Savings & BOI Evergreen

Age: 26
Spouse’s/Partner's age: N/A

Annual gross income from employment or profession: €39

Type of employment: IT

In general are you spending more than you earn or are you saving? Saving

Mortgage:Not yet, rent 400 p/m

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc: None

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes

Savings and investments:
BOI SSIA €13k
Credit Union €3k

Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, 6% co-contributory

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: None

Life insurance: No


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I have a Special bonus saver account (after SSIA) and the term has just finished. In it there is 12K. I was paying 700 euro a month into it.

Since the term has just finished, what do I do with my money.
I was thinking of putting 500 euro p/m into BOI's new 8% savings accout. This is the max.

What do I do with my 200 euro excess. I was thinking of joining BOI's smartchoice evergreen account.

Am I crazy to join this scheme and have my money locked in for 5 ->7 years? Is it a bad time, or is this current bad time a good time for buying?

Are there other alternatives?

Any comments would be appreciated.

I am in a similar position regarding an SSIA. I have €12k in mine too. I recently purchased BOI shares to the value of €3,500. I am toying with the idea of buying €10k more with some of the SSIA money. The way I figure it, the shares can only really go up over time from the price they are at at the moment. I must state that I am a BOI employee too and can avail of low cost share dealing. The only prohibitive factor as far as I am concerned is that there will be little or no dividend on the shares for the next few years given the economic climate and the fact that the government are beginning to meddle in the banks' affairs. On the whole however, I reckon they could gain in value if you are prepared to wait a few years. They were up to over €18 each at their peak !

MeathCommute said:

I am in a similar position regarding an SSIA. I have €12k in mine too. I recently purchased BOI shares to the value of €3,500. I am toying with the idea of buying €10k more with some of the SSIA money. The way I figure it, the shares can only really go up over time from the price they are at at the moment. I must state that I am a BOI employee too and can avail of low cost share dealing. The only prohibitive factor as far as I am concerned is that there will be little or no dividend on the shares for the next few years given the economic climate and the fact that the government are beginning to meddle in the banks' affairs. On the whole however, I reckon they could gain in value if you are prepared to wait a few years. They were up to over €18 each at their peak !

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You are right - the government should not meddle in the banks' affairs - except of course to bail them out after creating a huge financial mess through poor lending practices. Hopefully, if and when the banks start disclosing true extent of bad debts, the property bubble can start again for another generation of FTBs with 40 year loans, and the share price can start rising, presumably after the meddlesome government has recapitalised the bank.

Askar said:

You are right - the government should not meddle in the banks' affairs - except of course to bail them out after creating a huge financial mess through poor lending practices. Hopefully, if and when the banks start disclosing true extent of bad debts, the property bubble can start again for another generation of FTBs with 40 year loans, and the share price can start rising, presumably after the meddlesome government has recapitalised the bank.

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In my opinion Askar, the government are EVERY BIT to blame for what happened as the banks. The financial regulator/central bank DID NOTHING when the banks started giving out 100% mortgages. Yet, the banks are now treated as the big bad wolf. The banks were responding to the market. Customers were looking for more money to buy houses so the banks duly obliged. The financial regulator could have stopped the banks but chose to ignore. This caused a property bubble which the builders, developers and estate agents were more than happy to feed

Forgive me moderator if this conversation is in an inappropriate forum !

Ronan zo Think long and hard about investing in the evergreen, fund it has been heading south for the past 18 months and shows no sign of recovery. The fund is heavely dependant on comercial property and Irish equities,,therefore given todays economic climate it has a long way to go before any reasonable growth can be expected.

Thanks Dandy,

I've been having a long think about this and think that I'll definitely leave it until after christmas or into the new year before investing in Evergreen. I figure that to buy in in 4-5 months time might be healthier and the cost of buy in should still be about the same.

RoZo.

Ronan, this is an excerpt from a thread I posted last evening and every word of it is true. After your reading of same, you might consider investing with another more respectable, honest and straight forward investment fund provider.

Did you all know that if you invest in the same funds through New Ireland rather than BoI Life you can get a better investment deal ?? Did you all know that New Ireland investment products are offered on better terms by Non-Tied agents for which they are fully aware but do not bother to advise their customers ?? So if you go to the Bank to invest and they advise you they are giving you the best deal available do not believe them. You are better shopping around.

I presently have two cases with the Financial Ombudsman against this organisation which will then be referred to the Regulator. I have spent 18 months trying to sort out a mess with an original offer in writing but was then refused after they had my money. However I was offered to enact the original deal in writing from their Tied Agent if I paid him a CASH FEE. The main office then sent me figures to show I was on a better deal than the original deal in writing. The figures were false which is totally contrary to the Consumer Code. I could write a book about this and intend in making the entire story public as soon as I can.

We are all reading concerning the mistakes the Banks made in relation to their lending book. What has happened to me is an occurrence of disgrace, for which the largest provider of lump sum investments in Ireland seems to acting in a very irregular manner.

It's your money. Be careful as believe me as soon as you hand over the funds they won't give a damn.

mercman said:

Ronan, this is an excerpt from a thread I posted last evening and every word of it is true. After your reading of same, you might consider investing with another more respectable, honest and straight forward investment fund provider.

Did you all know that if you invest in the same funds through New Ireland rather than BoI Life you can get a better investment deal ?? Did you all know that New Ireland investment products are offered on better terms by Non-Tied agents for which they are fully aware but do not bother to advise their customers ?? So if you go to the Bank to invest and they advise you they are giving you the best deal available do not believe them. You are better shopping around.

I presently have two cases with the Financial Ombudsman against this organisation which will then be referred to the Regulator. I have spent 18 months trying to sort out a mess with an original offer in writing but was then refused after they had my money. However I was offered to enact the original deal in writing from their Tied Agent if I paid him a CASH FEE. The main office then sent me figures to show I was on a better deal than the original deal in writing. The figures were false which is totally contrary to the Consumer Code. I could write a book about this and intend in making the entire story public as soon as I can.

We are all reading concerning the mistakes the Banks made in relation to their lending book. What has happened to me is an occurrence of disgrace, for which the largest provider of lump sum investments in Ireland seems to acting in a very irregular manner.

It's your money. Be careful as believe me as soon as you hand over the funds they won't give a damn.

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Do they (BOI) advise you that they are giving you the best deal available?
Surely being aware they are Tied agents you would be aware that they would only be in a position to offer you one product at the terms they have agreed with New Ireland not a compare the market scenario and tell you what you can get elsewhere, they are not going to turn away business now are they...
Are you saying an employee of BOI/BOI Life asked you for a cash fee in order to uphold some sort of fee deal?
I find certain aspects of this story lack credibility, ive never heard anything like this before or heard of CASH fee's to Tied agents or bank employee's, perhaps i am missing something here and other people have had experiences like this?

Johnny, I thought somebody would doubt the content of my Post. In fact my Solicitors did as well until I handed them the original paperwork evidencing the entire. And as well a Hand written letter requesting me not to cash in my fumds until after a month end in order that he could receive his commission. As for the best deal available - yep, that's what was stated in both cases.

mercman said:

Johnny, I thought somebody would doubt the content of my Post. In fact my Solicitors did as well until I handed them the original paperwork evidencing the entire. And as well a Hand written letter requesting me not to cash in my fumds until after a month end in order that he could receive his commission. As for the best deal available - yep, that's what was stated in both cases.

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It was nothing personal Mercman as you can see its an incredibile story, i look forward to reading about this one if and when it comes out, Best of luck with your case hope you get a resolution, i hope this person is no longer employed by the company or involved in the finance industry.
Good job you held onto all documents etc (hand written note) hard to believe someone could do something so stupid..
Is the basis of you complaint against the employee or the company?

You think that is stupid !! The same person is still a Tied gent of NI as far as I know. Was up to last week. In total the investment amount is substantial and they even refused to reduce the Annual Management Fee for the original investment I did with of approx €60k. (have that in writing as well). No wonder the Bank is in bother if this is their attitude. For the sake of all those that are already invested the entire Top level should get the Boot. And for those thinking about investing with them -- think again.