What is the actual point in savings account interest?

Grumpy_chap

[Deleted User] said:

Hi,

£100 in my wee local pub buys me 33 pints,

Well over a fiver a pint in my local!

Back to the OP's question:
Without savings interest, lenders have no money to lend so businesses cannot grow and individuals cannot buy stuff so the economy crashes.
Savings interest is a low-risk form of "investment"
Higher risk forms of investment can give more back for the use of the £10k, but may lose the whole lot.  
In a round about way, all forms of investment are really paying a form of interest.  Take shares, for example, invest £10k in ABC Ltd., that is like giving £10k to the company and in return the company pays a dividend (like interest) and at the end of whenever, the original investor hopes to sell the shares to recover the original £10k or more (maybe less).

Tackkers

Grumpy_chap said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

£100 in my wee local pub buys me 33 pints,

Well over a fiver a pint in my local!

Back to the OP's question:
Without savings interest, lenders have no money to lend so businesses cannot grow and individuals cannot buy stuff so the economy crashes.
Savings interest is a low-risk form of "investment"
Higher risk forms of investment can give more back for the use of the £10k, but may lose the whole lot.  
In a round about way, all forms of investment are really paying a form of interest.  Take shares, for example, invest £10k in ABC Ltd., that is like giving £10k to the company and in return the company pays a dividend (like interest) and at the end of whenever, the original investor hopes to sell the shares to recover the original £10k or more (maybe less).

Probably the reason you're a Grumpy chap.

Thrugelmir

Grumpy_chap said:

[Deleted User] said:

Hi,

£100 in my wee local pub buys me 33 pints,

Well over a fiver a pint in my local!

Our bowls club is still £3 a pint. 

MX5huggy

Tackkers said:

So am I, mines far more than that even with the 25% reduction, presumably property is cheaper in Scotland?

Probably live in Westminster they’d have to be Band E before monthly bill gets to £100 with single person discount. 

[Deleted User]

Probably the reason you're a Grumpy chap.

Hi,

ach, after about three pints sure he'll be full of fun.

p00hsticks

Tackkers said:

So am I, mines far more than that even with the 25% reduction, presumably property is cheaper in Scotland?

House prices in different areas don't really have a direct relationship to council tax bills - the distribution of bands in the area may vary, but if two different local authorities need to raise the same amount of money and one has all it's properties in band A and the other has the same number of properties but all in Band G then the two sets of bills will be the same.

ndf9876

Returning to the original post....is the amount of interest I earn inconsequential? Well, for me personally, in the grand scheme of things and at the amounts of cash I save - reasonably, yes. I use my cash savings accounts as 'pots' to pay for large, generally planned expenses (holidays, car maintenance, that sort of thing) so there's never really a steady amount in the account to be generating loads anyway.

But what's the alternative? I'd rather *some* interest than none, of course - and keeping physical banknotes just isn't sensible in my opinion. So I'll opt for the savings account.

If the interest I accrue in a year earns enough for a night out, a few beers or whatever - that's grand, but it's by no means the main driver behind my decision to hold cash in easy-access savings accounts.

jbrassy

steampowered said:

You say "anyone who can afford to maintain £10000 in a savings account" like it is unusual.

The vast majority of people can afford to have £10k in a savings account.

Are you that same guy who was on Question Time before the election who said earning £80k a year doesn't put them in the top 5% of earners?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/50517136

I think you should consider these stats: https://blog.moneyfarm.com/en/investing-101/average-savings-by-age-in-the-uk-how-much-should-you-be-saving/

Section62

jbrassy said:

steampowered said:

You say "anyone who can afford to maintain £10000 in a savings account" like it is unusual.

The vast majority of people can afford to have £10k in a savings account.

Are you that same guy who was on Question Time before the election who said earning £80k a year doesn't put them in the top 5% of earners?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/50517136

I think you should consider these stats: https://blog.moneyfarm.com/en/investing-101/average-savings-by-age-in-the-uk-how-much-should-you-be-saving/

Perhaps there's a difference between "can afford to have" and "have" ?

MX5huggy

ndf9876 said:

But what's the alternative? I'd rather *some* interest than none, of course - and keeping physical banknotes just isn't sensible in my opinion. So I'll opt for the savings account.

For fear of over doing the topic on here, This is why I have premium bonds I’m happy to risk getting nothing (or just a bit less than expected) for the chance of getting a useful chunk more.