Savers facing accounts with no interest

opinions4u

RayWolfe wrote: »

Without reading the Torygraph report, it does seem like another ridiculous scare story!
It won't happen. Rates will get low bet you will never have to pay to have a savings account. Two seconds thought will tell you why.

Then again, low balance/high transaction accounts do the banks little good.

They could charge for counter withdrawals etc and suffer no financial loss if the account is then closed.

opinions4u

Lynt wrote: »

Just been watching guy from Moneybox (R4) on BBC news. He says that lending between banks is much cheaper now, and so they don't need our money.

They do. Just not as much as they did.

I would be pretty sure that most banks will not want to rely on unstable wholesale markets for any significant chunk of their future lending.

Lessons will, hopefully, have been learned.

But less reliance on wholesale funds = less lending/risk taking = lower future economic growth.

Andrew64

According to this Financial Times article, it is already happening. I don't think that saving rates will go to 0%, but 1% or less is not very thrilling.

UK savings rates cut to 0.1%

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5450176-d918-11dd-ab5f-000077b07658.html

nilrem_2

Lynt wrote: »

Just been watching guy from Moneybox (R4) on BBC news. He says that lending between banks is much cheaper now, and so they don't need our money.

So where do the banks that lend the money out get it from if savers remove their cash?

alared

Any bank account paying less than 1% should be closed and the money taken out.
If enough people adopted this attitude and large amounts of cash were withdrawn the banks would soon start paying a decent rate.
While the still greedy banks are only paying 1% or less,they are using this cheap money to make a damn sight more.

DRAW IT OUT and put it under the bed.

nilrem_2

alared wrote: »

DRAW IT OUT and put it under the bed.

Or do the sensible thing and keep savings you don't need ATM in a Fixed rate account that pays a decent return!

TehJumpingJawa

Spend all of your savings by filling your cellar with bottled water, UHT milk & long-life food stuffs; the end is nigh!:eek:

jimbow25

Andrew64 wrote: »

According to this Financial Times article, it is already happening. I don't think that saving rates will go to 0%, but 1% or less is not very thrilling.

UK savings rates cut to 0.1%

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5450176-d918-11dd-ab5f-000077b07658.html

Some banks always quietly drop their rates on old accounts- at the expense of the brand new accounts being advertised. Nothing has changed in this respect. If your bank is offering this sort of rate, you should shift your money to a better account, don't assume this sort of rate is normal. E.g. Halifax's famously rubbish Liquid Gold "savings account" is now 0.1% but it was only 0.25% before 1st December when 6%+ was available instant access- this sort of rate change is hardly the credit crunch biting, more like a bad account getting a tiny bit worse.

When banks start advertising rates of less than 1% you'll know savers are in deep trouble.

alared

nilrem wrote: »

Or do the sensible thing and keep savings you don't need ATM in a Fixed rate account that pays a decent return!

WHERE ???????????????????????????

Geoff_W

jimbow25 wrote: »

When banks start advertising rates of less than 1% you'll know savers are in deep trouble.

Well, Natwest advertise their e-Savings account with the following words....

"...a rewarding rate of 1.30% AER (variable)" :eek:

Geoff