Share Save Schemes

frales

Hi

I joined this forum as I was reading posts about people not sure about taking advantage of share schemes.

A little personal history. My wife worked for British National Oil Corporation. She saved £50 per month to their share scheme. When Britoil took them over she made a bundle and continued to save with Britoil. When BP took over Britoil she made a bundle again. When BP took over Britoil the staff were allowed to top up their schemes to the maximum and then buy BP shares or take the money saved plus bonus and interest.

I worked part time for two companies that had share save options. I always tried to save £50 per month over five years. This meant at the end of five years I had about £3000 savings plus bonus. If the shares were not higher than the option price I took my money. This paid for our family holiday for years.

In one employment I had a 3 year option @ £34 per month. At the end of the three years the shares had risen so much that I actually made £7000 profit. In the other company I worked for the shares had went down and I took my money plus bonus.

THe reason I am sending this post is to let people know it is not rocket science. You save an amount of money per month for 3 or 5 years. The price you can buy shares at is set at the beginning of this saving. If they go up you win, if they don't you take tour money and go on holiday.

BT shares at the beginning of one option were £118. The option price was set at £111. Because the share price went down so far in 2008-2009 the company advised that employees could take out another share option where the price of shares would be 68pence. Staff were cashing in previous options to take advantage of this lower price.

If someone has taken the full £250 per month at 68pence per share. then they will have £15000 plus to buy shares at the end of the contract. BT shares are now about £2.38 so if they buy and sell them straight away they will make a profit of £45000.

I therefore feel that if there is a share scheme in your company take advantage as it is a win win situation.

By the way, with all these rich BT staff don't expect prices of BT services to drop. They are in the business of screwing every last penny out of each pound they can.