Graeme Baker from Skegness got back £7,550 from Halifax

In 2003 Mr Baker sold his home and when he received the sale proceeds he was encouraged by Halifax to meet with one of their financial advisers.

Mr Baker explained his personal circumstances to the adviser and agreed that he was a ‘low’ risk investor. As such the adviser recommended that Mr Baker should invest £108,000 into a Guaranteed Investment Bond as this product meant that he would not lose any of his capital if he left the investment in place for 5 years. This sounded good to Graeme and he accepted the advice he was given. Graeme cashed in his investment after 4 ½ years to buy a new home and it had grown in value by over £16,000.

Graeme saw our Facebook ad and wondered if we could help him so contacted us. We looked at the advice he had been given and agreed that the Guaranteed Investment Bond was a suitable investment for him. However, Goodwin Barrett believed he was recommended to put too much of his available money into a Bond which could have lost money if he had to cash it in at the wrong time.

We sent our claim to Halifax explaining why Graeme was advised wrongly and that he should not have exposed so much of his money to even a low level of risk. After investigating his case they agreed with our findings and paid Mr Baker £7,579 – this amount covered the position he would have been in had he invested half of the amount he did.