Sick to death of interest chasing with same banks

isofa

TBH I've not had time to chase the rates recently, at the moment I'm happy to be "losing" a couple of % until rates truly pickup more and I lock away at far better rates. However I do have some savings still at 7% fixed rates.

I've held onto a Tesco one, and been "rewarded" with a new 12 month bonus via letter as many other have.

LOL at DM readers, can't disagree with you there!

treecity

nilrem wrote: »

As you say they fall over backwards to attract new customers and business but once they have you they don't seem to care less yet it often results in them losing the new accounts that they made effort to attract in the first place, seems ludicrous to me, when I run my own business we made sure that we looked after our loyal customers as well as trying to attract new ones.:)

As a business owner also, I totally agree.

jack_spratt_2

Ste_C wrote: »

People who chase interest rates are idiots and need to get out more.

Chasing an half or 1% is pointless. So you might make an extra £10-20 or so a year - whoodee!!!!indoo.

And if you've got enough saved up to earn more than that then you need to stop being tighter than a camels backside and spend some of it.

You have obviously no idea how many of the accounts work !!

Many investors who locked there money into fixed rate accounts a year ago (idiots as you describe them) paying intrest rates at 6.5% now have dropped to 0.5% so are you suggesting that they do not bother looking round for a decent paying account now the fixed period has finished ???
With limiting your accounts to £50,000 per institution may mean more than one account to change and with investors tending to stagger there fixed term periods .

Also people on a fixed income may use there savings income to supplement there income and can and does make a big difference to there living standards .

You seem to miss the point that many people with a decent amount of savings have achieved this by being careful over the years !! at the end of day its down to the individual but because someone tries to make the best use of there savings do not deserved to be called idiots these idiots have probably provided the funds for your mortgage

nilrem_2

jack_spratt wrote: »

Also people on a fixed income may use there savings income to supplement there income and can and does make a big difference to there living standards .

You seem to miss the point that many people with a decent amount of savings have achieved this by being careful over the years !! at the end of day its down to the individual but because someone tries to make the best use of there savings do not deserved to be called idiots these idiots have probably provided the funds for your mortgage

True,I actually live entirely off interest from my savings (apart from a small private pension paying £147 per month) I have been able to do this by careful savings mostly using fixed rate accounts and always watching interest rates and moving my money into better paying accounts where necessary, I suppose I could be termed a 'rate tart', I have seen a large decrease in my income since the BOE rate 'crash' but it is still possible to get some reasonable rates by shifting about a bit.

Arthurian

treecity wrote: »

So you think closing accounts and opening the exact same accounts with the same bank or building society is a good thing?

I think they can only offer special deals to a limited number of customers, using the profits they make on the mass of lower-interest-bearing accounts. If everyone automatically got the better rate, that rate would have to be lower. So it is a good thing for those who need a better rate. Personally, I'd rather spend a few hours in front of my computer screen organising my finances than an hour mending roads in the rain or being pressured to meet unrealistic sales targets or whatever else it takes to earn a few pounds.

jack_spratt_2

The thing that really is annoying is when a bank or building society offer a new product just to new money into a institution !! I find this even harder to except when it is a building society which is supposed to be run for the benefit of its members

Rich1976

To be honest most banks and building societies play this game. Its the same with insurance companies offering the best quotesd to new customers. They drag them in and when they have raised enogh new business they'll change the rates.

This is the problem you will find when always chasing the best rates. I always prefer to stick with providers or accounts where they offer a consistently good rate which may not be the best on the market as you can virtually guarantee they won't reduce rates at a moments notice

rb10

Rich1976 wrote: »

To be honest most banks and building societies play this game. Its the same with insurance companies offering the best quotesd to new customers. They drag them in and when they have raised enogh new business they'll change the rates.

I agree completely with this. And the same with mobile companies, internet, ... and so on.

Rich1976 wrote: »

This is the problem you will find when always chasing the best rates. I always prefer to stick with providers or accounts where they offer a consistently good rate which may not be the best on the market as you can virtually guarantee they won't reduce rates at a moments notice

But if you want to be sure of a good rate, you still have to keep an eye on it. Take Nationwide's e-savings account, once this was right at the top of the list, and had the 'Most Consistent Savings Account' title from one of the comparison sites. Now, it pays 0.45%.

Rich1976

rb10 wrote: »

I agree completely with this. And the same with mobile companies, internet, ... and so on.



But if you want to be sure of a good rate, you still have to keep an eye on it. Take Nationwide's e-savings account, once this was right at the top of the list, and had the 'Most Consistent Savings Account' title from one of the comparison sites. Now, it pays 0.45%.

Absolutely and of course if the rate drops to something uncompetitive like Nationwide's then it pays to move it.

I have an Internet Saver with the Yorkshire BS and although it only pays 1.6% after tax, I know that they have played fair over the last couple of years. It might not be the best rate on the market but its far from the worse.

zaksmum

I think you owe it to yourself to get the best possible interest rate on your savings.

It's a total pain having to open and close accounts, but sadly necessary or we're getting ripped off.

I had an account with Halifax which I opened 18 months ago paying 6% and when the interest dropped to something like 0.001% I opted to move it to Halifax's 2.6% easy access account. Simple enough, you'd think. But no, I had to make an appointment for a week ahead, put up with the financial adviser I stressed I didn't want to see arriving half an hour late, then be hassled about "investments" I didn't want.

Finally had to close one account and open another with masses of form filling...they even asked how much a month I spend on food!!

No wonder we're all sick to death of it all.