Will they ever let me go?

Dominic Thomas
Post written: Aug 2026 • Published: Aug 2026
3 min read

Will they ever let me go?

Today I had the great misfortune to have to telephone an old-style Insurance company. As anticipated, I was put through to a robotic assistant, which attempted to funnel me down its built-in filter. Despite numerous attempts at reading out the client policy number, it continued to loop back on itself; requesting I repeat the policy number, each time citing the same information, until eventually it gave up and put me through to Fiona, a human – phew! Who was able to quickly help.

I’m familiar with this company and know that their staff are actually rather good, but their telecoms are a challenge. It reminded me that one of the many reasons we move clients over to a modern high-tech platform is due to the burden of tedious administration and companies forgetting (or at least do their best to appear to) whose money it is… yours. Getting your money back, or a regular income in a timely, efficient manner is often overlooked by advisers, something that I believe to be a serious error of judgement.

This in mind, I was curious to spot an article about Virgin Media, who were recently found guilty of deliberately irritating their customers with ‘telephone tag’ as they tried to cancel their contracts. The constant pushing the call to someone else or being put on hold or simply cut off finally caught up with their commission-driven sales and servicing teams to the tune of a fine of £28m, which was discounted by 30% for admission of fault.

This was on the back of a £23.8m fine in December 2025 for disconnecting vulnerable telecare customers during the swap from analogue to digital. It’s not quite as substantial as BT’s £42m fine in 2017 for delays in providing ethernet lines. Ofcom hasn’t really issued that many fines, indeed since its inception at the end of 2003 one might consider it a little toothless. It can only fine a company up to 10% of its relevant turnover for ‘critical breaches’. Virgin Media reported 2025 revenue of £10,113.1m (so the latest £23m fine was 0.27% of revenue). Consider this in relation to the FCA (a watchdog with teeth) who levied fines of £124m last year alone, the fines issued by OFCOM are puny and clearly not a deterrent. OFCOM have come under increasing criticism for their lack of action on bias from “news channels”.

It is reported that the matter is now resolved (for calls between January 2022 and September 2024). Ofcom were “outraged” and hence took Virgin Media to task. You can read the statement for yourself. The UK telecom market now (2025 data) generates around £36bn of revenue across fixed, mobile and wholesale services. The average monthly mobile voice and phone spend has fallen from £74.03 in 2007 to £41.70 in 2025. Fixed line voice and data fell from £55.41 to £43.82 during the same period. You may find this helpful in your next negotiation about your own contract with one of the telecom providers. Ofcom also publish some tips to securing a better deal and cutting mobile costs.

References:

Ofcom statement about Virgin Media: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/vulnerable-customers/ofcom-fines-virgin-media-23.8-million-for-putting-vulnerable-customers-at-risk-of-harm

Ofcom – saving money tips: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/saving-money

Virgin Media financials: https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/2026-financial-results/q1-2026-financial-results/

FCA fines covered in Spotlight: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/0271a02671.html#page/34

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Money Talks

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Money Talks

You’ve heard the expression “money talks” I’m sure. Well, if you have tried to open a savings account or current account with a main UK bank in the last 10 years or so you will have observed and experienced a high degree of red tape and hoops that you have to jump through to prove you are who you say you are (even if you’ve been with the bank for your entire adult life).

If you are a client, you will have gathered that we have to verify your identity, residency and source of your funds. We try to make this as painless as possible and apply common sense. This is important (sadly) because there are people out there that are involved in criminal activity, taking money made from drugs and laundering back through legitimate financial arrangements so that it becomes “clean”. Just so that you are clear, if we (or anyone in financial services) suspect this is the case, we have to report it, else risk imprisonment ourselves.

So it was with some degree of surprise that I read that Barclays received yet another eye-watering fine. This time for poor handling of financial crime risks. The fine imposed is £72million. This relates to the lack of checking done on some of their clients…. ultra high net worth clients, who were “politically exposed people” (a term used not just for politicians, but those also in positions of significant public service etc)

Suits you sir…

Barclays were caught arranging £1.9billion (pause, that’s billion)… for a few such ultra high net worth individuals, without the proper checks in place. Perhaps it had something to do with the commission that they earned in the process – some £52.3million (all in a day’s pay). This occurred in 2011 and 2012 when Bob Diamond was at the helm (until July 2012). He resigned as a result of the Libor scandal. Anyway Barclays went to “unacceptable lengths to accomodate these ultra high net worth individuals”.

The FCA have fined Barclays in the hope that it will make them think twice about similar actions in the future. The real motivation is of course the sums involved, and as the FCA’s final notice said the clients involved were ‘politically exposed persons’ which are individuals with a ‘high political profile’ or have or had held public office, and pose a higher money laundering risk as their positions may make them vulnerable to corruption.

So now you know that the regulator thinks such people are at greater risk of corruption. Yet the irony is that had this incident happend at a financial planning firm, like this one, should it have been found wanting in such a manner, a custodial sentence and lifetime ban would have probably been handed down…. so there’s more than a slight degree of “power play” at hand here. Hence a few advisers are more than a little peeved that yet again, despite the big fine, the punishment never lands anywhere other than the shareholders in the Bank… after all aren’t these senior executives remunerated for the risk that they take? isn’t that why the big bank, pays big salaries, to big names to work with other big names and get away with a big golden handshake?

What still perplexes me, is why anyone would ever use a Bank for anything other than a bank account…. yet they do, in their millions.

You can see the FCA fine notice here… for the breach of principle 2.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email [email protected]