Natwest Investment Options ISA - need advice

sweetdaisy

I opened a Natwest Investment Options ISA in December 2008. I pay £100 into this and have received my Half Yearly Valuation Statement which shows that the account has only gained £250 in 3 years. The current balance is £3,650.

I opened the account after the birth of our first child and as we have a new addition to the family, I was thinking about increasing monthly payments to £150. The sole purpose of this account is to have money for our two children when they become older to help pay towards University, house deposits etc.

I save all Birthday/Christmas money in an account for each of the children - an account I will transfer into their names when they become older, however with the investment account I will divide the money between them, but I will not give them access to the full money at 18 years old as I would not want them to waste the money as hopefully I would have saved a nice amount for them, so I will use this money to help them out with Uni, deposits etc.

My Husband and myself have other savings, therefore we do not take any money out of the 'children's savings' and have never dipped into it.

As the investment account has only earned £250 in 3 years, I was wondering whether it would be better to put the money in an e-ISA or Cash ISA instead. I prefer to have accounts with Natwest and they offer 2% on an e-ISA at the moment.

Our eldest child is 3.5 years, so we have another 15 years or so until we would withdraw from it. Just wondering if earning £250 is good for a Stocks and Shares ISA which we have had for 3 years, with £100 a month being paid into it?

Linton

What funds is the ISA invested in?

sweetdaisy

Linton wrote: »

What funds is the ISA invested in?

I don't really understand the investment that we have . All I know is that it is a balanced growth fund divided between (according to my statement):

International Equities 33.36%
UK Equities 31.79%
UK Corporate Bonds 11.24%
UK Gilts 6.10%
Cash & Equivalents 9.26%
Property 5.38%
International Bonds 2.87%

dunstonh

I don't really understand the investment that we have

We knew that the minute you said you used Natwest. No-one who knows investments would go near a bank.

All I know is that it is a balanced growth fund divided between (according to my statement):

Dont worry about the make up of the fund. Just give us the name of the fund (include any letters after its name which may not make sense to you but would to us).

Linton

The balanced fund invests in a broad range of different things in order to reduce the wild swings in value that a more focussed fund would experience. Looking at the detailed figures from trustnet.com the Nat West balanced fund appears to be a pretty average performer of its type.

I think there are 2 factors which you should take into account:

1) You havent been investing £3600 for 3 years - half your payments were made less than 18 months ago and so you cant expect to have received £3600 X rate of return over 3 years. The average rate of return to make a gain of £250, paying in £100/month over 3 years turns out to be about 4.5% which actually is rather better than a cash ISA.

2) Over the past few months share values have dropped something like 10% because of the Euro problems. You must expect these things to happen every so often, which is why you need to assess over a longer period than 3 years.

sweetdaisy

dunstonh wrote: »

We knew that the minute you said you used Natwest. No-one who knows investments would go near a bank.



Dont worry about the make up of the fund. Just give us the name of the fund (include any letters after its name which may not make sense to you but would to us).

I feel a little silly now as I really don't know why I chose this product . I have looked through all the information that I have and there are no letters after the name of the fund (don't even know what the name of the fund is). It just says that I have a 'Natwest Investment Options ISA (a Stocks & Shares Individual Savings Account).

Sorry I can't be more detailed, this is all it says on my paperwork.

shellbo10

Hi can any one help my son has a natwest account for his wages and he wants to draw out £500 hes been told the limit is £300 at the cash machine can he go into the bank and withdraw £500 over the counter.
thanks

Linton

shellbo10 wrote: »

Hi can any one help my son has a natwest account for his wages and he wants to draw out £500 hes been told the limit is £300 at the cash machine can he go into the bank and withdraw £500 over the counter.
thanks

Yes - though I am not sure what this has to do with a Nat West S&S ISA

Noble_Savage

shellbo10 wrote: »

Hi can any one help my son has a natwest account for his wages and he wants to draw out £500 hes been told the limit is £300 at the cash machine can he go into the bank and withdraw £500 over the counter.
thanks

You'd be better off posting this in the 'Budgeting and Bank Accounts' page.

jimjames

If you want to transfer the ISA to another provider that has cheaper costs and wider selection of funds then you can do that.

There are many other companies that allow you to choose from the whole range of available funds rather than restricting you to the ones from your bank.