GOT an endowment mortgage? Then it's time to get your head out of the sand. Now. The chances are that however much you have paid, however long you have paid it, it won't be enough. In five or ten years time, or whenever your policy matures, you could find yourself having to pay up thousands of pounds extra to make your house your own.

So you have to do something about it. Soon. If you have had a letter saying that your policy isn't going to make enough to pay off your mortgage, then you have to act now. Ignoring it will not make it go away. Sorry, but there are no money fairies to wave a magic wand.

You're not the only one who can't face the paperwork and hope it will all get better on its own. That's why the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has just launched a publicity campaign to jog you into action.

The Consumers' Association reckons the FSA hasn't done enough but whatever the rights and wrongs, it all comes down to you sorting this out for yourself.

Good luck.

WHAT TO DO

1. Talk to your lender.

2. Talk to a financial adviser

3. Consider your options. There are all sorts of ways to make up the gap:

l Repay a bit extra every month or year. If you're going to be £10,000 short in ten years' time, paying an extra £1,000 a year should sort it out.

l Switch the amount of the shortfall to a repayment mortgage.

l Switch the whole lot to a repayment mortgage, which will probably mean bigger payments, but at least you'll see the amount you owe going down each year instead of up.

l Start a savings plan to make up the shortfall But remember, the amount of interest you get for your savings is unlikely to be as much as the interest you're paying out on your mortgage.

l Extend the term of your endowment or add to it. But remember, it was the endowment that got you into this mess in the first place.

Whatever you do, do something.

And remember you're not alone. One estimate says that 90 per cent of policies are set to fall short of the money needed. The typical shortfall will be about £14,000. Gulp.

GETTING YOUR OWN BACK

In many cases, of course, an endowment policy was just not the right way of funding a mortgage. But in the glory days of the late 80s, salesmen on big commissions weren't too fussed about that and, in any case, stock markets were booming. It seemed unlikely that things would go wrong. Ha!

JUST BECAUSE YOUR ENDOWMENT POLICY WON'T BE ENOUGH TO PAY OFF YOUR MORTGAGE, DOESN'T MEAN IT WAS MIS-SOLD.

l Stock markets and interest rates have plummeted - but so have monthly mortgage payments. Think how much you paid each month when interest rates were ten per cent and more. Think how much you're paying now. You've had some benefit from those low interest rates, so some of the shortfall amounts to swings and roundabouts.

l You have also had the benefit of insurance. Endowments are still guaranteed to pay off the full amount if one of the policy holders dies.

You may have a case for mis-selling if:

l The person who sold it to you didn't explain that the policy was an investment linked to the stock market.

l They didn't explain that it was a long term commitment that can give a poor return if it is cashed in early.

l They did not check that you would probably be able to keep up all the payments.

l Your endowment policy runs for longer than your mortgage.

l The endowment policy finishes after you retire.

If you think your policy might have been mis-sold, then contact the policy provider. They will probably send you a long questionnaire, trying to find out what your financial position was when you took out the mortgage - how much you were earning, what savings you had, what your probable retirement date was.

They will also want to know your attitude to risk. If you had a fat portfolio of shares, for instance, they would assume you knew what investment in the stock market could mean.

If your policy has been mis-sold, you will not get buckets of compensation. Instead, you will get enough money to put you in the position you would have been in had you taken out a repayment mortgage all those years ago. It's worked out to a standard formula, used by all companies. It's not compensation linked to the shortfall, but restitution.

WARNING

A lot of people are now complaining. Companies are dealing with complaints in chronological order. Theoretically, they have to come back to you in eight weeks, but it is actually taking a lot longer (see below).

If you get no satisfaction from your policy provider, then you can take your complaint to the financial services ombudsman, who will look into it for you. At the moment, the ombudsman has a waiting time of around six months.

The problem is not going to be solved overnight but it's worth persevering.

A TALE TO INSPIRE YOU

We know how it feels. We took out an endowment mortgage 15 years ago. We'd already had two straightforward repayment mortgages and had thought we would have another, but Abbey National sent us a salesman from Friends Provident.

He was very persuasive. Whatever I said, he countered, so in the end, I agreed. I actually felt bullied into having an endowment mortgage. But what did I know? He was, after all, the expert. He had, after all, been sent to us by Abbey National, who was lending us £46,000.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for a start, the mortgage was due to run for five years after my husband's retirement date. But that was all right, said the persuasive salesman, because we would have such a huge lump sum that we would have paid our mortgage off long before then.

Which only goes to show that you're never too old for fairy stories.

The first warning letters came three years ago. In 12 years' time, the endowment was probably going to be £12,000 short. I planned to pay off an extra £1,000 a year. I did that for two years and then we had a windfall so I paid off a huge chunk of the mortgage and converted the rest to a straightforward repayment policy for a shorter term.

It was what I'd wanted all those years ago and I was still very resentful of the way I'd been pushed into having something else.

Last October, still feeling grumbly, and because the policy was due to extend into my husband's retirement, I wrote and complained to Friends Provident. I filled in the long questionnaire as best I could and waited. And waited and waited and waited.

They said it would take ten weeks. It actually took more than 11 months.

But they finally wrote to us, saying that neither we nor they had a record of what the salesman said, but they were putting us back into the position we would have been if we'd taken out a repayment mortgage 15 years ago - up to the time we'd changed to a repayment mortgage.

And they sent us a cheque for £10,700.

So if you think your policy was mis-sold, what are you waiting for?

ACTION PLAN

1. Dig out the letter from your endowment company that tells you that your policy is going to be short.

2. Work out ways of paying extra/changing to a repayment mortgage/saving more. Talk to your mortgage provider. There are some good mortgage deals around at the moment, so if you re-mortgage, you stand a decent chance of getting a better deal - which will save you some of that extra money you need.

3. If you think you were mis-sold your endowment, then write to the company which provided the policy.

USEFEUL CONTACTS

Financial Services Authority. Tel: 0845 606 1234. www.fsa.gov.uk/endowments.

Consumers Association website: www.endowmentaction.co.uk

financial ombudsman: Tel: 0845 080 1800. www.finacial-ombudsman.org.uk

MORE CHARITY CATALOGUE ADDRESSES

MAINLY CARDS, STATIONERY AND SMALL GIFTS

ALZHEIMERS SOCIETY, Long Rock, Penzance, TR93 0AL. www.alzheimers.org.uk

ANTHONY NOLAN TRUST, PO Box 270, Leatherhead, KT22 7BR.

BREAKTHROUGH, 3rd Floor, Kingsway House, 103 Kingsway, London WC2B 6QX.

EPILEPSY ACTION, Appledown House, Barton Business Park, New Dover Road, Canterbury CT1 3TE. www.epilepsy.org.uk

MENINGITIS PROMOTIONS, Midland Way, Thornbury, Bristol BS35 2BS.

SOS CHILDREN'S VILS, 59 St Andrew's Street, Cambridge CB2 3BZ. Tel: (01223) 365589.

SURVIVAL, Unit A, Chettisham Business Park, Ely CB6 1RY. Tel: (01353) 663672. www.survival-international.org.

UNICEF, PO Box 300, Wetherby LS23 7XN. Tel: 0870 075 4000. www.unicef.org.uk/shop.

THE WOODLAND TRUST, Autumn Park, Grantham, NG316LL. Tel: (01476) 581111. www.woodland-trust-org.uk/christmas.

Will be back as usual next week. If you want to say a public thank you for good service or to a helpful neighbour, kind stranger or efficient business, then just write with all the details to Sharon Griffiths, Bouquet of the Week, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. Each week, the person nominated in our main letter gets a real bouquet of flowers or a box of handmade chocolates from The Little Chocolate Shop in Leyburn.

www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/features/