Rates are dropping fast

[castle96]

blimey...
Saga. One day 3% fixed fro a year, the next...all they have is 2.75% fixed for 3 years !

[meunier]

A sign of the times I fear. I wonder if they will bounce back by 2016. Of course that will incur another election ... and a crystal ball to answer. That and MORE than a LITTLE hope.

Perhaps there will be no savers left by that time.

Perhaps there will be no Great in Britain.

Time will tell ...

[Niv]

Originally Posted by meunier

A sign of the times I fear. I wonder if they will bounce back by 2016. Of course that will incur another election ... and a crystal ball to answer. That and MORE than a LITTLE hope.

Perhaps there will be no savers left by that time.

Perhaps there will be no Great in Britain.

Time will tell ...

You could be right, we could have got rid of the scots and be Greater Britain

[talexuser]

Well the banks got bailed out with a promise to lend to business to fend off a recession, which they then failed to do, so the Government now prints money to lend to banks to lend to business to fend off a recession, so the banks don't need to compete for savings so offer even lower rates than before (now that inflation has come down a little) to make it even harder to have cash savings that don't lose value, so we are supposed to spend all our savings to fend off a recession, but are supposed to have no wage increases and a lowering standard of living with less back from our taxes and savings that lose value.... life can only get better

[opinions4u]

Originally Posted by talexuser

Well the banks got bailed out with a promise to lend to business to fend off a recession, which they then failed to do

Not being funny, but telling banks who have lent badly and lost £billions to lend even more was always a bit stupid.

Only a stupid politician could tell a stupid bank to behave even more stupidly.

[Glen Clark]

Originally Posted by opinions4u

Not being funny, but telling banks who have lent badly and lost £billions to lend even more was always a bit stupid.

Only a stupid politician could tell a stupid bank to behave even more stupidly.

Whatever they say, their main concern is obviously getting themselves re elected.
So they will do whatever they can to keep the bubble inflated and stave off the crisis until after the next election.

[marathon man]

It is a cause of great frustration having to hunt around for an acceptable interest rate whilst starting to dip into our capital because the interest payable is so meagre.
The whole economic recovery strategy is to look after the borrowers and sod the fact that there are/were about 7 savers for each borrower. If interest rate was to rise anytime soon, those with loans and mortgages would be constantly howling whereas us savers/pensioners just have to sit and suffer at the moment. As a pensioner, we would be spending our interest income anyway so I just don't get the economics of it all really.

[melbury]

Current savings rate are totally abysmal Surely they will have to start climbing at some point - wont' they?

I also lost out on my Northern Rock shares - one day worth nearly £5,000 and then zilch Nice to know though that the CEO sold all of his while they were still riding high and didn't bother to warn anyone else to abandon ship.

[DragonQ]

The best instant access savings accounts are once again below inflation. Very depressing.

Hopefully they'll go up again near April (due to the ISA rush).

[Glen Clark]

Originally Posted by DragonQ

Hopefully they'll go up again near April (due to the ISA rush).

The ISA rush was based on their necessity to compete for savers funds.
They don't have to do that now the Government is printing money and paying them to borrow it (through interest rates below the real rate of inflation)
Like most things its not really a free market - the market is rigged by the Bank of England, and depends what the politicians are going to do. You need inside information to know, if not influence, what the politicians are going to do.
Why do you think Banks pay £millions to hire (ex) politicians like Blair?

[coastline]

Originally Posted by opinions4u

Not being funny, but telling banks who have lent badly and lost £billions to lend even more was always a bit stupid.

Only a stupid politician could tell a stupid bank to behave even more stupidly.

Well that politician was our PM..David Cameron..
Quote...What we have to do is get the banks lending again...June 2010.

[gadgetmind]

I have been rolling cash into bonds and preference shares, but the yields on those are also dropping rapidly. On the plus side, this does mean prices are rising, but I wish they'd waited until I'd bought my fill!

[opinions4u]

Originally Posted by coastline

Well that politician was our PM..David Cameron..
Quote...What we have to do is get the banks lending again...June 2010.

One of many.

Darling and Cable can share it around the different parties equally well.

[ihr]

Does anyone know of a website/source of statistics showing how average instant access savings rates change over time?

I want to get a sense of what's happened before... mostly because i want to know if rates will rise again soon.

[Gromitt]

Originally Posted by ihr

i want to know if rates will rise again soon.

Don't we all ! Rates have fallen because government have given the banks access to very cheap cash. Once that cash runs out and the banks want more, they'll hike their savings rates to attract people. But I don't think you'll see good competitive rates until about 2015 at least.

So you might as well help the economy by going down the shops and blowing the lot

[Thrugelmir]

Originally Posted by ihr

I want to get a sense of what's happened before... mostly because i want to know if rates will rise again soon.

There's no prior event in history on which to base a forecast.

Until the wider economic and financial (bank) issues are totally addressed. We will remain in unchartered waters.

Banks like consumers and Governments. Need to deleverage. So the BOE will continue to intervene to provide financial stability.

[ihr]

2015? Oh.

So this series of events is unique, but have rates been this low in the last few years? Or is the worst it has been?

[coastline]

Originally Posted by ihr

Does anyone know of a website/source of statistics showing how average instant access savings rates change over time?

I want to get a sense of what's happened before... mostly because i want to know if rates will rise again soon.

http://swanlowpark.co.uk/bank0604.jsp

[ihr]

Originally Posted by coastline

I couldn't quote the link because I'm a new user, but I liked it.

Brilliant! Thank you.... although, ugh. I wish I'd started saving before 2009.