What is it worth now? 21 Years Later?

prnapper

My husbands mum opened him a post office savings account back in 1990 with £40. it has not been touched since. Any idea what it is worth now?
We have sent it to the P/O to update and pay out but they can not tell us over the phone? the interest rates are below if anyone can work it out Please:T

2010 =2.80 2009=2.75 2008=5.00 2007=5.55 2006=4.68 2005=4.92 2004=4.56 2003=3.73 2002=4.00 2001=4.50 2000=5.00 1999=4.25 1998=6.00 1997=5.65 1996=4.75 1995=5.53 1994=5.31 1993=5.82 1992=8.65 1991=11.37 1990=14.23

ffacoffipawb

prnapper wrote: »

My husbands mum opened him a post office savings account back in 1990 with £40. it has not been touched since. Any idea what it is worth now?
We have sent it to the P/O to update and pay out but they can not tell us over the phone? the interest rates are below if anyone can work it out Please:T

2010 =2.80 2009=2.75 2008=5.00 2007=5.55 2006=4.68 2005=4.92 2004=4.56 2003=3.73 2002=4.00 2001=4.50 2000=5.00 1999=4.25 1998=6.00 1997=5.65 1996=4.75 1995=5.53 1994=5.31 1993=5.82 1992=8.65 1991=11.37 1990=14.23

If no tax on interest (or the rates above are net) say £127.
If taxed, say £101 (deducting 20% off the interest earned each year).

Assuming a full years interest to the end of 2010 (from 1990 to 2010 inclusive - 21 whole years).

Updating to now, I'd say £130 and £103 approximately.

Onawingandaprayer

A smidgeon over £100, after tax, i suspect. Unless my calculator (or brain) is faulty. Prob the latter!

prnapper

cool, will let you know! can't wait to find out :j

jimjames

What's it worth?

I took another slant at it. What is the value after inflation since 1990? To match inflation it would need to have been worth £68 now (according to site below)

http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/

So if those values above are correct then it has comfortably beaten inflation. I have to say I wasn't expecting that as I thought a basic account like that would have returned significantly less. Are those rates definitely what was paid for £40? 2.8% at the present time seems very high as the NS&I ordinary account and investment account only pay 0.2%. Having a static account for that length of time would seem to not be the way to get the best rate so I'm curious which account it was and where the interest rates quoted have come from.

EDIT: I've just found this link with rates on which appear to match exactly the rates quoted above.

http://swanlowpark.co.uk/bank0604.jsp

These are the average rates across the market. If this is the case then unfortunately I think you will be sadly disappointed. I would guess that you will get back less than £50 based on the current rates for NSI and therefore be getting back a lot less than inflation.

alanq

prnapper wrote: »

My husbands mum opened him a post office savings account back in 1990 with £40.
We have sent it to the P/O...

Isn't a Post Office Savings Bank account from 1990 a National Savings product? If so
It has nothing to do with the current Post Office bank (Bank Of Ireland) and should have been sent to NS&I.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Savings_and_Investments

National Savings Ordinary accounts allowed up to £70pa tax free.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/individuals/nsi.htm#ordinaryaccount

Ordinary Accounts were withdrawn several years ago. So likely to be classed as a Residual Account earning 0.10% BEFORE tax.
http://www.nsandi.com/savings-current-interest-rates#raccount

Lansdowne

It wasn't called a Post Office account in 1990, it changed to National Savings a lot earlier than that. Anyway if they sent the book to the address in the book that will do fine.

But I agree the interest will be very much smaller than the annual figures above. For example a leaflet from 2001 gives most accounts paying over 4%, Investment Account (grey covered book) over 3%, Ordinary account (blue book) 0.75%.