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Friendly Societies?
Turk
Posts: 34 Forumite
A friend of mine mentioned the above and not knowing anything about them wondered if anyone has used these before and if so how was it and would they recommend them?
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A friend of mine mentioned the above and not knowing anything about them wondered if anyone has used these before and if so how was it and would they recommend them?
in the past admin costs were very high. returns were mediocre, perhaps someone has very recent experience of them, my experience was of family assurance friendly society, i cashed two ten year policies in around 4/5 years ago, only good thing about it was that i was disciplined to saving a certain amount for 10 years x 2 which might otherwise have got spent or squandered away and ended up with two lump sums totalling around 4000.00 ish. :j0 -
They are dinosaurs that should have been killed off years ago.
They tend to offer a limited range of products. Some are not bad, some are pretty awful. The investment links on their investment products can often be quite poor and expensive compared to modern alternatives.
Many have focused on certain business areas to varying degrees of success. i.e. The Childrens Mutual (used to be called Tunbridge Wells Equitable Friendly Society).
It depends on what products you are looking at but many still market the £25pm "endowment savings" plan with its excessive charges and 10 year tie in. Many of these appear as adverts in papers which is often a bad sign (similar to AXAs Carol Smilie plan that you see the big complaint thread on). The high charges on these often negates the small tax advantage they have.I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.0 -
It depends on what products you are looking at but many still market the £25pm "endowment savings" plan with its excessive charges and 10 year tie in. Many of these appear as adverts in papers which is often a bad sign (similar to AXAs Carol Smilie plan that you see the big complaint thread on). The high charges on these often negates the small tax advantage they have.
:embarasse , only good thing was from memory i was only up to 18.00 per month on both policies, having started from memory on about 9.00 per month, every now and again the monthly/yearly limits were raised. :embarasse0 -
bristolleedsfan wrote: »:embarasse , only good thing was from memory i was only up to 18.00 per month on both policies, having started from memory on about 9.00 per month, every now and again the monthly/yearly limits were raised. :embarasse
The £18.00 per month limit was raised to £25.00 per month by John Major when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. That's a long time ago.:sad:0 -
Thomas_Crown wrote: »The £18.00 per month limit was raised to £25.00 per month by John Major when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. That's a long time ago.:sad:
i bet john major chuckled at the thought of the lack of returns people would get from them. :rotfl:0 -
Many years ago I worked for Family Assurance. I'd say the previous comments are about right.
Assuming you mean their 10 year policy charges used to be very high but got a bit better later on. I'm not sure what they currently are. One problem is friendly society policies include an element of Life Assurance too small to be of much use but high enough to reduce returns.
Consider it if you are keen to go for all the tax free savings you can, but only after exhausting all your other options (ISAs, capital gains allowance etc). And don't expect anything dramatic at the end. More a chance to save up for something special.0 -
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Over the last 5-10 years these have been nearly as bad an investment as many LifeCo WP Bonds !!0
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