Maturities

Fixed-term investments

Fixed-term investments that can be renewed at maturity:

• Guaranteed Growth Bonds
• Guaranteed Income Bonds
• Index-linked Savings Certificates
• Fixed-interest Savings Certificates

Your clients’ options at maturity

Depending on the type of investment, clients can normally choose between renewing their fixed-term investment for another term or simply cashing in.

We’ll write to them before their Bond or Certificate matures, letting them know their options in more detail as well as the interest rates on offer if they want to renew. Whichever option they choose, clients should make sure we receive their instruction on at least two banking days before their investment is due to mature.

If renewing:

Your clients will receive confirmation of their renewed investment in their online account the day their investment matures, or a few days later if they still receive documents through the post.

Previously, with both types of Bonds and Certificates, your clients could have accessed their investment before the end of its term but would have been charged a penalty equal to 90 days’ interest on any money they took out early. Additionally, with Index-linked Savings Certificates, they would have also lost a year’s index-linking on the whole Certificate.

Now, once a client decides to renew a Bond for another term, they won’t be able to access their money until the Bond reaches the end of its new term. This also applies for both Certificates starting with 23 July 2023.

Your clients will however have the right to cancel within 30 days of renewing their Certificate.

Therefore, these type of accounts might no longer be suitable for clients who could need early access to their money.

If cashing in:

Your clients will normally receive the money in their bank account on the day their investment matures, or the next banking day if it matures on a weekend or bank holiday, but it could take a bit longer during very busy periods.

How we calculate index-linking

For our Index-linked Savings Certificates we now calculate the index-linking using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) instead of the Retail Prices Index (RPI). This change was applied to all Index-linked Savings Certificates renewed from 1 May 2019.