Index - linked Savings Certificates about to mature - renew holding?

TUVOK

I've just received a letter asking me to give maturity instructions on the above certificates.

I have the choice of four options:
Renew for 5 years
Renew for 2 or 3 years
Cash the certificates in
Switch the holding amount to another NS&I account

When I had the choice at the last renewal point, I opted to renew, it wasa simple choice then due to my then circumstances.
I have no need of the money in the certificates for the time period of up to 5 years, so that is not an issue, but what are members investment views on whether to renew the certificates on the maturity date and if so? should it be for 2,3 or 5 years.
Thanks for any/all views.

ColdIron

I've always renewed for 5 years but now there is no early withdrawal I shall probably renew for 3 years in 2026 and take my chances

TUVOK

ColdIron said:

I've always renewed for 5 years but now there is no early withdrawal I shall probably renew for 3 years in 2026 and take my chances

Thanks, a good point, I don't plan at all to use the money, but as you write, the early with drawl was handy! 

Stubod

..lots of similar posts so worth a search....

As you no longer have the option to cash them in early, when ours are due I am changing them to 3 years and taking some of the funds out and leaving the "original" £15k in...but I'm old. (NB did not think there was a 2 year option???)

Notepad_Phil

TUVOK said:

...I have no need of the money in the certificates for the time period of up to 5 years, so that is not an issue, but what are members investment views on whether to renew the certificates on the maturity date and if so? should it be for 2,3 or 5 years.
...

If there is little to no chance of needing the cash over the 5 year period then personally I'd renew them for the maximum 5 years. I'd only think of the shorter terms once there was a plausible scenario where I might need to sell at the end of that term.

marlot

I used these for my emergency fund, but will have to drop them when they renew - there's no point having an emergency fund you can't access for up to three years.

TUVOK

JamesRobinson48 said:

I think you'll find that an option to renew for 2 years exists only for certificates whose current tenor is 2 years. I stand to be corrected, but lately NS&I has not offered me a 2 year renewal for any maturing 3 or 5 year certificates.

Yes, I believe that you are correct, so for myself that's either 3 or 5 year renewal.

Rollinghome

None of our certs come up for renewal until Feb 25 so haven't given much thought to it yet.  I think we're all going to be in different positions depending on our reasons for holding cash, our tax position, our assumptions on inflation, and what alternative we'd feel comfortable with, such as risk investments.

My initial feeling is that I'll be at least reducing the amount held, and what's left will be for the shortest term possible. 

We've had very high inflation recently that's now back to a more normal figure. It could easily resurge, but I think recent events may have caused us to exaggerate IL benefits compared to non-indexed returns and forget about the times when the comparison was less favourable.  I've had cash in IL certs for a fair time and can remember periods when gross returns were easily beaten by the alternatives. In a frog-boiling exercise, other changes have been gradually made, such as the switch to CPI. The biggest attraction for us though was being tax-free, and would find ourselves paying a lot more tax if/when we exit.

So we'll probably be looking at bond alternatives and whether we want to further increase our exposure to equities. A bit of number-crunching and head-scratching to come. Thanks to the OP for reminding me to get on with it.