James Edgar from Glasgow got back £12,000 from Halifax

Mr Edgar had saved a lump sum which he held in a deposit account. He was encouraged to see a financial adviser from Halifax to discuss the best place to hold this money.

Mr Edgar had never invested before and was worried about taking risks with his money and investing in Stocks and Shares. Despite this he was advised to invest £25,000 into a Guaranteed Investment Plan as, although it invested in Stocks and Shares, it guaranteed the return of his £25,000 at the end of a 5 year term if the Stock Market fell. After waiting patiently for 5 years the value of his maturing investment was just £25,247.92 – not even making 1%. This was due to the financial crisis and credit crunch which occurred in 2008 – right in the middle of Mr Edgar’s investment.

We sent our claim to Halifax explaining that Mr Edgar should not have been advised to invest this much money into a product which could have earned nothing after 5 years, particularly as a first time investor. We directed Halifax to pay Mr Edgar what he could have earned if he kept his money in cash and add interest to this from when the investment matured in 2010.

Halifax investigated this claim and agreed with Goodwin Barrett. Even though Mr Edgar made a small gain of less than £250 our claim resulted in a payment to him of £12,059.