Pulling money from a locked account

cameron70

We invested some money into an account that is locked until 2016

The small print says that under no circumstances can we withdraw the money early, except if the account holder passes away

We have been thinking that this money is earning less interest that the interest we are paying on our current debts so approached the bank to see if there was any way we could access the money (even if we lost the interest gained)

The answer was a flat NO

Does anyone know of any way around this? or should we just leave it there till it matures?

dunstonh

Does anyone know of any way around this?

Fixed term deposits come in two types. Those that have strictly no access (apart from death) and those that allow earlier access but with penalty. Generically, those with no access at all get slightly better terms than those that allow access with penalty.

The whole point of no access is to get that little bit more. If they start allowing access for no good reason (and you have no good reason) then they would not be able to offer those terms again.

alanq

If the terms and conditions state no early access that is what it means. No doubt you ticked a box saying that you had read and agreed to those terms.

Some institutions will consider early access at their discretion in case of severe hardship. Being able to get a better rate elsewhere is hardly going to persuade even the most generous institution to waive its terms.

cameron70

Thanks guys, i expected as much, we only thought about it because everywhere we read its better to clear debt and then save rather than trying to do the two together

would have been nice to think we owed £0

Guess we can clear whats left of them when it matures instead

mad_rich

As above, it appears you can't get hold of the money early. (Which is fair enough, and the point of the account.)

But you do know that you're going to have this lump sum available on a specific date in the future. You could look at the various 0% credit cards on offer (if you qualify) and shift your debt to one of those. Pay what you can monthly (AT LEAST the minimum payment) and then pay a big chunk off once the bank account matures.

Difficult to make any concrete suggestions without knowing the amounts, but that's one option.