage every year by the 12 monthly premiums I was saving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byrdy Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 It was supposed to easily cover our ?57k mortgage PLUS it was supposed to give us a lot extra to have some fun with but is now only running at about ?13k ... and falling daily Shocked Sounds like endowment mis-selling ,in which case you could have a claim.Take a look here: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/help-and-advice/advice-banks/article.html?in_advicepage_id=115&in_article_id=394283&in_page_id=90 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Settle Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Dissy seek independent advice as well as the advice above which is a good start. My projected nice limp sum vanished but at least mine matured a couple of years ago before they took a real nose dive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 I thought most people moved away from endowment mortgages several years ago. Mine actually covered the mortgage and gave me enough for a nice holiday but that was only because we never dropped our payments when rates went down. Had we not done that over 25 years, we would have been hugely short. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 I'd say it's a very bad time to surrender an endowment, the value of the investments it's based on is closely linked to the stock market. While it's likely that things will get worse before they get better, I'd say that with 7 years to run there's almost certain to be a point in time over that period when the value is significantly higher than it is now. For any kind of Unit Trust backed endowment there's even an argument that bad times like these in the middle of the policies life are a good thing in the long run. It works like this:- If your monthly payment is buying "units" in an investment, then when the values are down you are actually getting more "units" per pound spent than you would if the values had held up. Then, if the values recover towards the end of the policy, you end up cashing in more units at whatever the final price per unit is - and hence you receive a bigger lump of money. The same argument goes for freezing the policy as has been suggested. Today you own "x" units at a value of "y" pounds each, if you freeze the policy and cash it in later you'll be selling "x" units at their value on the day of "z" pounds. At some point in the next 7 years "z" is almost bound to be bigger than "y". It's also usually better to sell an endowment on, rather than surrender it. If you do a google search you'll find any number of companies who'll offer to by it from you. If you get some quotes from these companies you could take the size of the difference between the surrender value you've been given and what they're offering as a sort of measurement of what they, as professionals in this field, consider to be the likelyhood of "z" becoming bigger than "y". They're not likely to offer much more than the surrender value unless they think that it's a good bet over the time it has left to run. Important to get some professional financial advice, though. You MIGHT have a case for mis-selling, but you certainly need advice on the best way forward - which will depend on exactly what investments your endowment is based on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Settle Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 I was advised by my Dad who was an Chartered Accountant so I wouldn't have wanted to use the old miss-sell on him. He died before my policy matured anyway. Some people will go to any lengths. But he did give me his commission Mind you like Bill when I took my endowment out it just over 25 years ago, life and the universe were totally different, plus they used to explain things clearly about the risks. Just imagine if they offered good financial advice these days we'd all be quids in. Were you advised clearly Dissy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Kennedy Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 plus they used to explain things clearly about the risks. Not sure they did Geoff. My understanding was that they pushed endowments like mad....in order to earn sales commission.Indeed the sales pitch was based on the assumption that not only would the endowment pay off the capital of the loan AND provide a lump sum of money to be spent as one likes...and "glamorous" things were mentioned, cars, holidays etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Settle Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 I'm talking about twenty five plus years ago before the salesmen without integrity took over. I was certainly told about the risks and issues. But like most things if you don't realise that you have to ask you'll be taken to the clearners. One of my early ISAs went that way, but I'm holding out for it to bounce back in 2018 Mind you my endowment did have life cover to the value of the predicted maturity value so if I had snuffed it my spouse would have got double value for money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzodog Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Sounds like endowment mis-selling ,in which case you could have a claim. I worked for a local estate agency in the late 80's as a mortgage advisor & yes, the income was generated from the sale of endowment policies but there's a couple of things you need to bear in mind: 1/ at this time they did appear to be the most cost effective way of paying the mortgage; I took one in 1988 & a second one when I moved two years later. Most of my collegues did the same 2/ the customers were explained the differences between a repayment & endowment mortgage AND that the endowment was not guaranteed but 99% said they wanted an endowment BEFORE they were given the info. This translated into 99% after the info, also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byrdy Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 You seem to not understand the meaning of the word could. in which case you could have a claim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted February 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Eh... where did my rather long reply go that I typed in response to everyones comments and suggestions last night ..... Spooky ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byrdy Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Eh... where did my rather long reply go The same place your profits went! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter T Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 Perhaps you forgot to post it. Easily done, and it's always the long ones which you can't be bothered doing again. Have you ever noticed when you have to create a thing for the second time, it is never as good as the first attempt, and that you can't replicate it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Probably right there Peter. But Byrdy is closer... whilst I have been waiting for Phoenix Life to send me some more information my pathetic little endowment has lost another ?800 in less than 2 weeks :evil That's over ?1500 lost in 37 days I wish the ********* that conned us into signing for it were still trading From reading all the links and info posted on here we definately seem to have been mis-sold our endowment We all learn by our mistakes I guess... but sometomes it's too late Anyway wether we surrender or freeze it can apparently take a couple of months to do.... so by then it will probably be worth nothing at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzodog Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Hi Dismayed; as someone who sold these policies in the late '80s, I'm genuinely sorry that your policy is losing money by the minute. What was it about the sale of the policy that makes you feel you were mis-sold it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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