6 year Protected Equity Bond

debs49smile

Hi, am new to this but am hoping that someone may be able to help me.

Back in 2009, I invested £20,000 on the advice of a Financial Advisor at Nationwide in a 6 year Protected Equity Bond (with Legal & General).

My circumstances have now changed drastically and I am in a lot of financial difficulty and would really like to get my hands on even £10,000.00 of this to pay off my debts and to help me live without getting into even more debt. I am paying out more than I have coming in..... I am on benefits as am unable to work due to a disability.

I understand that I am unable to cash this bond in for the length of it's 6 year term, but am hoping that someone might be able to advise me what I might be able to do, do you think it might be possible to 'borrow' money against this bond or what.

Any advice you can give me will be gratefully received.

Thank you.

Debs49smile

mike88

What do the terms and conditions say about early or partial surrender? If that is possible you will lose significantly.

With £20000 invested surely your Benefits will be affected?

If you are paying out more than you have coming in then your first step should be to re-jig your budget because even with an early injection of capital you will be in the same position again unless you take steps to live within your means. Now should be the time for drastic steps to be taken and not when your money runs out.

Good luck!

dunstonh

I understand that I am unable to cash this bond in for the length of it's 6 year term

are you sure? Most allow it but with the potential for a penalty. Typically the penalty is around £150 and the difference in the value of the underlying assets and the amount of your investment, if any (the protection only applies at maturity)

mike88

dunstonh. Surely the surrender value will take account of the commission paid to the financial advisor which will have been in excess of £150 and probably nearer £1000.

dunstonh

mike88 wrote: »

dunstonh. Surely the surrender value will take account of the commission paid to the financial advisor which will have been in excess of £150 and probably nearer £1000.

The commission on these is not explicit (it would have been £600 in this one). It is factored into the overall product charges which are also not explicitly charged but hidden away.

Typically, the only explicit charge you see mentioned is the early surrender charge (which is usually around £150). However, the biggest hit could be the reduction in the value of the assets .

Mickygg

I thought if you had over £16k in savings you were not entitled to any benefits?

sabretoothtigger

Why dont people just use a tracker, nothing about these ever sounds that worth it

Ask Nationwide for some kind of loan maybe and mention your investment, advise them of your dire circumstances and they may take exceptional actions due to hardship to help a customer especially if you been with them a while.

I suspect they might allow it to be ended early or completely reversed after admin costs. They are supposed to be a mutual society not an 'evil' bank

dunstonh

Why dont people just use a tracker, nothing about these ever sounds that worth it

Niche would be the better way of thinking about them. Every now and then you do see some with good terms. However, there are also some protected asset OEICs/SICAVs which could do an acceptable job for a longer term investor with less of the negatives.

They are massively oversold by banks and building societies though. Although since Norwich & Peterborough were almost brought down by them, I suspect that you will see some banks/building societies go back to OEICs.

money_maker_2

Nationwide have no control over the money, as its L&G who are providing your bond. You need to speak to L&G and tell them your financial difficulty. You will prob loose a fair bit of the value, but it can be done