Looking around, I find very few banks who are paying interest rates as much as 0.5%
Some are charging, up to, 5%, service charge.
Anyone know of a Bank, or BS, who are doing better than that?
:shock:
1 Like
Nope!
There are a few but they are banks most people have probably never heard of. Providing savings up to £85,000 are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, it seems there’s nothing to lose and perhaps it’s the only way to get better interest rates:
There’s plenty of reading on the two links below but it does seem that the next reduction in the Bank of England’s base rate may mean negative interest rates – we will be paying them to look after our money. More to the point we will be lending them our money so they can get a return, via loans such as mortgages, five or six times that which is paid to us, or rather taken from us if it does come to negative interest rates. The link below shows mortgage interest rates of up to 1.99%, many times the interest rate paid to savers, plus don’t overlook the charge of £1,000 to set up a mortgage:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/
While I don’t advocate keeping cash in a cardboard box or under the mattress, that would not be any worse than allowing the banks to use it to their benefit, as usual:
Hi
We are in a mess with the cost of Coronavirus.
It means negative Interest Rates
It is no great shakes.
Unless of course you rely on interest from life savings to supplement your pension and therefore your cost of living, paying bills etc., as I am sure many people do. 
Well said, Baz!
I agree with you Baz.
Saying “it’s no great shakes” is ridiculous, as interest matters to most of us.
It may be no great shakes to you Swimmy, but our retirement income has been decimated since retiring in 2008. In business we paid up to 12% on business loans but on our savings, after a lifetime of graft, we are now getting a measly 1% with the Coventry BS.
That recession certainly cost us dear, and continues to do so, and those that complain about borrowing rates at the moment really don’t know they are born… :mad2:
Hi
The alternative is very simple, a huge increase in Tax to pay for it.
We cannot borrow all this money without paying it back.
Our Pension Increase next year is being paid for by borrowing.
We do not have enough money to pay for it, we are not collecting the taxes.
What part of this do you not understand?
You would be worse off if interest rates where increased, it would bankrupt us.
I used to wonder why the stock market index keeps on rising in spite of all the bad news. I now realise that people are forced into buying shares as that is the only way that they can get a return for their money. That is, in spite of the risk involved.
If you want a decent return for your money you have to take on a higher risk profile unfortunately. At the moment I’m considering putting something into an ISA stocks and shares fund that focuses on paying dividends rather than capital growth. The one that’s of particular interest to me is paying 4%/yr.
When I first retired interest rates were about 7% so my superfund was increasing by more than the amount I was withdrawing as a pension, in theory it should have lasted me until I died. Now interest rates are less than 1% so it will now only last me until my late 80s or early 90s.
The only up side is that I currently also receive a part pension from the state so I actually live very well.
I had a term deposit which I kept reinvesting but after the last interest rate drop I have now put it in an ordinary savings account because the marginally better interest rate doesn’t make the lack of access to the money worthwhile. Inflation is as near zero as makes no difference as is wages growth.
In the September review of pensions there was no increase for the first time since 1928 and the increase for March is looking only marginally better.
Australian banks have not paid interest on current accounts for years however to say interest rates are of no importance is absurd.
This has nothing to do with Covid this is the low inflation economic environment that has been around for a long time before 2020.
Exactly that Mr Magoo!
I have thought that for some time now ??
The ordinary person is now forced to either put his money into the
stock exchange or into the lottery?
The banks dont want our little bits of money anymore, they are
trying to do away with real money and get us all onto virtual
money, l wonder why??
The government are the driver of low interest rates as it allows
them to borrow more, and the people they borrow it from are
the privately owned banks, who, therefore own the government !?!?
Interestingly when l had some money to invest on the stock
exchange it was explained to me that if you had the capacity to
leave your money invested through the downs you would always
more than make it up on the ups as the market has ALWAYS
trended up over the long term despite all the crashes we are so
wary of !!
Donkeyman!
When l lived abroad Percy the bank rate was 8%, and that was
considered low !!
so when l sold the farm ,having some money to invest l took
a mixed portfolio on the stock exchange that promised up to
18%, but actually ONLY! achieved 17% over the two years that
I kept it in there!!!
Absolutuly no problems getting the money out either !
Its a bit different over here though ??
Donkeyman!
I did the same thing when we lived in Italy. I invested a monthly sum in 2 bank-run off-shore unit trusts (I didn’t know any better then, milud 
) for about 4yrs. When we returned to Blighty, I had a very nice sum of money stashed that provided a very healthy deposit for the property we bought in Hertford near London.
Good for you Percy, trouble is in my case the bastids took it back
when l returned to uk via the exchange rate fiddle !!
Donkeyman!
Hi
The Government have borrowed so much money they need to keep interest rates at zero.
The next step is minus Interest, charging you to keep your money in the Bank.
Not an issue for me,I have no savings.
I give my money to my kids every month.
It is Income so not subject to Inheritance Tax.
My daughter is an arse, but a good accountant.
Many years ago I invested in the short term money market between selling a couple of investment properties and buying another.
I split the money into five lots (there was a minimum amount) and the bank would ring me to tell me about opportunities, the interest rates were spectacular - always over 20%pa. The downside was that it was short term from a few days to about 14 days (usually less) if you didn’t tell them what to do when the loan matured it received no interest.
It was exhausting keeping track of the loans, this was before the days of mobile phones.
Obviously you have a robot to do it for you now Brucy ??
Donkeyman!
I invested in GB£s from the start. My fund manager didn’t like the idea of me investing in Italian Lire (mind you neither did the Italian Government at the time ) so, I sent Lire back to my UK bank, it changed it to £s and I paid everything from that account. Oh, and being off-shore, it was all tax-free too.