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

Sceptic001

Distinction wrote: »

If I put £15,000 into it and withdrew after one year and one day, will the interest earned be worthwhile?

That depends on your definition of "worthwhile".

Distinction

The Halifax reward account pays £60 for £12,000.

So for an extra £3000 will I be getting at least a £100?

Sceptic001

Distinction wrote: »

The Halifax reward account pays £60 for £12,000.

So for an extra £3000 will I be getting at least a £100?

If you consider a return of £60 on £12000 to be worthwhile then I suspect the return on index-linked certificates will be more than worthwhile. Why not do some research, starting with the MSE links at the top of this page.

Svenena

The Halifax account pays £60 on £1000 if you just transfer the same sum in and out of the account. So why not do both? £60 on £12k is 0.5%, which is the very minimum you're guaranteed to get with the NS & I certificates.

TheMatrix_2

Rollinghome wrote: »

NS&I have repeatedly said they'll be available for a "sustained period" and while it's possible they've made a miscalculation would cause them major embarrassment if it was well short of that. They haven't seen the need to update or modify their statement so far.

Yes but define "sustained period" it's very subjective. At least if they said they will be available until the end of the year then we have something to aim at

Rollinghome

TheMatrix wrote: »

Yes but define "sustained period" it's very subjective. At least if they said they will be available until the end of the year then we have something to aim at

I'm not sure if it's subjective but it's deliberately unspecific because for obvious reasons they aren't able to give guarantees. They'll have done their calculations but won't know for sure what the demand and other factors will be. The phrase suggests months rather than a very limited period of "a few weeks". They could have got it wrong but would be embarrassment all round if they're way out. There'd be a lot more complaints if they gave a specific date and had to pull it earlier.

It's the same with every issue. They never state how long an issue will be available or whether the next bonus will be a better or worse. In 2008 there were 10 different issues with the bonus ranging between 0.25% and 1.35%.

If and when you invest is a decision for you as with any investment.

Reaper

I gather NS&I has been told to bring in an additional £2bn. That works out at roughly 133,000 people taking out the maximum £15,000. Not very many really.

They have tried to damp down demand by lowering the rate compared to the previous issue and only offering a 5 year certificate, without the usual 3 year option.

However I don't think that will have done much to reduce demand and I don't expect it to remain open long.

Note however that £2bn is additonal funds, so if a person moves their money over from existing premium bonds that doesn't count.

Rollinghome

Reaper wrote: »

I gather NS&I has been told to bring in an additional £2bn. That works out at roughly 133,000 people taking out the maximum £15,000. Not very many really.

The net financing target for NS&I has been increased by £2bn but to meet that target and balance normal outflows they need a net inflow from savers of about £14bn. The maximum investment is £15k per person but I'd guess many people will invest far less than that.

I'd assume they'd try to make those calculations before they decided the terms and issued their statement and while they may have got it totally wrong I haven't seen any authoritative evidence of that as yet. Would be something of a row if they could be accused of misleading the public.

To make an informed judgement on whether NS&I have got it wrong we'd need at least as much information as they have.

kar999

How long will these be available? .. who knows?... but this is straight from the horse's (NS&I) mouth so don't shoot the messenger please....

As expected, demand for the new National Savings & Investments (NS&I) five-year index-linked savings certificates is running high – though Gill Stephens of NS&I remains cagey about just how many savers have applied.
‘We haven’t got any official figures on applications and for commercial reasons we would not give them out’. The new certificates are proving very popular and the call centre has at times struggled to cope.

So will the current issue be withdrawn?

‘We hope not,’ says Stephens. ‘We want the new certificates to be part of our product range in the longer term and we want to keep them on sale because we know they are popular.’

Although NS&I won’t reveal the number of applications, Stephens confirms that some 700,000 individuals are registered for email updates about NS&I products and new launches – It is fairly safe to assume that a large proportion of these savers will have applied for the new index-linked certificates.In addition some 600,000 savers still hold previous issues of index-linked certificates worth a total of £16.7 billion and are therefore likely to be keen on a new issue.
NS&I’s target for total sales of National Savings products is around £14 billion and it is unlikely to want to exceed this target so the product could possibly be pulled within months if not weeks.

The current issue replaces the previous issue which was on sale in July 2010. Due to huge demand it was available for only three months before it became so oversubscribed that NS&I was forced to withdraw it

mr_fishbulb

Hmmmmm am I supposed to get some paperwork or something?

I applied on 18th May (got an email to say the application had been received). I haven't got anything in the post to sign - I would have thought I would need to because I don't have any other certificates.

The money went out of my account on 19th May and I haven't heard anything since. No email or letter.