surrendering life/endownment policies

[arebrec]

have a couple of policies that I no longer need, and can't afford to keep paying them. have just obtained the surrender value for each, but don't really know what to do now. I was advised by a friend to sell them, but don't know where to start.

any ideas?

[martinmac]

Sold a couple recently as they were going nowhere.

Lots of sites on the net that specialise in buying but one word of caution. I got several quotes but finally sold them to the company they were with as their offer was much better.

[DavidY]

darreni on PH does this sort of thing, looked at a couple of things in the past for me.

If you've had the policy a reasonable time, sometimes you can get a decent offer from the policy provider. In fact the one from one of my policy providers bettered all the broker offers.

davidy

[Simpo Two]

DavidY said:

darreni on PH does this sort of thing, looked at a couple of things in the past for me.

I mailed him but got no reply.

I too considered selling an endowment policy recently and the best offer came from AAP - about 10% over surrender value. It was tempting to take the money and invest it and try to do better, but the thing that stopped me was the simple, basic thought that if any company is prepared to offer me £X for it, then it's because they know it's really worth £X+Y.

I can afford to keep it going until maturity, but if you can't and need the money then it's instant cash. So in my view selling endowments is a distress action.

[arebrec]

thanks for the replies

have had someone else mention AAP so will give them a ring and a few others, to see what offers I get and take it from there.

[arebrec]

AAP won't touch them becuase they are 'unit linked' so guess that would be the same with the other companies?

[Simpo Two]

arebrec said:

AAP won't touch them becuase they are 'unit linked' so guess that would be the same with the other companies?

Don't know, but it's worth shopping around. Different policies do have different desirabilities/values. If all else fails there's still the surrender value, but do make sure you won't regret this later.

[arebrec]

Ok I've surrendered one policy but my other one is one that I can sell
Anyone have any other suggestions as to who I can sell my policy too.

I have a quote from AAP for 10% above the surrender value but their website says up to 35% more, so although I don't expect the full 35 I'm wondering whether they would increase anymore. I've asked them and they did but only by a couple of hundred.
I need to go back to them with some more quotes really.

anyone else with any other advise?

[Jespin]

Try LSA endowments and Surrendalink. I've found LSA quote better figures than AAP and you can play them off against each other.

[Shaolin]

Do you really need to sell them? You could just make them "paid-up" and hang on until they mature. Ask for a projection of maturity value as well if you haven't got one already.

[arebrec]

I've managed to get several quotes now from several different companies, so am now just waiting for them to give me their best offers and see who comes up top, so far AAP is the highest but LSA has the best first offer.

I would prefer to keep hold of it and know thats the best option but I need the money and I have other life insurances so don't need it for that.

[Simpo Two]

It seems simple to me - if they have to go, sell them to the highest bidder.

I decided to keep mine going (only another few years) because if somebody offers me £x for them it's because they know they're worth more than £x. It's also hard to find a sector in which to invest the proceeds.