Barclays Capital Protection Saving Plan

dylanlewis2000

Hi all!

I am interested in taking one of these deals out. Basicaly you lock your savings away for either 3, 4, or 5 years and barclays will give you 12, 22 or 32% depending on the legnth of time you invest for.

From what i could gather with the Barclays adviser, you are alowed to invest and gain up to £9600 tax free, everything after that will be taxed. If you want to move an ISA in to this fund, you must take out the 5 year option.

If you look at it, the 5 year option gives you over 6% per year. The only pitfall i can see, is that it is based on the stockmarket, and the condition barclays have is that the stock market must be equal to or grater than the time of inital investment, so if you invest when the stock market is 4000 points, then it must be 4000+ by the end of the terms.

What is everyones opinion on this? Is there anything better out there?

opinions4u

Take a look at Egg, Halifax and Birmingham Midshires.

The Halifax one in an ISA wrapper is the one I'm pondering.

A lot of them are simply a gamble - you stake your interest (what you would have earned elsewhere) and if the FTSE rises, you win all the growth. Others only pay you the actual growth. Some will accelerate it with a cap.

Read the small print carefully if you are going to buy!

wpet99

Are these types of bonds protected by the FSCS upto £50k like bank accounts ? 5 years is a long time in the financial world these days

opinions4u

wpet99 wrote: »

Are these types of bonds protected by the FSCS upto £50k like bank accounts ? 5 years is a long time in the financial world these days

Some are treated as savings accounts, others are classed as investments and are covered by a different scheme.

If you choose to invest in stockmarket funds or other investment vehicles, 100% of the first £30,000 is covered plus 90% of the next £20,000 (a total of £48,000).

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings#protected

dylanlewis2000

so all in all, do you think this is worth a look?

chookie1

dylanlewis2000 wrote: »

so all in all, do you think this is worth a look?

Truly I hate these things with a passion as I know how much profit the bank rips out on the other side - the cost of putting together the derivatives which underlie it is significantly less than you get charged - or rather if you could do it yourself, you'd get a much better "interest rate".

There's never a free lunch and you've got some clever guy at an investment bank taking the other side of the deal to you

But as long as you've read all the small print and understand the risks that you're taking then.....

dylanlewis2000

yeah this is the thing, i dont really have the time or knowledge to do it myself, and i would prefere the bank to take all the risk, as at the end of the day, its capital protected.

dunstonh

Most GEBS are rubbish. The ones offered by the banks are usually amongst the worst. There are a couple of good ones offered from time to time but you wont get them from a bank.

opinions4u

dunstonh wrote: »

Most GEBS are rubbish. The ones offered by the banks are usually amongst the worst. There are a couple of good ones offered from time to time but you wont get them from a bank.

Cut to the chase and say what you think man!

(I did say I was pondering one, but the catches or terms always seem to put me off).

I do admire Dunstonh's straight talking. These boards are stronger for it.

dunstonh

Premier have just issued details of one that could be attractive to some. Its an income payer of 8% a year for 5 years. guaranteed providing FTSE doesnt fall 50% from current position by the end of year 5 (doesnt matter what it does in the interim period). Citigroup is the underwriting counterparty for it.

That is far superior to Barclays version which equates to 5.7% p.a. for 5 years.

pizzagirl

dylanlewis2000 wrote: »

so all in all, do you think this is worth a look?

Not really.