Saga share offer

surfsister

alanq wrote: »

I have some savings under the Saga brand (actually Birmingham Midshires / Lloyds Banking Group). I am not tempted to buy.

Saga IPO discussed in today's Money Box about 14mins in
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042cq89

It was said that something like 70% of the profits come from insurance. Why should anyone even over-50's opt for insurance via Saga? Just because a product is restricted to an age group does not mean that it is the best value. There was an instance on Money Box a year ago of an elderly person who had been paying an ever increasing amount to Saga for home insurance each year. She could have been getting insurance at a fraction of the price from any number of non-targeted insurers and Saga itself would not have been charging anything like as much had she been a new customer. This is a business to maximise profits from the elderly not an organisation to further the interests of the elderly.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21717085

in fact saga car insurance is very cheap I am just over 50 and it cost me 95 quid; much less than anywhere else!

POPPYOSCAR

surfsister wrote: »

in fact saga car insurance is very cheap I am just over 50 and it cost me 95 quid; much less than anywhere else!

Would never have Saga car insurance again after our experience with them.

We got £50 compensation from them(long story) but will never know if we were insured or not for 4 days, just glad we did not have an accident and find out!!

C_Mababejive

The saga IPO will flop. Why? Becuase SAGA is simply an engine for exploiting people who they call old. People have moved on. They dont consider themselves old now. They just get on with their lives and dont wish to be labelled as old. SAGAs so called special deals for "old" people are also mostly rubbish. A simple shop around can easily beat most of their deals. So to summarise, SAGA represents a tired,old,outmoded business concept.

redbuzzard

C_Mababejive wrote: »

SAGAs so called special deals for "old" people are also mostly rubbish. A simple shop around can easily beat most of their deals. So to summarise, SAGA represents a tired,old,outmoded business concept.

Probably nothing wrong with the concept...but my experience has been the same as with other insurers - an attractive quote first time round and a big hike the year after.

They have in my opinion been careless with the trust customers have put in them, and to a degree been 'found out'. Hence perhaps the lack of progress on profits over the last few years.

Without material improvement in profitability, on a p/e of 20+ if the float price is at the top of the range, the yield will be stuck in the 2%-3% range at best (compare with Royal Mail's promised 6% payout on the float price)

Saga's plan is to sell additional services to grow profits - it hasn't been too successful with that so far. It's basically an insurer, and as such is priced too high, unless you are prepared to pay for the story.

The increase in the number of older folk should in theory be helpful to them - but their competitors are not likely to ignore the opportunity either, or be happy to watch their market shares fall.

My crystal ball may be no better than average, but I think there's probably not much prospect of an immediate worthwhile premium, and a good chance these shares will be cheaper in the market before 12 months has passed.

SnowMan

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Why? Becuase SAGA is simply an engine for exploiting people who they call old. People have moved on. They dont consider themselves old now. They just get on with their lives and dont wish to be labelled as old. SAGAs so called special deals for "old" people are also mostly rubbish. A simple shop around can easily beat most of their deals. So to summarise, SAGA represents a tired,old,outmoded business concept.

There is certainly some evidence for that as BBC moneybox uncovered about a year ago

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21717085

Forgetting the ethics, it is still a dubious business model, as once the trust of older people is lost what do they have to offer?

le_loup

SnowMan wrote: »

There is certainly some evidence for that as BBC moneybox uncovered about a year ago

Unfortunately, that piece of evidence showed the sort of blind trust that many of the potential investors in this share offer are showing.

dealsearcher

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Would never have Saga car insurance again after our experience with them.

We got £50 compensation from them(long story) but will never know if we were insured or not for 4 days, just glad we did not have an accident and find out!!

So you have not actually experienced the service they provide for accident insurance but you will never insure with them on the basis of some personal tiff you had with them over an administrative error? Not sure I would accept that as an accurate recommendation not to go with them.


I would rather hear from people who had actually experienced the service they provide for which you pay them for.

[Deleted User]

saga is just an umbrella organisation for finances, holidays etc. They have no altruistic interest in looking after older people but they are keen on getting money out of them. We have had saga car insurance and did not renew, we have savings at 4.75% and when that matures in a few months will not renew, we went on holiday with them and to a hotel where 9 people had been hospitalised with pneumonia and bronchitis. They did not warn us and lo and behold my husband got bad acute bronchitis which has changed his lung capacity permanently. If they had cared about the aged, then they would have told us all not to go on that holiday. The corridor sounded like a chest ward in a hospital. So no I would not touch saga with a barge pole. I manage and also vested my husbands sipp and am very familiar with shares and share dealing, we have spare cash in there but I had to laugh when the sage share offer came up

Humberstone27

I think this is a good opportunity for Saga customers, as they will get preferential allocation of shares. There is also an added bonus that if you keep the shares for 12 months you will get a free share for every 20 shares held.
It doesn't take much of a rise in the share price or the share dividend to beat the interest paid by the greedy Banks on savings & Isa's currently 1% or 2% per year.
I have put my application in for what I can afford and look forward to making a few bob and suggest Saga clients do not miss out on this offer. Remember you don't pay fees & charges on your initial allocation of shares. Applications I believe close at midnight today.

le_loup

For your sake, I hope you're not whistling in the dark to keep the bogy-man at bay!