In November I applied for an annuity from Royal London, and was told that the processing time would be four to six weeks.

After five weeks I was told there was no progress and that it would take “as long as it took”. I formally complained in January, and have had no reply from that.

I stupidly made some financial assumptions on the initial timescale, and have run up credit card debt, my credit score has fallen, and I am due to pay a bill, which I can ill afford. I am at my wits’ end as Royal London is being no help. If nothing else, it would be good to highlight that a typical four to six weeks can actually mean 13 and counting.

DG, by email

Even after I got involved, this saga dragged on, although I am happy to report it has finally been resolved, and the first payments have now hit your bank account.

Royal London doesn’t sell annuities but, instead, it markets them on behalf of other firms – in this case it was Scottish Widows – for which it then takes a commission.

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It’s not entirely clear where the delays occurred.

There was a final problem checking that your Monzo bank account was yours – but at least you now have the money.

Transactions such as this appear to be taking far longer than they did pre-pandemic, if our Consumer Champions postbag is, in any way, representative, so others in this position may want to plan their future spending accordingly.

A four- to six-week processing period sounds rather optimistic, to me, at least.

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