Prinipality BS to launch 5 year bond paying 5.30%

Steve_xx

5 YEAR FIXED RATE BOND Issue 150 launched on 24 September:

A five year fixed term account with a minimum investment of £500 paying 5.30% yearly (5.18% monthly).

Further additions whilst issue remains open.

Earlier access on closure only subject to 360 day loss of interest, which is hefty, to say the least. But at the very least it is possible to recover your cash should you need to.

This new bond is not featuring on the website as I write this.

Link: Click here

RayWolfe

Thanks Steve for another nugget.

ceeforcat

Hmm. I much prefer this one from Birmingham Midshires paying 5.14% annual or 5.03 monthly with only 90 days loss of interest. Now I came across this by accident and cannot find it when going directly to the main site. However the link is REAL and I found it by googling Birmingham Midshires 5 year bond and the rates are correct as at 27th August 2009 - all a bit odd! Any thoughts?

http://www.askbm.co.uk/savings/p/fixed/product.asp?id=302&p=overview

ceeforcat

Aha - it's under postal accounts - looks good to me

Steve_xx

ceeforcat wrote: »

Hmm. I much prefer this one from Birmingham Midshires paying 5.14% annual or 5.03 monthly with only 90 days loss of interest. Now I came across this by accident and cannot find it when going directly to the main site. However the link is REAL and I found it by googling Birmingham Midshires 5 year bond and the rates are correct as at 27th August 2009 - all a bit odd! Any thoughts?

http://www.askbm.co.uk/savings/p/fixed/product.asp?id=302&p=overview

Looks ok to me and it is available directly from their website. If you click on the Savings tab and then under that you see the following text. Click on "Fixed Rate Bonds".

Postal Savings
If you prefer to manage your savings by post, you can enjoy all the benefits of our specially designed postal savings accounts. Choose from our:
Postal Easy Access Accounts,ISAs,
Fixed Rate Bonds.

Find out more about our range of
Postal Savings Accounts.

LemonTree_3

ceeforcat wrote: »

Hmm. I much prefer this one from Birmingham Midshires paying 5.14% annual or 5.03 monthly with only 90 days loss of interest. Now I came across this by accident and cannot find it when going directly to the main site. However the link is REAL and I found it by googling Birmingham Midshires 5 year bond and the rates are correct as at 27th August 2009 - all a bit odd! Any thoughts?

http://www.askbm.co.uk/savings/p/fixed/product.asp?id=302&p=overview

I wish I had seen this earlier - instead I've just got the 5year bond yesterday
with YBS without any withdrawal options...

TCA

Bear in mind that withdrawals from this BM bond are only permitted after 2 years. Better than many others but might not suit everyone:

http://www.askbm.co.uk/savings/p/fixed/faq/intro.asp#r04

Edited to say that when clicking for the online application, my IE7 browser gave me a security certificate error for an untrusted site. Anyone else get this or know exactly what this means?

premierfella

TCA

I think you may have misread those terms. Withdrawals on BM fixed rate bonds with a term of less than 2 years do not permit withdrawals.

However, as the bond being discussed is a five year term bond, withdrawals are permitted at any time during the 5 years, but are subject to 90 days loss of interest on the withdrawn amount.

FWIW, I agree that this bond looks attractive given withdrawals at only 90 days interest cost (unless the interest rate is very close to similar no-withdrawal fixed rate bonds I usually find that any greater interest cost on withdrawals is, for me, balanced out by the higher fixed interest rate on no-withdrawal bonds.)

Sceptic001

Don't forget that Birmingham Midshires is covered by the Bank of Scotland FSCS licence, so total deposits in the following banks should not exceed £50k (or £100 joint):

Halifax
Bank of Scotland
Birmingham Midshires
Intelligent Finance
St James's Place Bank
St James's Place Private Bank
AA Savings
Saga Savings
http://www.askbm.co.uk/savings/info/fscs.asp#ap04

Arthurian

I just phoned BM and asked how much I would have to invest to make sure the accumulated funds after 5 years totalled just under £50,000. The answer from their helpline was that it was something which was impossible to work out. May I please tap the brains of esteemed MSE-ers? Would the answer be around £38,000?

Steve_xx

Arthurian wrote: »

I just phoned BM and asked how much I would have to invest to make sure the accumulated funds after 5 years totalled just under £50,000. The answer from their helpline was that it was something which was impossible to work out. May I please tap the brains of esteemed MSE-ers? Would the answer be around £38,000?

It's not impossible at all. They ought to be able to work it out more or less to the penny.

Anyway the answer is approximately 41k. I have assumed an interest rate of 4%, allowing for the deduction of tax @ 20%.

However, if you opt for monthly interest and that interest can be paid out of the account then you could put near enough the full 50k in there because it wouldn't go over that for long before being reduced down again as interest was paid out of the account. There's also talk of a pan-european increase in the amount the FSCS will pay out, due to come on stream in December.