A&L £25 cashback for financial review

tomstickland

I've just had a phone call from A&L regarding the reg saver finishing.
They've offered me £25 cashback if I go to a one hour financial review.

I quite fancy the money, but then again I'm a bit 50-50 on having to go through the motions when I already spend most of my time looking around the net for the best deals.

Sillychuckie

if you can spare the time, go for it.
you get a further £50 if you take out one of their investments, and yet another £50 if you take out one of the protection type thingies.
Their products are pretty awful, but if you can get away with a small investment for a small term, it might end up worthwhile.
Not sure to be honest, but if only for the £25 you may as well.

tomstickland

It's going to be quite funny I think, since I'm researching every one of their products and how it compares to the best in the market. I think I'm going to play down my knowledge at the start. I also don't want to antagonise the advisor since I would like the £25.

in_my_wellies

My DH was talked into this a while ago and it all sounded great in the office. When he got home a we read it carefully the rate offered was rubbish.

elsien

If you don't have to commit to anything £25 for an hour's work sounds good to me.

tomstickland

I have no intention of saying yes to anything. I just want to go along, not antagonise the adviser and leave with a "I'll look into it and think about" conclusion and then bag £25.

brabzzz

Had mine a week or so ago. You need to spend about an hour there to qualify for the £25. Act half interested to complete the illusion...

The first 20-25 or so minutes involved them asking: rent? food? cc? bills? etc. to build up an idea of your cashflows for a typical month.

Then they try to sell you insurance, savings, a mortgage and the like. Not hard sell at all, but they give you more positive than negatives when explaining them!

they're not 'all of market' and therefore try to flog just their own products. I wouldn't go there for great financial advice - an 8 year old could do the job they do, going 'by the book'. Still, £25 is £32 pre tax. Not a bad way to spend a lunch break...

grade15

with that in mind..thinking "maybe, maybe..i'll think about it.." be careful cos they are very pushy.. this sort of question..i had.. why not take out life insurance? you've got car insurance and that is just a piece of metal..whereas you are a human being..your life is more important..you should think about that..
then i forgot to say..well..car insurance is by law and complusary when you have a car whereas life insurance isn't!!
i've waited more than 60 days.. for my £25 and still haven't got it..they say it will arrive at end of jan..which i'm still hoping!
yes..all their insurance are rip off cos i did the same insurance details on the net and found i could save a bundle!
btw, can you reopen a regular saver AGAIN??
hope the pressure from the adviser won'g get to you! :dance:

Xstyle

Sillychuckie wrote:

... and yet another £50 if you take out one of the protection type thingies.

I saw Martin on Loan Buster programme, on ITV Tonight with Trevor McDonald ... DON'T BUY THE BANKS PROTECTION PRODUCTS!

brabzzz

yeah, they were rather pushy on the life/accident insurance front, and also income protection - the whole 'life is precious' argument.

£30pm for 15 (or was it 30?) years critical illness (or was it accident? who cares anyway..) insurance - a one off payout of £70k if it ever came to it. At the age of 23 with no dependants? F*ck that.

What really got to me was when i pointed out 'and the lost interest on all those £30 payments' when she gave me the cost - she replied 'phahhh, interest? it can't be much!'

Grrrr that kind of response stinks when it comes from someone apparently giving you a financial review. That said, maybe it works on the 90% of the country that are clueless about money.

tomstickland

be careful cos they are very pushy..

Oh, I enjoy it when people try to push.

I'm going to do some preperation.
So I need to read up on their main products and compare with best of market.
For example,
prem direct account pretty good 5%
reg saver, no longer valid for me
savings accounts, miles behind HiSave etc
ISA, fallen behind the best payers

life insurace, get some quotes for comparison, calculate the interest so I can apppear to do a mental calculation.