Interest rates cut to 0.25% from 0.5% discussion

jimjames

BOBS wrote: »

Is there really any point putting money into a savings account anymore - would do as well under the mattress !!!

Not if you actually look for decent rates.
You can also get income of 3-4% if you look at equities.

Nick_C

Kit1 wrote: »

I remember having to work harder to pay my mortgage when it was 14/15/16% and there was no help then.

Was that after MIRAS was scrapped?

Kit1 wrote: »

We are the generation who have been stuffed by the government every time. We have to work longer for our pension when will we get our break?

I don't know what generation you are, but I'm from the generation who benefited from excellent secondary schools, free higher education, student grants, affordable house prices when I bought my first home, and I will get a pension at 66 and probably draw it for 25 years.

It's the young I feel sorry for.

Nick_C

jimjames wrote: »

Not if you actually look for decent rates.
You can also get income of 3-4% if you look at equities.

And the rest, when you factor in the capital gains. My portfolio, over the last eight years, had been equivalent to an annual interest rate of over 15%. After tax!

Ballard

Kit1 wrote: »

I remember having to work harder to pay my mortgage when it was 14/15/16% and there was no help then. Now l have paid of my mortgage and again l have to suffer, We are the generation who have been stuffed by the government every time. We have to work longer for our pension when will we get our break?

Surely you'd have benefitted from MIRAS.

Eco_Miser

beecher2 wrote: »

I am sick of having to continually work out where to put my money, and having deals come to an end after a year.

So are we all, but that has been the way to get the best rates for as long as I can remember - which is a very long time.

There is an alternative, dump it all into NS&I at 1% and forget about trying for better deals.

Doshwaster

BOBS wrote: »

Is there really any point putting money into a savings account anymore - would do as well under the mattress !!!

Another purpose of a savings account is to keep your money safe. Even if banks were charging negative interest rates I would still keep my money with them as I wouldn't feel comfortable having thousands of pounds worth of cash in the house in case of fire or theft. Do you think your insurance company would believe you if you claimed for £10,000 being stolen from under your mattress?

Glen_Clark

Nick_C wrote: »

I'm currently borrowing money from Santander at 2.5% and lending it back to them at 3% :-)

You're being robbed I'm borrowing from Nationwide at 0% (Credit Card) and lending it back to them at 5% (Current Account and Regular Saver) - all without any fees

Glen_Clark

More significant than the 0.25% cut is the £100bn they propose to print and lend to the banks so they won't need money from retail savers.

Aretnap

Doshwaster wrote: »

Do you think your insurance company would believe you if you claimed for £10,000 being stolen from under your mattress?

Most home insurance policies will only cover a fairly small amount of cash kept in the house (say £500 or so), so it wouldn't really matter whether they believed you or not - they wouldn't have to pay either way.

If you wanted insurance which did cover large amounts of cash you'd have to pay top dollar for a high net worth policy. You'd also probably have to keep your money in (and therefore buy) a proper safe, not just leave it under the bed. So keeping it in the bank at zero or even slightly negative rates would still be the cheaper option.

Of course, you could always just spend your money instead, or invest it in something more productive for the wider economy than a bank account - which is sort of what the interest rate cut is trying to achieve.

Nick_C

Glen_Clark wrote: »

You're being robbed I'm borrowing from Nationwide at 0% (Credit Card) and lending it back to them at 5% (Current Account and Regular Saver) - all without any fees

Me too. I've got a further interest free debt on my Tesco CC. But you can borrow more on a mortgage than you can on a credit card.