Axa Sunlife

trulys

shaz34cat wrote: »

I know this is an old thread that I have just came across but I am hoping for some advice please. After reading some of the horror stories on here I phoned Axa up to ask what my surrender value would be and they said it would be £4760.80. I initially started at £10 per month increasing to £20 per month. It is due to mature in June 2015 and I have asked what the projection value would be.
4% ............£5980
8%.............£6390
I realise that the above figures are not guaranteed but I am undecided on what to do. Do I take the £4760 and put it in to my Isa which gives me 4.5% per annum plus save the £20 per month in the Isa that I would have been paying to Axa or put it toward my mortgage or do I keep paying Axa until June 2015. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

Well, based on my payout on maturity recently (see my post immediately above yours), I'd leave it where it is. Remember if you do cash it in early, you will lose any maturity bonus. I have another which will mature in 5 years and I'm leaving it to mature. Obviously, there's no guarantee, but I did pretty well out of it all in all!

shaz34cat

trulys wrote: »

Well, based on my payout on maturity recently (see my post immediately above yours), I'd leave it where it is. Remember if you do cash it in early, you will lose any maturity bonus. I have another which will mature in 5 years and I'm leaving it to mature. Obviously, there's no guarantee, but I did pretty well out of it all in all!

Hi thanks for your advice. Yes I see that yours done quite well, thats why I am in 2 minds on what to do. While I was reading this thread I was prettyadamant that I was cashing mine in until I read your post then I was very undecided as I don`t want to lose out. I`m not sure how they would calculate my maturity bonus. Any idea?

trulys

I've done some calculations (and I'm no expert, so don't quote me on this) but I think that if you stick £4760.80 in your ISA @ 4.5% from, say, 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2015 you'd earn something like £410.

Add to that the interest earned on saving £20 a month in that ISA - I've worked it out to be something like £22. Please do these rough calculations yourself as I might have it wrong

So all in all, if you cash it in now and stick it in your ISA, you'll end up with about £5,200.

You need to decide if you want to gamble a little, and leave it in the Friends Life plan (previously AXA) on the off-chance that you might come out with a bit extra. Based on those projections you quote, even the 4% one is better than you'd get in your ISA. Reminder again though, nothing's guaranteed in the plan.

shaz34cat

You need to decide if you want to gamble a little, and leave it in the Friends Life plan (previously AXA) on the off-chance that you might come out with a bit extra. Based on those projections you quote, even the 4% one is better than you'd get in your ISA. Reminder again though, nothing's guaranteed in the plan.[/QUOTE]

Thanks again for the advice Trulys. The thing which worries me is if I left it until it matures and ended up with less than I put in but as you say I need to decide if I want to take the gamble. I would hate to think that I would end up with just a few hundred pound in June 2015. Decision time.

takesyourchances

At the start of this year I cashed two of mine in, had 4 and 6 years to go.

I decided to get out of them after reading this forum and was happy to do so. I came out with more than I put in, done ok and was glad not to be paying any more into them and directing the cash from them into other investments and the monthly money.

I put the majority of my cashed in plans into the Vanguard Life Strategy fund and some other investment funds in a Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the direction I took after cashing these in.

Good luck whatever you decide and may help a little.

Best regards.

shaz34cat

[QUOTE=takesyourchances;

I put the majority of my cashed in plans into the Vanguard Life Strategy fund and some other investment funds in a Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the direction I took after cashing these in.

Good luck whatever you decide and may help a little.

Best regards.[/QUOTE]
Thanks takesyourchances..Yeah as I said before, I had my mind made up that I was going to cash mine in until I read how well Trulys did by leaving theirs to mature then I became undecided. If I hadn't stumbled across this thread then I would have been none the wiser and I would have got whatever I was given when it matures in June 2015. But now I have read all these threads, I am a bit concerned..As it stands just now, the cash in amount is more than I`ve put in so I would`t have lost anything unlike what some of the poor people on this thread have lost.

As a matter of interest, what is the Vangaurd Life strategy? I`m clueless when it comes to things like that or stocks aand shares.

shaz34cat

I`ve just googled Vanguard Life Strategy and it looks a bit complicated to me lol.:eek: You would obviously need to know your stuff on stocks, shares and bonds

takesyourchances

shaz34cat wrote: »

I`ve just googled Vanguard Life Strategy and it looks a bit complicated to me lol.:eek: You would obviously need to know your stuff on stocks, shares and bonds

I was unsure what the AXA policy's were doing and if it was worth putting the £60 a month into them for the next few years and read that some lost on them etc and the product was not very good as an investment, I got back more than I paid but it was not really more than what I would of got had the money been in a savings account over those years but at least it was not less than I put in.

The Vanguard Life Strategy funds are an all in one portfolio mix of stocks and bonds. This was what I started with with my AXA money, but I am no expert, just feel this was a better direction for me after looking into them and reading research. There is a detailed topic on them and you may find some information there. I am prepared to leave the money for 10 plus years invested at a minimum, more with a long term view for as long as possible.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4392271

Hope this helps a little, it was all very confusing when I looked into it all when I had the AXA plans.

Have a good think and you will do what is best for you I am sure.

All the best.

shaz34cat

Thanks takesyourchances for this topic. I`ll go and have a look at it and see if I can make head or tail of it all

takesyourchances

shaz34cat wrote: »

Thanks takesyourchances for this topic. I`ll go and have a look at it and see if I can make head or tail of it all

Good luck and hope it makes sense reading it