Warren Evans Bond

kerri_dfw

This isn't something we would want to add a few quid to each month. We have an amount of money that we have been given that we haven't saved up ourselves but that needs to be put somewhere in both high and low risk investments to try to make the most from it as we can over the next 3-4 years. We wouldn't be looking to redeem the bond before the 3 year maturity as the amount we are trying to save for a £60k+ deposit so the earliest we would need all the money in our accounts would be January 2017, after the bond matures.

bigadaj

kerri_dfw wrote: »

This isn't something we would want to add a few quid to each month. We have an amount of money that we have been given that we haven't saved up ourselves but that needs to be put somewhere in both high and low risk investments to try to make the most from it as we can over the next 3-4 years. We wouldn't be looking to redeem the bond before the 3 year maturity as the amount we are trying to save for a £60k+ deposit so the earliest we would need all the money in our accounts would be January 2017, after the bond matures.

Fair enough but your money is at risk, this is a corporate bond not a savings bond. If the company went bust then shareholders would lose out, but you'd only get your money back if there was sufficient money left in the company, which may well not be the case. There's no Fscs guarantee and a bond with a single company is probably far riskier than investing in an equity fund invested in a wide range of companies, I wouldn't do this in your situation but it's your choice.

grizzly1911

If I had money to gamble it may be worth a punt.

If I couldn't afford to lose the money and I was saving for something specific I wouldn't touch it.

It may work out fine, their website appears to espouse an "ethical" (if private enterprise can be) company, they appear to sell a quality product to a wealth apparent niche market. Hadn't heard of them before your post.

Jevvers

Minimum investment is £750 which would yield £168.75 in total, although as the interest is paid every six months you could put that money elsewhere to improve that.

We have Warren Evans beds and like them as a company but will definitely be doing my research before deciding whether and how much to invest.

bowlhead99

The way I would look at it is:

You are trying to raise, per your signature, 36 thousand pounds for a house - or perhaps 60 thousand between you, per your posts. If this £750 investment in a furniture company comes off, you may get a whopping 170 quid (ignoring compounding on the interest earned, when you put it somewhere else) closer to your goal, over 3 years. If it does not, you might be anywhere from zero to 750 pounds further away. Frankly, it doesn't seem like that 170 quid would make any perceptible difference to what house you buy or how early you can buy it.

If you take risk, you want reward. But 750 invested and 170 profits doesn't give you any material improvement to your life. By contrast if it turns out to be a poor investment, you could be out 750, which rounds up to a grand, and would make you upset and annoyed.

Given you can get 70 of the 170 risk free from a Santander current account at current 3% AER and no doubt other accounts when that deal expires, there seems to be no good reason to make a loan to a furniture company in pursuit of the extra hundred in the context of your 36 thousand pounds goal.

Now if you were talking 7500 investment instead of 750, the return is more meaningful, but the potential losses higher. A 7500 investment would be better split across five or more opportunities so I still wouldn't be recommending you dump it into Warren Evans.

Traditional advice for saving for a house deposit is, literally, save for a house deposit not invest for a house deposit if you are only looking at a few years. Personally I had a lot of my house deposit in equities until I actually needed to pay it over earlier this year, but then I am a gambler.

Jevvers

What do people make of their accounts? Seems they are making a loss in the first half of this year in terms of operating profit.
http://www.warrenevansbond.com/business-information/

Masomnia

Jevvers wrote: »

What do people make of their accounts? Seems they are making a loss in the first half of this year in terms of operating profit.
http://www.warrenevansbond.com/business-information/

I imagine the second half of the year is much more profitable with people buying for Christmas. So I probably wouldn't read to much into that, but that's just me.

grizzly1911

tony6403 wrote: »

You only get 3% on balances between £3,000 and £20,000.
Under £1,000 interest starts at 0% then progresses to 3% incrementally.
Nevertheless a good account.

That is what I thought but other posters have provide the terms which suggest the the highest rate applies to the whole balance.

The interest I receive on a fully invested account is 3%.

£50.29 gross in a 30 day month.

Glen_Clark

If I was investing in corporate bonds I would do it through a good bond fund to spread the risk.
More importantly perhaps, they have professionals to assess creditworthiness, and legal departments to make sure they get their share if the company is wound up. I wonder why the professionals haven't bought these?

grizzly1911

A friend of mine has some form of bond with Chocolate Hotel at least he gets some frre chocolate with his interets and the chance to buy premier priced product at a discount. - or so I am told.

I do wonder with some of these niche brands how they attract followers and which comes first. Chocolate, fashion items I can see being repetitive turnover and "loyalty" but how often do we buy beds?