NS&I to cut premium bond rate and other accounts

Mee

Sailtheworld said:

It's about time. Not sure why the taxpayer was expected to be providing market leading interest rates to the already wealthy.

I wish I was wealthy!

ffacoffipawb

RetSol said:

I find it odd that the new rate of return on PBs has been set at 1%.  That's probably going to look like a "market leading" rate itself pretty soon and benefits the "wealthy" (ie those with no need of a predicable or regular return) over others. 

Let's face it, at 0.01% there wouldn't even be a million pound prize ...

There would have to be £120 billion invested just to pay out one £1m prize a month at 0.01% interest (and no other prizes) and I believe there was only £85 billion held in Premium Bonds in December last year.

ffacoffipawb

I have just asked to withdraw all my Income bonds as I may as well try to get something better whilst it is available.

Someone with £100,000 is currently getting around £96 per month in interest.

In November this falls to less than £1 per month.

To get 1p in interest in a month you need a holding of £1,200. Their e-mail states no monthly interest if you hold less than £646. Maybe interest is rounded up to the higher penny.

Sailtheworld

whitesmith said:

Is there not the other argument that if you suddenly find you are getting a lot less income (interest) then you cut back on your spending?

Maybe but if deposit interest is providing a significant amount of income then there's a substantial pot in the background to dip into.

Rates have been falling for a long long time - I sort of doubt there are many people living on deposit interest anyway. Seems a bit old fashioned and inefficient.

Sailtheworld

Mee said:

Sailtheworld said:

It's about time. Not sure why the taxpayer was expected to be providing market leading interest rates to the already wealthy.

I wish I was wealthy!

You're wealthy enough that you don't need the taxpayer to top up your savings for you. 

People are delighted when the government give them other people's money; somewhat less happy when it stops.

xylophone

 I sort of doubt there are many people living on deposit interest anyway. Seems a bit old fashioned and inefficient.

There may be a lot of people who use it as a boost to income - perhaps those on modest pensions who cannot risk loss to capital ( ignoring the inflation aspect) and so use it to earn a little extra for treats etc?

jelv

Has anyone seen any indications of what is likely to happen to the £85,000 FSCS limit after January 1st? Might have to bear this in mind when deciding where to put my money when I take it all out of NS&I Income Bonds.

Sailtheworld

xylophone said:

 I sort of doubt there are many people living on deposit interest anyway. Seems a bit old fashioned and inefficient.

There may be a lot of people who use it as a boost to income - perhaps those on modest pensions who cannot risk loss to capital ( ignoring the inflation aspect) and so use it to earn a little extra for treats etc?

I would've thought we're talking about a minority at one end of the bell curve. My grandmother would've cut back on the treats despite having plenty of cash on deposit. Some people are like that.

RyanHello

What a bunch of crooks

strawb_shortcake

thegentleway said:

annabanana82 said:

thegentleway said:

annabanana82 said:

thegentleway said:

nbrewitt said:

Sailtheworld said:

It's about time. Not sure why the taxpayer was expected to be providing market leading interest rates to the already wealthy.

Irresponsible comment, not all NS&I savers would class themselves as wealthy by any means 

Sorry but I think you are grossly underestimating what is means to be weathly by world standards. Please note that

Nearly Half the World Lives on Less than $5.50 a Day

This value is adjusted to reflects standards in upper-middle-income countries. So yeah, if you are an NS&I saver then you are very wealthy.
Check out: https://howrichami.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i if you want to find out how rich you are compared to the rest of the world.

I'm not sure of the relevance of world wealthy in this context. According to the link only 16% of the world is wealthier than me, but I can hardly up sticks and move somewhere poor to live like a Queen.
It also says I can give £15000 away a year and still be richer than many, and the £15k is more than I'd have left for myself!! It also neglects the fact that  I couldn't bring up my family on what I had left living in the UK

Hi annabanan82,
The relevance is that nbrewitt wrote “not all NS&I savers would class themselves as wealthy by any means”
Sorry but the calculator is either playing up or you’ve made an error in the numbers you’ve posted. The giving what you can pledge is only 10% of income so if it’s suggested you donate £15k then than means you’ve entered you earn £150k, which easily puts you in the top 1% earners world-wide (not 16% or even 1.6% assuming you missed a decimal point).

I don’t know what you earn so difficult to come on whether you’d be able to bring up your family but for context Toby Ord brings up his family on income of £18k per year (he donates what he earns above £18k).
Thanks for commenting and hope you found the calculator helpful.

Just checked again, it now says to give 10% of my income away which is nowhere near £15k.
But no, I don't find it a particularly helpful tool, I think it's a tool to try and make people feel guilty about having money.

I'm really sorry to hear you didn't find it helpful. It's really not designed to make people feel guilty at all. I really like it because it makes me feel lucky; I naively thought it would have a similar positive effect in others. Some of my friends complain about the 1% so it's a bit of an eye opener for some of them to realise they are in fact in the 1%!
Do you know how I could approach the topic without making people feel guilty? It's really not my intention. People often think they or somebody they know are not wealthy by any means. I find the calculator really useful to illustrate but I don't want to make them feel guilty. Thanks for your help.

But it doesn't change an individual's position, it doesn't meaningfully put our lives into context with a family living in Indian slums for arguments sake. We all know there are people far worse off than ourselves, likewise there are people with with far more money than I can ever dream of having nevermind earning.
I don't feel less lucky than the super rich and I don't feel lucky because someone is poorer than me.
Those that are in worse situations than myself their annual income may not even factor in my reasoning for me considering them as such. 

My job sees me contributing to national and sometimes global communities. 
My personal life I volunteer to support my local community. I value this far higher than donating 10% of my salary elsewhere