no decent returns anywhere fed up :(

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Just fancied a moan really, I've been whizzing around on the web trying in vain to find a decent return on potential savings pot and its absolute cr*p!
The banks are tying us up in knots it appears by reeling us in with 3% here and there with clauses such as 'buy an investment product to the value blah blah blah..' or rate goes to .10% after a year...
What the hell is going on???? What happened to the good old days of nipping down to the local bank/bs and having a chat with some kindly old bloke who would advise you on sensible things to do with your money? Did I dream it or did it really happen? I remember taking 10p to school once a week for the school bank to encourage us nippers to save our pennies, what is the world coming to?

they've got us all by the short and curlies...rant over

ps if anyone sees any accounts going for over 5% no strings, drop us a pm

Lokolo

Have you not seen the Base Rate?

tonycarew

I think the AA's offering 4.5% for a five year fix,not bad if you don't mind tying your money up for a while.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Lokolo wrote: »

Have you not seen the Base Rate?

I know, like I say, just having a moan

Nikel

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

What the hell is going on????

Perhaps they want to discourage saving.

flossy_splodge

Well, they dont raise revenue (like VAT etc) on sensible saving do they? They're not as mad as we think;)
And please dont anyone tell me vat is not charged on savings or i'll cry.

soulsaver

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

I know, like I say, just having a moan

A moaning, desperate housewife.... ?

jonnyb

With rates so low, stocks and shares is the better option, in my opinion, depending on when you expect to need the funds.

Pick some "safe" FTSE100 companies, and invest in a stocks and shares ISA.
I'm using Selftrade, but III or Hargreaves Lansdown also allow self select ISA's I think.

Research companies who pay, or are likely to pay, a dividend of around 5%, and off you go.

I'm putting money away for my kids in an ISA, currently in Vodafone and Aviva, but will also be looking at United Utilities and maybe Tesco (Tesco divi is a bit low, but they are a safe bet in my opinion).

Or you could have taken a risk with some AIM stocks - I made 140% on XEL this financial year, and 200% on Range Resources. Just a bit of time researching can reap big rewards. I have lost a few small amounts on other stocks, but am still up massively this year, and I was a novice 18 months ago.

melbury

jonnyb wrote: »

With rates so low, stocks and shares is the better option, in my opinion, depending on when you expect to need the funds.

Pick some "safe" FTSE100 companies, and invest in a stocks and shares ISA.
I'm using Selftrade, but III or Hargreaves Lansdown also allow self select ISA's I think.

Research companies who pay, or are likely to pay, a dividend of around 5%, and off you go.

I'm putting money away for my kids in an ISA, currently in Vodafone and Aviva, but will also be looking at United Utilities and maybe Tesco (Tesco divi is a bit low, but they are a safe bet in my opinion).

Or you could have taken a risk with some AIM stocks - I made 140% on XEL this financial year, and 200% on Range Resources. Just a bit of time researching can reap big rewards. I have lost a few small amounts on other stocks, but am still up massively this year, and I was a novice 18 months ago.

That sounds brilliant, but how did you get started on finding out which companies pay 5% dividends and which AIM companies are hot tips and likely to fly?

jonnyb

simple research on google for 5% payers.

see this link as one example :
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing/article.html?in_article_id=497525&in_page_id=166

and this one :
http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/company-comment/2010/06/07/5-dividend-darlings.aspx

For the AIM companies I trawled discussion boards like III.co.uk and LSE.co.uk, plus motley fool. Had an idea of the type of industries that would be good (oil, gold, mineral) and started to research. including the companies own websites.

Housebear51

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

Just fancied a moan really, I've been whizzing around on the web trying in vain to find a decent return on potential savings pot and its absolute cr*p!
The banks are tying us up in knots it appears by reeling us in with 3% here and there with clauses such as 'buy an investment product to the value blah blah blah..' or rate goes to .10% after a year...
What the hell is going on???? What happened to the good old days of nipping down to the local bank/bs and having a chat with some kindly old bloke who would advise you on sensible things to do with your money? Did I dream it or did it really happen? I remember taking 10p to school once a week for the school bank to encourage us nippers to save our pennies, what is the world coming to?

they've got us all by the short and curlies...rant over

ps if anyone sees any accounts going for over 5% no strings, drop us a pm

Buy silver bullion. 80% return last yr, looking like it will continue next few years.