Sharesave schemes?

danuk

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Has anybody got any experience of these things? Is it a safe thing to do in the current climate?
 
The scheme I was on set the option price at a discount of 20% of the share price on a day a certain amount of time before the scheme start date. You then saved an amount of your choice for three or five years, and then could choose to exercise or not at the end of that time.

In a situation where the share price is rising or staying fairly stable then you should automatically make money. That means in the current economic climate it could be a very good thing if the company's shares are a lot lower than where they should be (e.g. banks) as by the time the end of the scheme is reached there's a good chance the shares will have gone up a lot and you'll make lots of money.

The downside I found with the schemes is we weren't allowed to sell the shares during close periods before results were announced, so sometimes lost out on the best sale prices.
 
I`ve made alot of money in the past with these. They are no risk , well worth doing as the gains can be very good. You do not have to exercise your option and can just take the money at the end of the period with interest. I have been lucky and have been in 2 where i have trebled my money :)
 
i am doing one where i work , i cannot lose and if it happened to do as good as a previous one did , i would make my money 5 times over , i wish i had been in that one , lads were putting £250 / month for 5 years , the price of the shares at the start was 19 pence , they were selling them for 100 pence , do the math on that one :eek:
 
Thanks for the replies fellas. I think i'll join it,
I've been having a little read up about it and it seems like i've most definitely got nothing to lose by joining it.
 
Quite simply, as said above you just can't lose. I've been doing these for the last 10years and now, every Nov one of the funds matures, only twice have a taken the cash as the option price was more than the current value at the time, however, you get it back because the next option is, of course, based on the lower value.

Best option I ever got was shares at 58p, saved £95 a month for 5 years, after taking into account the end of term bonus I ended up with 13,000 shares which are currently worth £1.80 a share. So in effect I saved up £5,500 (roughly) over 5 years (something I simply would never have done) and ended up with shares worth £20,000 roughly.

I have never sold them and twice a year a receive a dividend chq anywhere from £400 - £700)
 
Quite simply, as said above you just can't lose. I've been doing these for the last 10years and now, every Nov one of the funds matures, only twice have a taken the cash as the option price was more than the current value at the time, however, you get it back because the next option is, of course, based on the lower value.

Best option I ever got was shares at 58p, saved £95 a month for 5 years, after taking into account the end of term bonus I ended up with 13,000 shares which are currently worth £1.80 a share. So in effect I saved up £5,500 (roughly) over 5 years (something I simply would never have done) and ended up with shares worth £20,000 roughly.

I have never sold them and twice a year a receive a dividend chq anywhere from £400 - £700)
They are worth doing, however as with all shares there is no guarantee. Over the 21 yrs I was with LTSB I did many sharesaves once they started and ended up with about 25k of shares. Lovely! However I kept hold of the shares and they are now worth less than 50p each. Far far less than I paid for them even with the sharesave scheme and definitely a LOT less than what they were worth a few years ago :(

However I'm going to hold onto them and keep my fingers crossed.

And I will be doing another sharesave with my new company this year.
 
They are worth doing, however as with all shares there is no guarantee. Over the 21 yrs I was with LTSB I did many sharesaves once they started and ended up with about 25k of shares. Lovely! However I kept hold of the shares and they are now worth less than 50p each. Far far less than I paid for them even with the sharesave scheme and definitely a LOT less than what they were worth a few years ago :(

However I'm going to hold onto them and keep my fingers crossed.

And I will be doing another sharesave with my new company this year.

Same here, but with RBS:confused: Our retirement plans have been altered drastically recently....
 
I have ended up with amounts of £20000 and £33000 and sold both times on the first day i could as if i had that amount lying around would i have bought shares in the company , no way so i bailed straight out .
 
I work with Silver Arrow and can only give the same :confused: :suicide: about my RBS shares.

However sharesaves are great because they involve no risk and you can buy shares in five years' time at an agreed price. The latest RBS share option was at 38p which obviously is higher than the current price but I would expect them to be worth more than that in five years' time .... if not, I get my cash back!
 
I started one paying £100 a month for 3 yrs.....walked away with just under 20k (blew it all since lol)

so yes they can be worth it :D
 
best thing i ever done, made a lot of money over the years with the sharesave schemes . the one i am in at the moment is down but it doesnt mature for another 2 years so the share price may be back up by then. if not i will take the money i saved along with the guaranteed interest . you cannot lose in sharesave schemes. highly recommended
 
Also I'ts tax free as it taken from your wages before tax...............great if your earning hit the 40% tax band.
 
and remember capital gains tax if it goes well

i was well and truely shafted:thumbsdow
 
about the only one :D

actually contemplated getting hitched just to save cash but then came to my senses lol
 
Shares are never safe, I trade shares on a monthly basis what I look for are small gains that beat the banks interest rates. Last shares I traded where rbs looking to make a 10% return on my capital, brought in mid December @ 49.1p and sold a month later (thankfully) @ 57p. Today they are 12.1p

I still remember friends who worked for Marconi back in the day, they were getting 20% off the £14 share price and were lapping them up. They should have sold shortly after buying them, but thought the price would go up. Then came big bust and they ended up with getting just a few pennies per share.
 
these schemes are though, you get a return of at least what you have saved plus interest or the option to purchase the shares at the agreed price if it is worthwhile
 
Also I'ts tax free as it taken from your wages before tax...............great if your earning hit the 40% tax band.

a sharematch scheme is tax free thus taken out of your gross pay...
but this is totally different to sharesave schemes.....in fact, a million times better..

the max you can pay into sharematch is £1,500 pa (£125 per month), the company then gives you matching shares depending on the performance of the company (agreed annually in advanced), but the max would be the equivalent of £2,800, so in total you could get £4,300 of shares per year for the price of £1,500 :thumbsup::D:thumbsup:

it's capped at £4.3k to meet HMRC guidelines and the shares must be held for a minimum of 5 years, so you would receive these shares on a monthly basis once they mature - the only potential tax payable is capital gains

if you actullay sold the shares that you bought within 5 years then you have to pay NI and possibly income tax too on these...(note, it is not possible to sell the matching company shares within the 5 year period as they are held in a trust...)

hope this helps anyone where their company have this option..
i'm quite fortunate and have enlisted in both sharematch and sharesave schemes with my employers....happy days...:D
 
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I still can't believe this is foolproof. Your buying shares right? they can go up or down even collapse.
What am I missing here? How is it possibly you can't lose money?

Seen too many people lose money on company share schemes. This seems to good to be true.
 
I still can't believe this is foolproof. Your buying shares right? they can go up or down even collapse.
What am I missing here? How is it possibly you can't lose money?

Seen too many people lose money on company share schemes. This seems to good to be true.

basically, at the end of the 3 or 5 year period of the sharesave scheme you have 2 options:

1 - return of your inital investment plus interest as a cash payment
2 - buy shares at the option price agreed at the start of the sharescheme with the money you have invested to date + interest

if the sharerprice is lower than the option price, then you would just take the cash, however, if the shareprice is higher than the option price then you would take the options up...

you can't lose your money as the minimum money you'll get back is any payments you have already made into the sharescheme...
 
Ah right so basically there is no risk, unless you choose to buy shares at the scheme end after which there is the risk as the shares may perform badly.
 
You buy shares and then sell straightaway, so the risk is holding them about 2 weeks for this to come through. My gains were too much to lose s o i bought a 9 month traded options to secure my gains and then went out and got drunk. :)
 

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