Park Hampers? Safe or not?

peediedj

my wife lost £1500 with farepak so we wouldnt risk any hamper company again no matter what guarantee,your best bet for christmas saving,is what my wifes doing by tesco,s christmas stamps,then come nov,you can go to tesco,s and get what you want as they sell 98% of what you can get in the high street anyway,and tesco,s are a pretty good bet to survive all this high street turmoil

moneysaver12

I personally would never use these companies, i would rather do the one a day challange or have a saving account to put the money in instead.

zenseeker

I think, on balance, that I will consider setting up a bank account and saving in there, I'll just have to try to control myself and not draw out any cash throughout the year. It's a shame that you can't set up an account with a kind of lock on it so that you cannot draw any cash from it until a certain date.

colin13

as someone who lost £800 on fare pack I no longer consisder them safe,,I opened up a credit union account which Ive found to b excellent

the goverment since farepack have tightened up the lolop holes but if it fails just b ur due ur vouchers etc it is till not ver good

horsechestnut

Have you got a Credit Union near you. They have a special Xmas account that you can only access from November onwards, so that you have the actual CASH to spend where you want. Some banks also offer these accounts. Don't forget you actually get INTEREST on these accounts (however small!)

Caroline73_2

zenseeker wrote: »

I think, on balance, that I will consider setting up a bank account and saving in there, I'll just have to try to control myself and not draw out any cash throughout the year. It's a shame that you can't set up an account with a kind of lock on it so that you cannot draw any cash from it until a certain date.

Open an account with a cash card and paying in book. Keep the paying in book and cut up the cash card. Then when you want to start your Christmas Shopping say you have lost your card and get a new one sent. Either that or give the cash card to someone you trust.

JJ7

Another good idea is a santa saver account. You can save all year but can only draw the money out at the end of November. There's a good thread on here already, I'll find it and post a link.

Click on the 'Savings and Investing' thread then do a search on 'Santa'. I'm not posting a link as there are a few threads, apparently the interest rate isn't as good as last year so please do your homework (it's fine for me as I only want somewhere I can't get at my money until Christmas).

Here are two links to Skipton and Chorley Buiding societies that may be useful

http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings_and...saver_account/

http://chorleybs.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=189&Itemid=570

Hope this helps someone. It certainly helped me last year.

minimoneysaver

I don't understand why anyone would exchange legal tender for something that is potentially worth nothing?
Keep your money in a savings account, money bank or similar. Don't risk your hard earned cash. There are many more companies to go bump in the night this year.

mrsfarnie

If you had read above posts, park offer a policy where you will not ever get no money or vouchers back.

horse76

mrsfarnie wrote: »

I have never had any problems spending my love to shop vouchers and don't find the shops any more expensive. I also buy m and s vouchers from park and buy my shopping for christmas with them as well as presents! I save about £1000 with them every year. I could not put it in a bank or sealed jar as I would spend it. I would always find an "emergency" somewhere. i.e takeaway!!

That's what I done last year - saved for M&S vouchers and got my xmas food shop for Dec. I also used my Love2shop vouchers in Iceland - so saved that month by not using my usual monthly food shop money.

I didn't struggle to use them anywhere, and still have some some vouchers left which I'll use for purchasing birthday presents throught the year, as they have an expiry date of mar 2010.

I don't order a huge amount of vouchers, but this year I've got plenty of orders from relatives, so should get roughly £60 commission - which will be very welcome come xmas time.

I was very impressed with them, and it was so easy just going online to pay what I could afford that month.