Gordon acts against savers again........

agent_orange_2

I have no mortgage and I have savings. But these are my thoughts.

On the whole, people with savings will save interest earned and gather bigger nesteggs.
Meanwhile, people with a mortgage and tight budgets will have more money to spend. These are the people who will buy things. Hopefully keeping people in work.

Lynt_3

Mikeyorks wrote: »

No sense at all. When you had a Mortgage did you have lots of saving alongside? If so .... why.

As post #2 ..... I've got to the stage in my life when I only have Savings and no debts. But I consider, in the current macro financial climate, that what is being done is for the greater good and, hopefully, the shorter duration. So I'll put up with it ........ far more readily than I do the myopia of threads such as this one.

Never had savings til now.

I think I'll just keep my (virtual) mouth shut from now on.

apt

I think that what RBS has been saying is entirely correct, although I have no idea whether they are actually following it in practice. This is 1. use the fall in rates and increased liquidity to keep up lending to business both in terms of volume and favourable rates. 2. Give time and space to those who cannot pay their mortgages because of unemployment. 3. Do not pass on the latest cut to the generality of mortgage holders. Those who are still in employment should be able to afford what are already fairly low mortgage rates and do not require further help/advantage.

Old_Slaphead

apt wrote: »

I think that what RBS has been saying is entirely correct, although I have no idea whether they are actually following it in practice. This is 1. use the fall in rates and increased liquidity to keep up lending to business both in terms of volume and favourable rates. 2. Give time and space to those who cannot pay their mortgages because of unemployment. 3. Do not pass on the latest cut to the generality of mortgage holders. Those who are still in employment should be able to afford what are already fairly low mortgage rates and do not require further help/advantage.

I apologise if my reading of this is incorrect but basically RBS are saying that savers should be paying (in the form of reduced interest rates) for the bankers mistakes & the profligacy of consumers (who are so feeble that they couldn't resist the offers of, what were at the time, very cheap loans to fund their aspirational lifestyle choices).

I agree with point 2 but then that seems common sense anyway.

apt

Savers have not really had to pay the cost of RBS's many mistakes. The shareholders have had that pleasure. Indeed, because RBS has been operating with insufficient capital RBS and NatWest have had to be more competitive on savings than usual hence the c. 2% bonuses on ISAs/e-savings. If they do not pass on the latest rate cut to borrowers presumably they will use this mainly to try to get more of the savings market compared to those following Gordon's Diktat though some might go on building up margins. The latter won't be popular, but is necessary for the banks to recover.

pattycake

When we were paying a mortgage it was at 15%. Now we are mortgage free with a good pot of savings but the income we can get from those savings is declining rapidly. Where is the justice in this? We have worked hard all our lives, paid our way and our taxes and now as we are approaching pension age our nestegg is being eroded to support people who just "wanted" without thought for how it was going to be paid for

Brown keeps harping on about supporting hard-working families. What about hard-working couples and pensioners with a life time of tax contributions behind them?

savetilibleed

Perhaps the government would rather have us blow our money so we have no savings at retirement, rather than to save (and hence pay tax on the interest, ISA's notwithstanding) so that when we do reach retirement and our pension isn't enough to live on, we have to claim pension credit and council tax benefit.

SGE1

h5djr wrote: »

I now have far more money in savings that I've ever had as a mortgage. The current policies seem to be aimed at people who have large mortgages, large credit card bills etc. Those of us who have none of these are paying the price for those who have.

Er, just to makes things clear, if you've got loads of cash saved up, are you seriously expecting the Government to help you out, as much as they're helping out those in financial trouble? And if you're not expecting that, are you therefore saying that you'd rather earn a bit more interest on your dosh, but watch thousands of people less fortunate than you suffer for it? Granted, some people have been living beyond their means, but don't you also think it's possible that the vast majority, who perhaps aren't quite as financially savvy as you, have got themselves into debt not as a result of living a life of luxury, but just making financial mistakes? Don't deserve a bit of help?

SGE1

pattycake wrote: »

When we were paying a mortgage it was at 15%. Now we are mortgage free with a good pot of savings but the income we can get from those savings is declining rapidly. Where is the justice in this? We have worked hard all our lives, paid our way and our taxes and now as we are approaching pension age our nestegg is being eroded to support people who just "wanted" without thought for how it was going to be paid for

Brown keeps harping on about supporting hard-working families. What about hard-working couples and pensioners with a life time of tax contributions behind them?

Hold on a minute... you're complaining, yet you've just stated that you are mortgage free and have a good pot of savings. Good for you, you've obviously managed your finances well - but do you honestly believe that you're the losers here?

I'm afraid I really don't feel sorry for you!

chookiembra

SGE1 wrote: »

Sorry but that makes no sense - that assumes that people have as large a pot of savings as they do mortgages. I'd like to meet that person!

Well, how do you do !

My savings are approx. 5 times greater than my mortgage (and I'm sure there are many others in a similar position).

And don't ask the silly question as to why I don't just pay off the mortgage.

Figure it out.