NZ Herald 30 April 2005

AThere are two main advantages:

• Most bonds pay higher returns than term deposits.
• You can sell bonds if you want to get out early.

Kiwi Bonds are just one type of bond. They are issued by the government, and are therefore regarded as the lowest-risk type of investment around, so they pay very low interest.

For a list of some other types of bonds, see the end of the share listings in the Business Herald each day, under “NZDX Market”.

At about the same level of risk as bank term deposits are bonds issued by local authorities, such as Auckland City, or SOEs, such as Transpower.

There are, however, other bonds issued by companies, such as Auckland International Airport and Fletcher Building Finance.

These are riskier and therefore have to pay higher interest to borrow money from you. Still, a company’s bonds are less risky than its shares. If its gets into financial trouble, it must repay all bondholders before shareholders get anything.

You can get an idea of how likely it is that a company will get into trouble by its credit rating. One place to see the ratings is on www.interest.co.nz. Click on Money Market.

Ratings of AAA or G1 are best. The website gives you more information about ratings under its Consumer Guide.

It’s obviously safest to go with high-rated bonds. And it’s also best to spread your money over lots of different companies, just in case.

As I said, one big advantage of bonds over term deposits is that, if you want to get your money out before maturity, you can sell the bond.

And while many bonds have five-year terms, if you want to tie up your money for a shorter period, you can buy one that is already part-way through its term.

If you buy or sell part-way through, you’ll find the price will be higher or lower than the original price — depending on whether interest rates have gone up or down in the meantime.

But that’s not as complicated as it sounds. It just means that you should get a fair return on your investment for the risk you’re taking — given the level of market interest rates at the time you buy or sell.

If you buy part-way through you also need to understand the difference between the coupon rate and the buy yield.

The coupon rate is the interest paid to those who buy when the bond is first issued. The buy yield is the interest you get if you buy later on, which takes into account the fact that you have paid a different price from the original price.

Head spinning? Bonds are simple if you buy at the start and hold to maturity, which most people do.

A good stockbroker or financial adviser can explain bonds to you. They can be an excellent lowish-risk investment for those approaching retirement and in retirement.

AI wonder why you’re so keen on these sites. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you run them, would it? Good on you!

I don’t entirely agree that your presentation is more useful. A while back, when I was putting money into a term deposit, I tried your website and found I had to choose a term before I got the info.

I was, however, flexible about how long I tied up the money. It depended to some extent on what interest rates were offered for different periods.

In the end, I found it easier to go back to www.interest.co.nz, which gives the interest rates for all terms of less than a year on one page and for a year or more on another.

Of course not everyone is flexible about terms, but I suspect many are.

While I’m being critical, I think you may have got a bit carried away with the options on your site.

Does anybody really want to arrange a list of mortgage rates with the highest rate first? Or list term deposit institutions backwards alphabetically, from Z to A?

Still, your site has some great features, such as the ability to rank deposit rates with the highest first, and mortgages with the lowest first.

One feature I really like is the ability to graph several different mortgage lenders’ rates back over the last few years.

When you’re choosing a floating rate mortgage, if you simply go for the cheapest lender at the time, they might have just lowered their rates. But in the long term they may tend to have higher rates than some other lenders.

The only way to get a feel for who is cheap over the years is to look backwards. Your graphs do that well.

All in all, it seems to me that your site and www.interest.co.nz complement one another, with each one offering features that the other one lacks.

A couple of final points:

• The people who run the www.nzherald.co.nz also point out that interest rates, supplied by interest.co.nz, are available on their website.

  In the Money section, click on Current Interest Rates near the top of the page.

• You may have noticed that I again recommended www.interest.co.nz in the answer above.

  I don’t have shares in that company! I don’t even know anything about the man who runs it. It’s just that I find myself using that site often.