Santander considering dropping rate...

Holmesy999

badger09 wrote: »

And exactly where would you recommend EVERYONE move their cash to?

buy bank shares! the hoo ha must mean they are making megggggga profits:p

Ifts

techwatcher wrote: »

Whether the Santander account remains worthwhile depends on what other banks choose to do with their interest-paying current accounts and their savings accounts.

1.5% may sound "a bit rubbish" now but come November it still may be competitive - time will tell.

I'm going to wait until Santander reduce their rates and see whats on offer then.

Yesterday when I heard the Santander rate cut to 1.5% I was thinking I will ditch one of my 123 accounts and keep the other one as with the cash-back itl still be ok for me, and will place the money from the closed 123 account in my RCI account currently paying 1.45%.

That was yesterday and today I received this from RCI:

Dear Mr X,

You may have heard that the Bank of England recently reduced the UK base rate by 0.25% to 0.25%, which puts pressure on rates for all banks.

Your Freedom Savings Account offers easy access savings with a variable rate. Like other banks, we’ve had to reconsider the variable rate we’re able to offer customers since the base rate change. As a result we have changed the rate on our Freedom Savings Account for new customers to 1.20% AER variable.

However, we will hold your current rate of 1.45% AER variable until 16 October 2016, after which the new rate of 1.20% AER gross variable will apply. This rate remains among the top easy access accounts available.

So like you say come November it still may be competitive.

AnotherJoe

2010 wrote: »

Keep until end of October and then EVERYONE should ditch it as a kick up the ar*e.

My heart bleeds for these banks that are still making millions despite paying so-called "high intestest".

Santander profits for first quarter of this year £532 million.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/27/santanders-uk-profits-jump-as-mortgage-lending-surges/

Hmm, looks like instead of cutting off your nose to spite your face by moving your money somewhere it will likely earn even less interest, ( by November no doubt everyone else's rates will be even lower) you'd be better off buying shares in them?

And bigger picture, once people have enough for rainy day savings, looks like best strategy is the simple one of overpaying the mortgage. If you have one of course.

adonis10

AnotherJoe wrote: »

And bigger picture, once people have enough for rainy day savings, looks like best strategy is the simple one of overpaying the mortgage. If you have one of course.

Interested to see what people class as a good 'rainy day' savings pot. Obviously it is all relative to their assets and liabilities so, for context, probably good to give an indication of what they are, too.


I ask because I'm at the stage where I've got about 50k in savings with 150k mortgage at 2.14% (joint with partner) and currently have around £800/month to save/invest/overpay mortgage, after all bills etc. Pretty much exhausted all the good rates in terms of current accounts.

chelseablue

adonis10 wrote: »

Interested to see what people class as a good 'rainy day' savings pot. Obviously it is all relative to their assets and liabilities so, for context, probably good to give an indication of what they are, too.


I ask because I'm at the stage where I've got about 50k in savings with 150k mortgage at 2.14% (joint with partner) and currently have around £800/month to save/invest/overpay mortgage, after all bills etc. Pretty much exhausted all the good rates in terms of current accounts.

6 months of living expenses seems to be a good amount to have.


We both work full time so if one of us lost our jobs we could live on one persons wage for a while and top it up from the emergency fund.


6 months worth of mortgage and nursery fees for us is £8,900 and I currently have £10,500 saved.


Want to get that up to a nice round £12k then start putting into my S&S ISA

teddysmum

With savings rates being so pathetically low (except for the limited amounts in current accounts), Premium Bonds become attractive.


The tiny amount of interest lost won't be missed and there's always the fun of checking if/what you've won each month. (Lottery without losing your stake.)

schiff

teddysmum wrote: »

With savings rates being so pathetically low (except for the limited amounts in current accounts), Premium Bonds become attractive.


The tiny amount of interest lost won't be missed and there's always the fun of checking if/what you've won each month. (Lottery without losing your stake.)

I know, it's such a problem owning money

adonis10

teddysmum wrote: »

With savings rates being so pathetically low (except for the limited amounts in current accounts), Premium Bonds become attractive.


The tiny amount of interest lost won't be missed and there's always the fun of checking if/what you've won each month. (Lottery without losing your stake.)

That's what I thought when I figured I could only get decent rates on about 37.5k so thought I may as well take a punt on another 5k premium bonds rather than a 1% account; only need 2x£25 to make it worthwhile. That said, I've had 2.5k for about 5 years and only ever won 2x£25 in that time!!

JohnRo

teddysmum wrote: »

The tiny amount of interest lost won't be missed and there's always the fun of checking if/what you've won each month. (Lottery without losing your stake.)

The buying power of the Great British Pound has shrunk by more than 90% over the last forty odd years. Without looking for the numbers I suspect your chances of winning anything decent with premium bonds to compensate that loss has experienced a similar fate.

foxathome

It's really bad for us pensioners who live on savings interest. We have three 1-2-3 accounts maxed out to £20k each. Last year before the monthly charge this was bringing us £1,800. (rounded up) In November with the monthly charge and the rate reduction to 1.5% we can look forward to a measly £720 (again rounded up).
The worse part is that it is still the best around. Looks like bread and dripping for us next year.