MSE News: Pensioner Bonds launched today: go quick if you want one

margaretclare

I still don't see what's so attractive about this offer. More interest/more growth? My S&S ISA is doing far better. Someone explain?

Rafter

margaretclare wrote: »

I still don't see what's so attractive about this offer. More interest/more growth? My S&S ISA is doing far better. Someone explain?

Margaret,

It depends on your attitude to risk and whether you can afford to lose the money or be down in the short term.

NS&I deposits are 100% government backed and protected, even above the FSCS limit.

Deposits in banks and building societies are protected 100% up to the £85,000 FSCS limit.

'Investments' in stock and shares, corporate bonds or other non-FSCS products are not protected and you could lose all your money if you only invested in one share or bond.

Hopefully your Stocks and Shares ISA is diversified into several firms, industries and countries. Presumably you could manage in the short term if the value of your ISA did fall.

R.

iris

margaretclare wrote: »

I still don't see what's so attractive about this offer. More interest/more growth? My S&S ISA is doing far better. Someone explain?

A S&S ISA can go up as well as down, so is more vulnerable. These Bonds have a 'guaranteed' return.


Better not to put 'all your eggs in one basket'.


Well that's how I see it.

brewerdave

margaretclare wrote: »

I still don't see what's so attractive about this offer. More interest/more growth? My S&S ISA is doing far better. Someone explain?

....there seems to be a fair bit of worry currently, about another stock market crash this year -the possibility is enuf to stop cautious investors from putting money into shares or funds. And ,of course, there are many people who never go outside cash savings.
Personally IF I qualified I MIGHT have moved money from Santander 123 acc. into 3 year bond -but wouldn't put "new" money in the Pensioner bonds.:)

Pincher

redux wrote: »

I don't know the best way to organise it. Maybe they should ballot it if oversubscribed, like in some share flotations.

The website looks ok at the moment though.

Ask Simon Cow. The voting calls concentrated during the ads would topple any network, but they are all logged, and CHARGED with no problems.


All they have to do is write the software to reject website requests, display a sorry come back later page. The ones that are let through will have sufficient processing power to complete an application. The way it actually worked was just time wasting for me, and the NS&I computer.


The designer of the software just has to learn to say NO, we're BUSY. That's the problem with ugly men programming. If a pretty girl was writing the code, she would have put on something like, "Go away. I'm washing my hair."

margaretclare

Rafter

Thanks for this. Yes, the investments under my S&S ISA umbrella are all pretty well diversified and I understand that what goes up can come down. I've been doing this for a few years now, drip-feeding monthly, I keep an eye regularly, and I'm happy with it all.

It has always been possible to buy NS&I products and I don't really see the incentive for getting older people to buy this. Better than keeping their money in an old sock, I suppose, but tying up money they might need? I can always cash my investments if I need to (although this would only be in an emergency), but a bond, tied up for a year at least, which might be needed? Put it this way. I would need some convincing to cash in all my S&S ISA to put it into this new product.

miller

Anyone made a successful applicaiton this morning yet?

66Thyme99

After hours yesterday and hours today, finally managed to buy a bond.
Entering the amount was an issue. There's a script behind the value that you enter which checks you entered what it considers is a valid amount. Use the form
nnnn.00 example, 5000.00

This is a klunky application and should have been properly tested, and certainly NS and I should have taken professional advice on how to manage what could reasonably have been expected to be a high demand.

miller

The address lookup can be a bit dodgy as well. A dropdown gets populated, but there can be a time delay before that information is written into the page which causes an error if you press next too soon.

Pincher

margaretclare wrote: »

but tying up money they might need? I can always cash my investments if I need to (although this would only be in an emergency), but a bond, tied up for a year at least, which might be needed?

It's not that bad, you can redeem the bond by losing some interest, as Martin et al has been preaching.


It's not wise to be all-in on shares any way.


On the other hand, if you can get a 0% Balance Transfer for 34 months, for say 3% Fee, putting that money into a three year 4% bond is a bit of a no brainer.