MSE News: NS&I revives inflation-beating savings certificates

Baldur

Wammer wrote: »

Is it worth leaving the 6 Vantage accounts open with £300 in each or would it be better to closed those accounts?

Depends whether you want the hassle of passing the £1,000 minimum payment through each one every month for a pittance in interest @ 0.08% net (1.19% net after 27th June) on each £300 balance - better than most current accounts, admittedly, but better rates are available elsewhere.

Slackermum

cke123 wrote: »

I and two other relatives have all applied for certificates over the past week on differt days. We all looked up our customer reference on existing certificates. All 3 of us have received the email saying we got our holder's number wrong. We are all experienced at applying for certificates on-line have never had a problem before. It seems a bit surprising that all 3 of us happened to get it wrong at the same time. However, none of us thought to screen scrape the data we entered before submitting the application so we cannot be sure it is not just a coincidence. I'm on hold on the phone line at the moment (and have been for 30 minutes so far) waiting to sort it out. A relative took and hour to get past the engaged tone before joining the phone queue.

Same thing has happened to us. They were unable to help when we did get through, we were put back on hold, after we were told we'd be straight through to someone who would help. 30 mins later we were still waiting, but had to go out!

I'll let you know how we get on.

grumpycrab

Wammer wrote: »

We currently have 6 LTSB Vantage accounts between us each with £5300...

Sorry I misunderstood.

If you've got other sources of easy access income I'd move it all over. But if you will be making parital NS&I withdrawals (sorry don't know how quick these take place) which isn't the point of these certs I'd compromise e.g. open 2x NSI certs with 8400 each and keep 3x Vantage with 5000 in each.

littly_kitty

These NS&I certificates seem too good to be true:
-Your savings rise with inflation
-There is no tax to pay
-If you cash-in in the first year, you get everything you paid in back other than the interest (so you don't really lose anything).

What's the catch? I've been looking very hard for a catch, but I can't find anything concrete (at least anything concrete that is easy to understand)!

grumpycrab

littly_kitty wrote: »

...What's the catch? I've been looking very hard for a catch, but I can't find anything concrete (at least anything concrete that is easy to understand)!

The catch is if you think about it for too long the certs will be withdrawn.

JoeCrystal

@littly_kitty It does, that why they are just in high demands at the moment. Nevertheless, I can think of two catches.

1. RPI Index barely changed for next five years thus, not getting high interest. (Unlikely) As you can withdraw part or all of them any time you like, putting them in higher interest savings account.

2. NS&I and the Treasury collapsed... (Quite Unlikely)

Cheers

Joe

Stompa

grumpycrab wrote: »

The catch is if you think about it for too long the certs will be withdrawn.

FWIW I see that their Q&As say:

Q. How long will the current Issues of Savings Certificates be on sale?
We’re aiming to keep Savings Certificates on sale for a sustained period to allow as many savers who want to invest to do so.

of course we don't know what they mean by 'a sustained period'.

Slackermum

Unslackdad managed to get through on the phone. Our problem turned out to be that our account was a joint one and we are now applying as individuals.

Unslackdad was able to apply on the phone and I have applied on line ticking the box that I do not have an account!

Hoping things will go more smoothly now.

Sceptic001

littly_kitty wrote: »

These NS&I certificates seem too good to be true:
-Your savings rise with inflation
-There is no tax to pay
-If you cash-in in the first year, you get everything you paid in back other than the interest (so you don't really lose anything).

What's the catch? I've been looking very hard for a catch, but I can't find anything concrete (at least anything concrete that is easy to understand)!

There is no catch. They do exactly what they promise. They protect your capital against inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (plus a bit more, 0.5% AER if held for five years).

There is a general rule that if something looks too good to be true it must be too good to be true. This is the exception that proves that rule.:j

Masomnia

littly_kitty wrote: »

What's the catch? I've been looking very hard for a catch, but I can't find anything concrete (at least anything concrete that is easy to understand)!

The only catch is if you think RPI will be the same next year as this year, which is very unlikely.

Don't make the mistake of looking at the current inflation figures and thinking that is what you will get, because it isn't. So I guess the only catch is the uncertainty of what your return will be.