Advertisement
UK markets closed
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • FTSE 250

    19,884.73
    +74.07 (+0.37%)
     
  • AIM

    743.26
    +1.15 (+0.15%)
     
  • GBP/EUR

    1.1703
    +0.0009 (+0.08%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2637
    +0.0015 (+0.11%)
     
  • Bitcoin GBP

    55,709.53
    -820.78 (-1.45%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,254.35
    +5.86 (+0.11%)
     
  • DOW

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,369.44
    +201.37 (+0.50%)
     
  • HANG SENG

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • DAX

    18,492.49
    +15.40 (+0.08%)
     
  • CAC 40

    8,205.81
    +1.00 (+0.01%)
     

'Prudential delays over bond withdrawal led to credit card charge'

The reader wanted to use the proceeds of their Prudence Bond to pay to have CCTV installed at the front and back of their house - Steve Finn
The reader wanted to use the proceeds of their Prudence Bond to pay to have CCTV installed at the front and back of their house - Steve Finn

We are in desperate need to pay off the credit card for last month. The deadline to pay £5,000 has come and gone. We also have a cruise booked and paid for, which we are going on for five weeks.

Over three weeks ago, we phoned Prudential to ask for a partial withdrawal from our bonds in order to pay off the credit card. We were told we could do it online and it would take five days for Prudential to process and then three days for the payment to clear.

We completed the form with a copy of our passports and a bank statement and sent it off at once. Nearly two weeks later, a message was left saying the photos of the passports had not been included. Surely we should have been told this sooner.

ADVERTISEMENT

By now we would miss the deadline for clearing the credit card. Three days ago, we sent another form online and spoke to someone and were again told it would take five days to go on to the system.    

DA, West Midlands

There had been an attempted burglary at your home. You had been away for two days and part of the garage roof had been broken and you could see foot marks on the garage wall and a large trough full of soil and flowers had been moved.

You already had an alarm and were due to go on holiday. Now you needed to have CCTV installed at the front and back of the house. This unanticipated expense largely accounted for the credit card bill. You wanted to use the proceeds of your Prudence Bond to pay it.

On the day you wrote to me, you had had to wait an excessive amount of time when you called Prudential. You felt you were obstructed from speaking with a supervisor during your call and Prudential failed to call you back about your complaint. 

Then Prudential advised that your passports had not been successfully scanned with your withdrawal request. By now you were concerned that the passport details you had uploaded to Prudential were lost.

Despite the promises to move things along, it was another 13 days after you wrote to me and eight days after I had contacted Prudential before the money arrived in your account. This being 36 days after you had made the initial request. By then, you had exceeded your credit limit and payment was overdue.    

Prudential admitted that when it received four copies of your bank statements it should have contacted you to advise that it had not received the passport details. It claims, forcefully, that none of your data has been lost during this process. The withdrawal has been made using the most beneficial fund prices, so there was no loss in that respect. 

It calculated the interest due for the period of the delay on the basis of the Bank of England base rate plus one percentage point, this being £1.14. It added a further £100 for the inconvenience.

It said that, concerning the late credit card payment, it can pay up to £25 for costs incurred without you submitting evidence. You were asked to send a copy of the statement showing the interest actually charged because of the delay.

You are being reimbursed £67.59 interest and the £12 default fee incurred as a result of Prudential not paying out in time. Prudential also paid a further £200 for goodwill. Unusually, you sent both me and my helpful contact at Prudential thank-you cards.