Exhausted trying to chase good rates

~Chameleon~

baby_boomer wrote: »

Don't worry.

There soon won't be any good rates to chase

Then we can all relax.

Quite!

I've made my last two applications today for a 1yr fixed acc plus a FRISA with BM, hoping at least one of them will still be accepting deposits when my Ice money arrives.

I've just about had enough now having spent far too many days feeling frazzled and worn out trying to sort all this out. I'm shortly going to pour myself a huge glass of vino and kick back with a bit of light browsing or a spot of tv

Cheers everyone, and thanks for all the advice offered across numerous threads over the past few weeks. Now go enjoy the rest of your weekend, it's well deserved! :beer: :A

dupuytren

In the application form for BM (access reward acct issue 2) it says that you have to put in an initial £1000 minimum to open the account, but you can top it up later as long as it is within 10 days of your first deposit apparently...as I've just moved money tonight via BACS I'm sending off £1000 tomorrow then the rest of my money on Thursday hopefully the BACS tranny would've been received by then..

Squibbler

baby_boomer wrote: »

Don't worry.

There soon won't be any good rates to chase

Then we can all relax.

Yes I for one am glad i have locked mine away because now i CANT move the money around any more. With the Kaupthing disaster and everything else, I've been shifting money around left right and centre the last few weeks, opening numerous instant access accounts only to find I've had to shift the money again into fixed bonds.

Lynt_3

God bless Egg (I think)
6.3% fixed fir a year from opening, and you can add/withdraw any time. Not a fixed bond as such though is it. They can't drop the rate, can they?? :eek:

~Chameleon~

Lynt wrote: »

God bless Egg (I think)
6.3% fixed fir a year from opening, and you can add/withdraw any time. Not a fixed bond as such though is it. They can't drop the rate, can they?? :eek:

Yes, it was a fixed rate for 12 mths from opening, thankfully! :T They've even pulled the new 6.55% one today so will have to check the new rates on that tomorrow as it was variable with a bonus of 2% I think.

ManAtHome

Intersting times approaching - troosers and badger coercing banks to drop savings rates leading to loads of cash being locked up for a year or two. Bank refinances of loans happening all the time, what could possibly go wrong

uzzah

Chasing rates-

This doesn't mean you have to chase them everytime there is a rate change or when every new account comes out.
I think to stop your self getting stressed, you should review your accounts one at a time, once a year. To do it in the present climate is silly as they all could change at any moment. Years ago before I become more interested in my money I was in an account paying 1.5% or something like that, that was very low. Doing a review makes sure this never happens again.

Squibbler

uzzah wrote: »

Chasing rates-

This doesn't mean you have to chase them everytime there is a rate change or when every new account comes out.
I think to stop your self getting stressed, you should review your accounts one at a time, once a year. To do it in the present climate is silly as they all could change at any moment. Years ago before I become more interested in my money I was in an account paying 1.5% or something like that, that was very low. Doing a review makes sure this never happens again.

Problem is - the recent crises have caused us all to chase rates.

I recently inherited a house which I managed to sell just prior to the collapse of the housing market. Originally, I just stashed the money in the Nationwide as we hoped to move ourselves imminently, but then there became no hope of that. So with talk of the credit crisis and the troubles with Northern Rock, people were advised to move max 35K chunks into separate financial institutions. I shopped around for best rates and moved a chunk into Kaupthing Edge. Then just one week later that went under and the 35K limit became 50K. The urgency to move the rest of the money out in 50K chunks increased and for haste I transferred the money into whatever accounts I could most quickly open, even if the rates weren't great, just for temporary protection. Was starting to look around for better rates when WHAM we get hit again by falling interest rates and there is a very urgent need to chase the best fixed rates possible.

So I don't believe what you say above makes sense at all in the current climate, though in stable times it would. We have all had to act very quickly in recent days, and some of us several times over. That's why we are exhausted!

arjar

It's not so much chasing rates that irritates me, it's having constantly to keep an eye out for deposit takers who suck in funds with attractive rates, then slash the rates, withdraw the account and open another (similar sounding) one and do it all again. They're profiting not just from inertia - but (IMHO), by deceiving people into thinking the rate advertised for the 'new' account is what they're still getting on the one they invested in. Just look at the long lists of desultory rates (some less than 1%) being paid on 'withdrawn accounts' on most Bank and BS websites to get a measure of this.

This is the sort of thing that new FSA regulation should stamp on.

uzzah

Squibbler wrote: »

Problem is - the recent crises have caused us all to chase rates.

I recently inherited a house which I managed to sell just prior to the collapse of the housing market. Originally, I just stashed the money in the Nationwide as we hoped to move ourselves imminently, but then there became no hope of that. So with talk of the credit crisis and the troubles with Northern Rock, people were advised to move max 35K chunks into separate financial institutions. I shopped around for best rates and moved a chunk into Kaupthing Edge. Then just one week later that went under and the 35K limit became 50K. The urgency to move the rest of the money out in 50K chunks increased and for haste I transferred the money into whatever accounts I could most quickly open, even if the rates weren't great, just for temporary protection. Was starting to look around for better rates when WHAM we get hit again by falling interest rates and there is a very urgent need to chase the best fixed rates possible.

So I don't believe what you say above makes sense at all in the current climate, though in stable times it would. We have all had to act very quickly in recent days, and some of us several times over. That's why we are exhausted!

Squibbler
You are right when you say we have had to do it to keep our own money safe, that is keeping under the £35,000 limit which is now £50,000.
So yes, I agree safety first.
But general chasing the rates, for the sake of a better rate is not OK at the moment because the rates are changing daily, so what might be a good rate today may not be tomorrow. when the market reaches some kind of norm' it may be OK to get an overall picture again.