Index linked saving certificates are back

[MarillionFan]

Tax man takes his chunk though.

Depends on how much incomr the OPs 'grandad' has. If you'd read he said he had a bond coming up, so
even with an ISA he could only move 5k

[Lockhouse]

Thanks for the replies - it's for my my father-in-law. It's a significant amount of cash - he doesn't have an ISA for this year yet. I was thinking of ISA, NS&I 15K and that's just for starters. I'm sure the IFA we're seeing Saturday will suggest things as well. I've been caught before buying high commission financial products that have lost money in real terms. Surprisingly as it's not my own cash I'm inclined to be much more conservative.

Is there a way of investing outside of the £ so that I'm hedged when it collapses (apart from gold)?

[DimPrawn]

Thanks for the replies - it's for my my father-in-law. It's a significant amount of cash - he doesn't have an ISA for this year yet. I was thinking of ISA, NS&I 15K and that's just for starters. I'm sure the IFA we're seeing Saturday will suggest things as well. I've been caught before buying high commission financial products that have lost money in real terms. Surprisingly as it's not my own cash I'm inclined to be much more conservative.

Is there a way of investing outside of the £ so that I'm hedged when it collapses (apart from gold)?

You could buy foreign defensive stocks priced in USD, EUR or whatever you fancy that pay a regular and reasonable dividend. You could buy foreign bonds and gilts too. I would still buy gold however after the latest selloff looks like it's finished as USA and UK are still likely to solve their debt problems by printing more money. Gold is easy to trade, very liquid market with low transaction costs and you can sell into other currencies too.

Oh, and stick some money into Zopa, as the returns are very good and the risk is low.

[DimPrawn]

Thousands scramble to register for the new 9% savings rate | Mail Online

[Lumiere]

5% RPI + 0.5% on £15k = £825 tax free for the year.

A days money. I agree.

more like £200-£300 if the money is already a part of an offset mortgage

and if interest rates go up the difference will become marginal, and your money is not locked up for 5 years as a bonus

pass

[Olly]

errrr..the money isn't locked up for 5 years! I'm glad it said that in the Mail though as it's going to take a few days to jig things around so I've got 15K in my current account to pay for it before they're sold out

[AtW]

This seems to suggest rates would have to go up and fast - either that or they are desperate for cash.

[MarillionFan]

There's a really good article in Times Yesterdays money section on how to only pay 20% tax on 78k if you're retired. See if you can find
A copy.

[TimberWolf]

This seems to suggest rates would have to go up and fast - either that or they are desperate for cash.

Maybe they don't want people to hold gold, etc, so that they can part people from their savings painlessly, without them noticing as the pound slides. Their economic tools loose effectiveness if people don't hold the currency.

[AtW]

There is no economic reason to borrow under such high interest rate when you can print money or borrow them under much lower. They might be doing it to say later - look, we've tried to "help" you: £15k is nothing anyway, it won't help pensioners much.