HBOS Sharesave

mikeorange7

I would greatly appreciate any views on this as I have to decide what to do within the next week..

I have saved for 3 years (£,9,000 in total) into the HBOS staff Sharesave scheme and have an option to buy about 1,700 shares at £5.62.

My dilemma is do I sell all now and take the profit (current share price is £8.62) of £3.00 per share or let it ride and hope the price hits £9.00 plus later this year. I remember this stock hitting £12.00 per share in the late nineties.

I guess I am trying to look at the long term. One option I have now is to cash in the shares and develop some property. This would be on my own home so would not represent an income providing asset unlike the shares which should produce a decent dividend.

I don't expect any one has a crystal ball but I have gained excellent alternative viewpoints form you fellow moneysavers in the past and I eagerly await more.

I wish us all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

BobbyG_2

This really is a hard call. I had a Sharesave from my employer some years ago and decided to cash in when the price hit £4 a share (which netted me £8K in cash). Given I'd paid between £1.50 and £2.50 a share, this was good. I didn't think it would go much over £4. I cashed in, and the price duly dropped to £3 over the next three months. However it then went back up, and up, and up (telecoms boom), and within two years hit £12. So did I "throw away" £16K. Or I did I "make" £4K?
Answers on a postcard... :-)
Bob.
PS I 'invested' the money (along with some other savings I cashed in) on a mid-career break and a 5 month RTW trip. Best money I ever spent!

dunstonh

Bank sharesave schemes have been very profitable in the past.   The may not look quite as good in the last 5 years due to the drop in the stockmarket a few years back but over the long term, historically have done very well.

You may be advised to transfer them into an ISA within the first 90 days of the option being excercised if you do intend to hold them long term as Captial Gains tax is quite likely to be an issue if you do the share save every year. Plus having the dividends set to buy new shares and kept in the ISA saved tax too.

In my banking days I used to PEP them, as did most of the staff to avoid the CGT.   You may think the amount is small not but when you add them up over the years it can become an issue.    Many of the mid grade banking staff had amounts into many hundreds thousand pounds just because of the annual sharesave.  Then again, you had those that sold them as soon as they could each year where using the ISA wouldnt be needed.

david78

£250 X 36 = £9000 option price £5.62 so you have options over 1601 shares. At price of 8.40 these would be worth £13400. So exercise that option!

You can only transfer £7000 into an ISA because they count towards your annual allowance. You then won't be able to open a mini cash ISA.

One option is to mix and match, e.g.

Transfer £3000 to mini stocks and shares ISA for 2004.
Keep £3000 in shares (Halifax share account?)
Cash in £7400 of shares.

The ISA part can then be transferred to another fund/share when you want to sell HBOS shares.

PS. Don't forget you should have some interest from your Sharesave a/c too. You may be able to use this to buy shares too so the above figures will only be approximate.

thor

When did the share price hit £12? I have kept a close watch on these shares ever since the Halifax demutualised and can only remember them going over £9 once and that was when I was out of the country otherwise I would have sold them like a shot. Their price is so variable that I'm convinced if it does hit £9 again then that would be the time to sell and wait a few months until the value drops back to £6 as it always seems to do. Right now I think that the dividends are greater than the interest I could earn if I liquidise due to the crappy bank rates out there.

BobbyG_2

When did the share price hit £12?
£12 was my then employer's share price, not Halifax's. My Sharesave was managed by Halifax, but I was working in the Telecoms sector at the time.

Bob.

mikeorange7

Many thanks to you all...
I have decided to cash in next week and plan to extend my house..more rooms for my kids to fill up. There has been some delay in the opening of my sharedealing account so I can not sell until 17th Jan. Cross your fingures for me that theres no heading south just yet!!
I agree that this stock seems undestructable yet has common, shall i say somewhat predictable, ups and downs? Strange considering the fundamentals of the group are very healthy and have been assessed as such by those who should know. Why does this happen I wonder? Does the same happen with TESCOS?
Right, now onto pastures new...how to money save on architects & builders..any tips out there my friends will be greatly appreciated.
Happy Hunting
M

Fatboy_NSS

£12 was my then employer's share price, not Halifax's. My Sharesave was managed by Halifax, but I was working in the Telecoms sector at the time.

Well who do you work for? And how can you ask for advice on shares without saying which company the shares are in?

BobbyG_2

Hi!

>how can you ask for advice on shares

It wasn't me asking for advice. :-)

I posted my experience with cashing in a Sharesave option account in case it helped the person who asked for advice, someone else assumed the shares were in the same company as the original poster and queried the shareprice I posted, and I clarified that is was a different company. Confused? I am. :-))))

Bob.