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F&C Childrens Investment Plans - New Charges

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Comments

  • martinman3
    martinman3 Posts: 727 Forumite
    After I received the letter from F&C I contacted Baillie Gifford, provider of my other plans, to inform them of this development and ask them if they too planned to introduce annual charges for their Children's Savings Plan. Today I received a reply which stated
    Thank you for your email.


    I confirm Baillie Gifford does not have plans to introduce a management charge to our Children’s Savings Plan.



    I trust that you find this to be in order, however if you have any queries please contact the client relations team on 0800 917 2112 or email     [EMAIL="trustenquiries@bailliegifford.com"]trustenquiries@bailliegifford.com[/EMAIL]


    Now I know they can change their mind but at least I know what to do with the proceeds after I cash in my F&C plans.

    I too had considered transferring the F&C I.T. shares out of their plans but after checking out F&C and their problems I am not so sure that their fund managers will stick around.
  • martinman3
    martinman3 Posts: 727 Forumite
    edited 11 February 2013 at 6:49PM
    This has now been picked up by Telegraph and Daily Mail, I expect others to follow.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/9862841/FandC-hits-60000-Child-Trust-Funds-with-30-charge.html

    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2277000/F-C-introduce-25-yearly-charge-Child-Trust-Fund-accounts.html#axzz2Kc7uN9Qh
  • justme111
    justme111 Posts: 3,531 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    martinman3 wrote: »
    [SIZE=2

    I too had considered transferring the F&C I.T. shares out of their plans but after checking out F&C and their problems I am not so sure that their fund managers will stick around.

    I have missed it - do F&C have problems ?
    The word "dilemma" comes from Greek where "di" means two and "lemma" means premise. Refers usually to difficult choice between two undesirable options.
    Often people seem to use this word mistakenly where "quandary" would fit better.
  • margaretclare
    margaretclare Posts: 10,789 Forumite
    I think maybe the best thing to do would be to buy Children's Bonus Bonds from NS&I.
    [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Æ[/FONT]r ic wisdom funde, [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]æ[/FONT]r wear[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]ð[/FONT] ic eald.
    Before I found wisdom, I became old.
  • martinman3
    martinman3 Posts: 727 Forumite
    justme111 wrote: »
    I have missed it - do F&C have problems ?
    There was a shareholder revolt and the board was changed, there have been redundancies to save money. There has been a large outflow of cash in the last quarter of 2012 when they lost a large customer. Not exactly good news.
  • malfesto
    malfesto Posts: 14 Forumite
    edited 11 February 2013 at 8:21PM
    Anyone who wants to leave the Savings Plan in response to changes in Terms & Conditions that F&C has made, the law (specifically the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999) and the FSA's guidance on Unfair Contract Terms is perfectly clear on this. F&C will have to waive exit charges and allow reasonable time for anyone who wants to dissolve the contract in response to the unilateral changes in the T&Cs.

    I have made a formal complaint to F&C pointing out this aspect of the law to them and am currently awaiting their reply. If they still want to impose exit charges, I'll be escalating the complaint to the Unfair Contract Terms Team at the FSA and the Financial Ombudsman Services.

    Having gone through a similar process with Interactive Investor last year, I am confident that F&C will have to waive exit charges to departing customers.

    I suggest that anyone who wants to leave without paying the exit charges, raise a formal complaint to F&C through the complaints process. Any rejection of the complaint by F&C can then be referred to the Ombudsman who will no doubt uphold the complaint on a point of law.

    The FSA's Unfair Contract Terms Team (who do not deal with individual consumer disputes but intervenes directly with the regulated financial firm) will also take consumer complaints regarding exit charges via email [FONT=&quot]( unfair . terms @ fsa . gov . uk ) or through the online form at the FSA website (www . fsa. gov . uk / doing / regulated / uct / faqs / form ).[/FONT]
  • atush
    atush Posts: 18,731 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Still haven't heard from F&C about my savings plan re: new charges.
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    F&C insist that they will not, under any circumstances, be waiving exit charges......
  • snowcat53
    snowcat53 Posts: 602 Forumite
    For those (like me) deciding whether to stay in the F&C Shares account or switch to their stakeholder below is the 5 year performance chart comparing a) F&C Investment Trust, b) Global Smaller companies (both available in Shares account) and c) the FTSE all share index (tracker is only fund available in the Stakeholder)
    chart_image.cgi?finance_chart=1&&chart%5Faction=chart%5Fdraw&chart%5Fannotations=none&chart%5Fcomparison%5Findex=50100&chart%5Fcomparison%5Ftickers=LSE%3AFCS&chart%5Fmoving%5Faverage%5F1%5Ftype=none&chart%5Fmoving%5Faverage%5F2%5Ftype=none&chart%5Fmoving%5Faverage%5F3%5Ftype=none&chart%5Fprimary%5Fticker=LSE%3AFRCL&chart%5Ftime%5Fperiod=5%5Fyear&chart%5Ftype=stack%5Fline&co%5Fdimension%5Eheight=360&co%5Fdimension%5Ewidth=530&finance%5Fchart=1&page=historic&primary%5Fchart%5Ftype=stack%5Fline&print%5Fchart%5Fheader=true&show%5Fmin%5Fmax%5Fpoints=1&username=incus&co_dimension%5Ewidth=530&hide_volume=&plot_colour=&canvas_colour=&&co_dimension%5Eheight=360&transparent_canvas=1&use_transparency=1&show_intraday_volumes=
  • sterlingstash
    sterlingstash Posts: 175 Forumite
    Great graph Snowcat. The question is whether outlook for global smaller companies remains strong, or whether the new charges may be a blessing in disguise by prompting a switch to lock in the recent gains...
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