This is a blog of my recent experience with these companies:
I was working from home this morning to get a bit of focus time, and was cold called. Now, my numbers are registered with the telephone preference service (TPS), so I shouldn’t get many cold calls at all. I was intrigued with this one because of the offer of a £1000 cash bonus if I had a pension and was under age 60. Sounds like a freebie to me! And I’m well under 60. It’s also a financial promotion, but I’ll leave that for another day.
So I pressed 5 on my keypad, as I have a pension and I’m under the age of 60.
I then got through to a young lady, we’ll call her Doris, who asked me a few questions about my pension which I was happy to supply. If Doris had asked ‘are you a regulated pensions specialist’ I imagine the call wouldn’t have gone on for very long! She did read out a disclaimer, quickly, which indicated that her firm (I forget the name) didn’t provide financial advice, and Doris then said she would get a case handler to call me back in 10 minutes to discuss my pension further.
10 minutes later another phone call interrupted my well-earned peanut butter sandwich.
This young chap, let’s call him Ben, explained he was from Pension Matters, which wasn’t strictly accurate. Pension Matters is a regulated FSA firm. Pension Matters Associates Ltd, who Ben was calling from, is not. At all.
Ben wanted to get hold of my pension fund details so they could tell me if it had been under-performing or not. Their Independent Financial adviser would advise me on this. Which is strange because they don’t have an IFA working for them and they’re not authorised to deal with pensions. But Ben assured me that I’d get my £1000 cash bonus that Doris had already told me, and with Christmas approaching I’d be foolish not to say no!!!!
The conversation then went a little bit, or very much, like this:
Me: Who pays the £1000 cash bonus”, because there is no such thing as a free lunch, right?
Ben: Yardstick Marketing pay you the £1000.
Me: just for telling me if my pension is underperforming?
Ben: No, you’d have to transfer it
Me: how much would that cost?
Ben: It’s free without obligation.
Me: I get £1000 free and without obligation?
Ben:…………………erm
Me: So Pension Matters are going to pay you enough that you’ll pay me £1000?
Ben: Yes
Me: Which means that they will have to earn enough money from moving my pension to be able to pay you guys at Yardstick Marketing and Doris?
Ben: ………..Yes
Me: So who pays Pension Matters Associates? I think I must do. Does this mean that the £1000 cash bonus was mine in the first place? You’re giving me back money I’ve just given to you??
Ben: No, it would come from your pension.
Me: So that £1000 was in my pension?
Ben: Yes
Me: Ben, I think you’ll find in pension legislation that’s called an unauthorised payment Ben….Ben……….are you there?
So, if you get called by Yardstick Marketing, or Pension Matter Associates, or Doris, then my best advice for you is to avoid them. Unless you’re like me and you enjoy a jolly bit of sport.
01225 775923
