Axa Sunlife

Gambit

dunstonh wrote:

6%... you will be lucky. If they gave you a 4% figure, look at just under that as likely potential.

Just trying to give Report Investor the info he asked for on the 1st page. Tbh, I think I just want to get to a stage where I can cancel this policy and get all if not most of my money back...

Gambit

Thanks for that Report Investor. So you think (for the 1st policy) it would be worth cutting my loses and just taking the surrender value now even though this means I lose over £1000? Would it not be worth paying a few more years in order to get more of my money back or is this just more of a risk/throwing more good money after bad?

I cant believe I was SO stupid to go for this in the first place!! :wall:

dunstonh

To clarify, the 4% figure after charges should be the long term figure. And I mean long term. Shorter term and you are looking at 1-2%. The AXA PPFM shows it is a 90/10 fund. Meaning they take 10% of the growth straight away for shareholders. Then they apply the charges and then set the bonus rate. However, the bonus rate cannot increase or decrease by more than 1% in any one bonus declaration. This means it will take at least years to get to 6% assuming they did increase it 1% every year. This is highly unlikely.

So, although we don't have a crystal ball to tell future returns, we can see that the growth is likely to be limited.

ashley0611

Just to update everyone - I sent off my surrender forms on 10th and 14th March respectively - the one I sent away on 10th was in my bank yesterday so the procedure seems fairly quick. Hoping the other funds will be in my bank at the end of the week

Gambit

I'm now at the stage I just want to get out of the policy as quick as poss while losing as little of my investment as possible. Thats why I asked if I should hold on for a few more years?

ReportInvestor

I would go for the cash ISA route myself. You are less dependent on Axa's performance & you have got access and flexibility. There is no guarantee that they will pay out more because of the nature of their fund and their high charges.

If you achieved 4.5% on your ISA you would end up with £19,500.

The three pieces of information I would love to get from them, though, are:

a) the performance of the underlying fund in 2005
b) what they think you would get at the end if the underlying fund returned 6% from now, not from the begining.
c) what percentage of the underlying fund is invested in equities / property

Only a policyholder could get all this info.

Gambit

But I hate the fact that I'll be losing so much money that I have already invested. Suppose it may be better to cut my losses though...

johnbhoy

Just to let everyone know i received payment into my bank account weekend just gone, this was for me & the mrs policies we received £952.11 & £942.76 respectively, funny as well not ONE person(s) from AXA asked why we were 'cashing in' well glad it's done now, but still looking for a better saving policy though, on the same amounts i was paying AXA.
PS dont forget to cancel your direct debits/standing orders when you surrender your AXA policies, i done mine via internet banking.

ReportInvestor

johnbhoy wrote:

not ONE person(s) from AXA asked why we were 'cashing in'

Perhaps they are just too embarrassed.

To Gremlin

There's little point throwing good money after bad, when you know that the charges on your new money are going to crucify you.

If you want performance & a decent chance of beating Axa Sun Life, but with some limit on risk then I'd invest your surrender money into a cash ISA, pay £50 pm into a low cost investment trust for eight years (charges less than 1% pa) and then pay the last four year's premiums into a Cash ISA type vehicle.

Or you could go for Fidelity's super low cost tracker fund (charges around 0.5% pa).

Or you could even ask an IFA to pick you a fund winner (for a small commission).

dunstonh

I want to say thanks to reportinvestor who has put a lot of effort into this thread.

I also want to add that the above comments are correct in that you may lose some money by pulling out but if over the remaining term its cost you more to stay, then you are not really losing that money now but reducing the potential for greater loss. Sometimes you have to take one step back to allow you to go two steps forward.