NS&I claim "we're all about saving"

snigehere

It seems NS&I have some missing text on their web page.. it says "Saving. Nothing more, Nothing less" ... its missing the third part of the message ... Saving. Nothing more, Nothing less, Nothing in return"

I just received a marketing mail from NS&I with the subject "we're all about saving" and inside they claim "We're focused on savings".  I don't know how NS&I have the audacity to send such a mail having slashed savings rates to only just above zero from 24 november, well below many other providers.

The only savings on offer is the saving on paying any kind of interest.

eskbanker

No disagreeing with the sentiment about their mainstream savings products, but their Premium Bonds are increasingly competitive for those in a position to hold enough to make it worthwhile....

A._Badger

snigehere said:

It seems NS&I have some missing text on their web page.. it says "Saving. Nothing more, Nothing less" ... its missing the third part of the message ... Saving. Nothing more, Nothing less, Nothing in return"

I just received a marketing mail from NS&I with the subject "we're all about saving" and inside they claim "We're focused on savings".  I don't know how NS&I have the audacity to send such a mail having slashed savings rates to only just above zero from 24 november, well below many other providers.

The only savings on offer is the saving on paying any kind of interest.

Agreed. What worries me greatly is that it shows the government has abandoned any concept of encouraging people to save. This would be confirmed by a switch to negative interest rates, designed to nudge people into spending whatever they have and borrowing more..
While in the short term under current circumstances this may be deemed 'a good thing' (at least by Keynesians) in the long term a population that doesn't save for its own future is always going to be reliant on the government at one stage or another and I don't feel that is at all healthy.
Once lost, the 'savings habit' could take decades to re-learn.
. 


 

ischris85

snigehere said:

It seems NS&I have some missing text on their web page.. it says "Saving. Nothing more, Nothing less" ... its missing the third part of the message ... Saving. Nothing more, Nothing less, Nothing in return"

I just received a marketing mail from NS&I with the subject "we're all about saving" and inside they claim "We're focused on savings".  I don't know how NS&I have the audacity to send such a mail having slashed savings rates to only just above zero from 24 november, well below many other providers.

The only savings on offer is the saving on paying any kind of interest.

I received the same email and have the same sentiments.

dunstonh

To be fair, NS&I offer savings products.   So, they are all about savings.   They cannot help the position on interest rates at this time.

snigehere

eskbanker said:

No disagreeing with the sentiment about their mainstream savings products, but their Premium Bonds are increasingly competitive for those in a position to hold enough to make it worthwhile....

I have no idea "enough" might actually be to make it worthwhile.

snigehere

dunstonh said:

To be fair, NS&I offer savings products.   So, they are all about savings.   They cannot help the position on interest rates at this time.

Premimum bonds or junior isa.. the remainder are 0.15, 0.1 and 0.01  
Now.. maybe the other players in the market will also announce rate reductions in the coming weeks but so far ns&i are below others.. that does not seem to reflect a "focus on saving" 

george4064

eskbanker said:

No disagreeing with the sentiment about their mainstream savings products, but their Premium Bonds are increasingly competitive for those in a position to hold enough to make it worthwhile....

Out of interest, how much PBs does one have to buy to make it worthwhile?

Moe_The_Bartender

The government wants people to spend rather than save at the moment. That’s part of the reason why rates are so low.

A._Badger

Moe_The_Bartender said:

The government wants people to spend rather than save at the moment. That’s part of the reason why rates are so low.

This is widely understood. At best (and it would be a very poor best, IMHO) it would be a short term 'fix' - and one with potentially severe long term effects.  No artificially induced consumer boom (even if it worked, and the evidence in its favour is scant) is going to undo the financial mess the country is in. 

eskbanker

george4064 said:

eskbanker said:

No disagreeing with the sentiment about their mainstream savings products, but their Premium Bonds are increasingly competitive for those in a position to hold enough to make it worthwhile....

Out of interest, how much PBs does one have to buy to make it worthwhile?

There's no magic number as such, but with any bond having a 1 in 24,500 chance of winning a prize (pre-December) each month, that effectively means that for 24,500 holders of single bonds, only one will win a prize on average, whereas those with 24,500 are more likely to win than not on average, and those with the maximum holding of £50,000 should win two prizes with average luck.

MSE summarises this at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds/#tips-3

What you'll win over a year with average luck, based on the current 1.4% rate

NUMBER OF BONDS	MEDIAN AVERAGE WINNINGS	HOW MANY PEOPLE WIN NOWT
£100	Nothing	19 in 20 people win nowt
£1,000	Nothing	3 in 5 people win nowt
£15,000	£200	1 in 1,552 win nowt
£31,000	£400	1 in 3,929,349 win nowt

The mean average for any holding remains 1.4% but the range of likely outcomes becomes progressively smaller with larger holdings over long periods of time, meaning that a £50K holding over five years only has a 0.7% chance of winning less than 1% per year, whereas over one year that would be a 13% chance, while a £10K holding would have a 27% chance of a sub 1% return over a year.