A friend of mine has held the proceeds of a house sale in a bank for a number of years while he looks for a new purchase. His bank recently contacted him and 'sold' him an equity bond as the most efficient means to hold the money - it does seem to be capital assured after 5 years. My friend did feel pressured and now that he has seen the house he wants he finds out that the bond is €16K off the original amount invested in January 06. I would suspect that most of this is commission.
First question - is it best advice to tie up money in a bond like this when the fact find should have discovered the intention was to buy property ?
The bank didnt issue the cooling off notice for over 2 months - and even wrote to apologise for the delay in sending out the notice.
Second question - does the cooling off period start from the date of inception of the bond or the date of receipt of the notice ? If the notice wasnt received in time does he have a case for a full refund of the amount ( 600K) - voiding the contract ?
When he contacted the bank about this today they offered to give him a bridging loan to wait until the bond recovers !! - is this best advice ?
How should he progress this - the bank directly ? the ombudsman ? or Joe Duffy ?
First question - is it best advice to tie up money in a bond like this when the fact find should have discovered the intention was to buy property ?
The bank didnt issue the cooling off notice for over 2 months - and even wrote to apologise for the delay in sending out the notice.
Second question - does the cooling off period start from the date of inception of the bond or the date of receipt of the notice ? If the notice wasnt received in time does he have a case for a full refund of the amount ( 600K) - voiding the contract ?
When he contacted the bank about this today they offered to give him a bridging loan to wait until the bond recovers !! - is this best advice ?
How should he progress this - the bank directly ? the ombudsman ? or Joe Duffy ?