Cornmarket???

Hannaho

I am a public sector worker. I took out an education policy, a life policy, and an AVC scheme with Cornmarket. I also transferred my tax affairs to them and my home insurance. I also applied for income protection through them, which was a nightmare, and which I haven't yet got a reply to.

The broker told me that he would waive the fee for the AVC set up and the Ed policy as I was giving them so much business. However, I then got the AVC documents in the post and they were charging me a fee of e495 in the first year. They said they told me this, but there is no mention of this in their initial emails to me. They only sent me a letter confirming the e495 charge after I sent a text to their representative about it.

The rep from Cornmarket said that if I transferred my tax affairs to them, they would help me claim back money owed to me as I hadn't claimed for my income protection insurance. They said this would be covered by the Midas monthly cost. I am due back around e1100 over four years. Howeer, when I asked them were they claiming it back for me, they said that they would charge me e99 per year to claim back the tax credit for my income protection insurance over the four years. They said they would have to charge me the e99 for each year, as they would have to redo my accounts for the previous four years. Now, my accounts over the previous 4 years were all done by a qualified accountant, and last year I even got a refund from the Revenue. I told them that they weren't to do anything with my last 4 years accounts as they were in perfect order; that my income protection came from my personal account, and that reclaiming the 20% relief on my income protection had nothing to do with my accounts, as I had not realised myself that I could claim it. I told them that I was quite capable of doing it myself if they sent me the correct form - as I had reclaimed a single parent tax credit some years ago - but Cornmarket didn't seem to anxious to send me the correct form

Now, I'm really regretting going with Cornmarket, as on top of this, I found their customer service was poorish. My question is - Can I just stop paying my AVC after 3 months, and my Ed Policy. They won't get their fee if I do this - will they persue me for the e495? What can they do if I just cancel all my policies because of what has happened?

skippy2

Why didn't your accountant spot the Income Protection Payment...If you are paying an accountant just let him do it next time and claim the past payments also. I would question his competency if he did not question you about any payments like this that you were making. You should also have known it was tax deductible

Get anything in writing by using email at least from Cornmarket. Your AVC is a "voluntary" contribution if you dont want to make it...... don't.
I think you need to shop around for all these things and would not be giving the business to any one company such as Cornmarket

Get a breakdown of any fees in writing from them
Looks like they are screwing you around really

Why not have a look here http://www.paylesstax.ie/ (no connection to them)it might be of some use to you and cost a lot less than paying an accountant if your affairs are not too complicated