Abbey, is this for real?

bjorn_again

If you are worried about "cover" with any Santander product, then put your money under the mattress. Santander is NOT going to go bust, repeat NOT going to go bust. Put as much as you have with them if it suits you, they are NOT, NOT, NOT going to fail. Nor is ING.

ajw1100

Thanks for the comments, although I am now in more of confused state as to what to do!
I did not think Abbey/Santander would go bust, it was the statement of the amount of cover I was asking about.

I will try to find, as noted by dunstonh.....

you can still get better terms that the Abbey one.

......what there is around that is better than the Abbey offer as I can cancel the plans when I receive them.

With the ISA/CGP I could also get a Superbond for one year at 5.5% to the same value as the above, would it make more sense to have all 3 to get the benefits of the ISA and Superbond at 5.5% and leave the CGP to grow over time?

Thanks for the link dunstonh, makes you think and doubts the honesty of some financial institutions when they offer 'guarantees' that are not guaranteed!!

Myrmidon_J

bjorn_again wrote:

If you are worried about "cover" with any Santander product, then put your money under the mattress. Santander is NOT going to go bust, repeat NOT going to go bust. Put as much as you have with them if it suits you, they are NOT, NOT, NOT going to fail. Nor is ING.

Nor is AIG.
Nor is Bear Stearns!
Nor is Lehman Brothers!!

Oh, wait...

Don't be such an abject fool. Since when did you have the ability to predict the future? Often, these structured products have terms of three, five or even six years. Can you absolutely guarantee anything that far in advance? Of course not, and it is misleading to suggest otherwise.

simon_templar_2

The three you mention are not UK high street banks. As Bjorn says Santander wont go bust.

Myrmidon_J

simon_templar wrote:

The three you mention are not UK high street banks. As Bjorn says Santander wont go bust.

As dunstonh pointed out:

"... those investing in some guaranteed equity bonds lost their money when they found out Lehmanns US underwrote the plans and there is no FSCS protection on the underlying assets."

There is a lot of crossover between mystery financial institutions overseas and UK High Street banks, particularly when we are talking about structured products. Besides which, multiple UK High Street banks have already failed.

And I maintain that making bold statements about a future that hasn't happened yet is a very foolish thing to do.

dunstonh

AIG and Lehman have underwritten a number of structured products though or been included in the assets underwriting them.

The people with guaranteed equity bonds underwritten by lehmans have found the guarantee doesnt mean guarantee and there is no FSCS protection on them despite the literature saying there was.

That said, if Santander are the underwriter and the assets backing it up are at least AA rated then the chances of failure are slim. However, the same would have been said of Lehmans not too long ago. Its about understanding the risks. If the OP knows the risks clearly then an informed choice can be made. However, if they are being sold as an effective cash replacement with no risk then that says more about the sales person than anything else.