Need Help writing Letter to get out of Tracker Bond

Glacier

I invested a Tracker Bond with First Active in 2004 that doesn't mature until September. However I have since ran into financial difficulties & now need to withdraw the Bond. They said if I wrote a letter explaining that my circumstances had changed & acknowledging that there would be a penalty fee taken out of it, they may consider letting me cash it in early. I'm not good at letter-wring but they said to lean heavily on unemployment, financial hardship. I'm sorry to ask but can anyone help?

ixus

Ok, the most important thing you could do now is read over the terms & conditions. Take your time, and study it carefully. If you have lost them, get onto First Active and request a copy of the contracts you signed. Obviously with a copy of your signature.

It's pretty hard to advise without knowledge of the contract. And that is of course personal stuff.

What struck me is that you would "acknowledge" there would be a penal fee. They never instructed you as to the amount/percentage? This should be in your terms & conditions IMHO. It is not like they have never had early withdrawals before.

Focus on this before you think of writing a hard luck story to get funds back.
Do you know what your Tracker Bond is now worth? Lets deal in persentages so as not to disclose the sum of money. What was it tracking? Do you need to take it all out or perhaps a percentage that would allow you to get by until September?

Checkout the legal and Banks&Pensions forums and as there may have been similar cases before.

Askaboutmoney is a pretty useful website on these kind of matters.

Also, do a bit of googling on this, as I have no doubt someone has asked this type of question before.

Glacier

Thanks for replying. They said first I'd need to write to them informing them of the situation then they would reply saying whether it could be done or not & then state what kind of fee would be taken out. I feel really stupid asking this, I would just like help to get started.

ixus

Do you have your contract or any details from when you signed up?

IMHO, they can't just arbitrarily assign a penalty fee, it should be fixed.

The reason I say this is, if they can arbitrarily assign a penalty fee they could screw you out of a decent percentage. It's a risk, I'm not saying it will happen for definite. I just think you should have all available information at your disposal before you write a hard luck letter.

Honestly, how long would it take you to look around your room/house for this info? even if you checked online against comparable tracker bonds with FA this should give you some idea.

Note: I have no experience dealing with First Active but this is how I would approach the situation.

Glacier

I appreciate the advice, I will do that. But still, can anyone help me with the Letter?