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Low interest rates on savings

teuchter I think the advice at the moment is to lock in the best rate you can get now should rates keep rising. If rates fall you can switch to the more favourable rate.
 
I suspect it does matter if if you’re going to shift providers, because the amount of admin now involved in giving out a mortgage is large and takes a while to complete. Last time, I started the process several months in advance and they still didn’t finish their paperwork in time for the expiry of my existing deal. On the other hand, if you’re sticking with the same provider then they can update your mortgage deal pretty much overnight (which is what I then did instead, with one day to go).

I'd not be switching provider.

teuchter I think the advice at the moment is to lock in the best rate you can get now should rates keep rising. If rates fall you can switch to the more favourable rate.

Surely the point of locking into something now is that you can't then change your mind if something better comes up.
 
The pricing of mortgage products is always on the basis of current expectations of future economic conditions, including expected changes in those conditions. If you could know for certain that it was better to wait or act now then you could arbitrage that knowledge and make money just by playing the options off against each other. If the pricing is efficient, that arbitrage isn’t possible because the chance of it being better to wait is balanced by the chance of it being worse to wait.

So that’s a long winded way of saying that there’s only a meaningful decision to be made if you believe that this bank’s economic forecasting is incorrect, in which case you should bet in the direction you think they are wrong. If you have no opinion on their forecasting, it won’t help you to agonise about what to do.
 
I suppose that part of what I'm wondering is whether they'll start offering me worse deals once they reckon it's too late for me to think of switching provider.
 
I've not known lenders to offer customised targeted rates for individual customers. IME the one rate offered by your lender for your LTV bracket and type of deal (FTB, remortgage, deal switch, fix/tracker etc) is the rate you get. The only reason you'll see that rate change is if they are revising their rates for everyone.
 
I've not known lenders to offer customised targeted rates for individual customers. IME the one rate offered by your lender for your LTV bracket and type of deal (FTB, remortgage, deal switch, fix/tracker etc) is the rate you get. The only reason you'll see that rate change is if they are revising their rates for everyone.
I'm not complaining, but it seems they are missing a trick. I originally got my mortgage when I was conventionally employed and could easily demonstrate a reasonable salary. That's no longer the case, which is why I've never bothered trying to switch to another provider - I expect it would be pretty hard for me to get anything. It means that my current provider pretty much have me captive. They don't know that but they would if they asked me a few questions at each renewal. It's surprising to me, because with that information they could charge me significantly higher rates - I'd not have much option.
 
I'm not complaining, but it seems they are missing a trick. I originally got my mortgage when I was conventionally employed and could easily demonstrate a reasonable salary. That's no longer the case, which is why I've never bothered trying to switch to another provider - I expect it would be pretty hard for me to get anything. It means that my current provider pretty much have me captive. They don't know that but they would if they asked me a few questions at each renewal. It's surprising to me, because with that information they could charge me significantly higher rates - I'd not have much option.
It would be hard for them to apply that kind of pricing discrimination on expiry of the initial deal without falling foul of their Consumer Duty requirements. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but they’d need to jump through a lot of hoops. The requirements of mortgage providers are described by the FCA in this letter to firms:


Note that they have to take care of the consumer over the life of the product, make sure they aren’t causing unnecessary financial hardship and are creating products with the consumer interest in mind. Basically, it’s baked in when they sell you the mortgage in the first place that they’re going to be responsible for your mortgage product until its extinction.
 
I'm not complaining, but it seems they are missing a trick. I originally got my mortgage when I was conventionally employed and could easily demonstrate a reasonable salary. That's no longer the case, which is why I've never bothered trying to switch to another provider - I expect it would be pretty hard for me to get anything. It means that my current provider pretty much have me captive. They don't know that but they would if they asked me a few questions at each renewal. It's surprising to me, because with that information they could charge me significantly higher rates - I'd not have much option.
Speak to London and Country.
 
Yes - but after my Icesave experience I will avoid.
I was caught by IceSave as well

TBF, we all got put right by the FSCS after a few weeks - I got a check of the balance plus accrued interest along with a certificate or something that allowed me to pay it into an other ISA provider

FSCS is a good thing. ( by contrast, my mother had some sort of ISA though the Isle of Man for some reason (Kaupthing I think) - Took her over a year to get her money back
 
I was caught by IceSave as well

TBF, we all got put right by the FSCS after a few weeks - I got a check of the balance plus accrued interest along with a certificate or something that allowed me to pay it into an other ISA provider

FSCS is a good thing. ( by contrast, my mother had some sort of ISA though the Isle of Man for some reason (Kaupthing I think) - Took her over a year to get her money back
After Gordon Brown threatened to send inn the gun boats to Rekjavik!
 
Britain & gunboats and Iceland - its a habit
Funnily enough in my first student year we had a coupe of Icelandic guys on the course - in the middle of the Cod War. Kind of like a whale in the room!
 
City AM today highlighted Ford Money as a top payer on instant access and term savings accounts.
The website has an FCS kite mark, but no statement about funds guaranteed to £85,000 or whatever.
There is an FCS checker which gives it the all clear: Bank & Savings Protection Checker
The deposits are clearly for car loans. Hardly the most environmental saving accounts.
 
This might be the wrong thread for it, but I like to spread knowledge of Help To Save.

You can get a help to save account if you're on working tax credit (as a legacy claimant - I still get a little disability tax credit so was able to apply) or universal credit and you're in work and earning over the amount in the link, or you get child tax credit.

It's not based on "interest" technically, but if you keep the money in there for two years, you get 50% of your savings paid as a "bonus." So it's effectively a 50% interest rate. If you keep paying in for another two years, you get another 50% bonus. Four years is the max.

You can only pay in up to £50 a month, but there's no penalty (apart from a lower bonus) if you don't pay in, and it's easy to take the money out if you have to. Plus you still get a bonus for whatever you highest amount was, so if you pay in £500 and then have to withdraw it, you'll still get £250 tax-free after the two years is up.

And if you come off WTC, UC or child tax credit you can still keep paying in to the help to save account and get the same bonuses.

Basically if you're on a low income and managing to save money, even if the reason you're saving money is because you know you're probably going to have to replace your fridge or whatever in a few months and then withdraw the money, it'd be worth saving it in a Help to Save account.

 
3.82% Instant access is decent.

I have chip and have been pleased it’s them.

I currently have a fair old wedge of cash in an ISA achieving fuck all, but I’ve noticed Skipton customers can take out a regular saver account that pays 7.5% at the moment…….. but my ISA is tax free and I don’t understand if I put money into the Skipton how that effects my tax.

I’ve got a vanguard S&S ISA im averaging about 8% on at the moment too.
 
Just a gentle reminder that we have another thread for discussing what to do with your money. Probably better to direct your questions there rather than taking this thread off-topic. Plenty of insights already on that thread too

Forget that!
 
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Just a gentle reminder that we have another thread for discussing what to do with your money. Probably better to direct your questions there rather than taking this thread off-topic. Plenty of insights already on that thread too
Which thread is that?
There has been a lot of advice in this thread too.
 
You can currently get an instant access savings account with Santander that allows you to save up to £250k (IIRC) and pays something like 5.1%. That’s a lot better than anything equivalent on the market right now.
 
8% with Nationwide at the moment. You can't transfer a balance in and it's a max of £200 per month, but it still seems good. You can have three withdrawals a year losing the interest rate.
 
I've had my ISA for two and a half years now and it's lost money. And it still keeps showing me this graph with a line going up saying your money is predicted to get to £xxxxx by 2033!!!

Ive just got it in a fully managed Nutmeg, am I doing something wrong? I'm going to shift it into a cash ISA otherwise. This is stupid.
 
I've had my ISA for two and a half years now and it's lost money. And it still keeps showing me this graph with a line going up saying your money is predicted to get to £xxxxx by 2033!!!

Ive just got it in a fully managed Nutmeg, am I doing something wrong? I'm going to shift it into a cash ISA otherwise. This is stupid.
A few things have happened in the last two and a half years, which have generated not a little turmoil. Ukraine being invaded with an oil price shock resulting in runaway inflation that has caused unprecedented increases in interest rates. And just when it might have been settling, the Middle East has kicked off again. Valuations have certainly had a big hit. I’m not surprised it’s currently lower than two years previously (although not much lower, right?).

Meanwhile, however, companies carry on generating big revenues, and this will inevitably turn into dividends. Over the next 10 years, is it more likely that this pays you back, or that cash rates stay high? That’s the judgement call. However, there has pretty much never been a 10 year spell during which the best option wasn’t to have shares. But you do also need sufficient cash to keep you going during the downturns. You don’t want to sell at the bottom of the market.
 
A few things have happened in the last two and a half years, which have generated not a little turmoil. Ukraine being invaded with an oil price shock resulting in runaway inflation that has caused unprecedented increases in interest rates. And just when it might have been settling, the Middle East has kicked off again. Valuations have certainly had a big hit. I’m not surprised it’s currently lower than two years previously (although not much lower, right?).

Meanwhile, however, companies carry on generating big revenues, and this will inevitably turn into dividends. Over the next 10 years, is it more likely that this pays you back, or that cash rates stay high? That’s the judgement call. However, there has pretty much never been a 10 year spell during which the best option wasn’t to have shares. But you do also need sufficient cash to keep you going during the downturns. You don’t want to sell at the bottom of the market.

I keep telling myself all that, but I’m £22k down on when I set up my Interactive Investor account in 2021. £32k down on the peak it briefly hit. So yes, I will keep it all in there and repeat the ten year mantra but I really wish it had been in a biscuit tin under the bed.
 
I keep telling myself all that, but I’m £22k down on when I set up my Interactive Investor account in 2021. £32k down on the peak it briefly hit. So yes, I will keep it all in there and repeat the ten year mantra but I really wish it had been in a biscuit tin under the bed.
Yeah, I have those feels too. Believe me! But when it turns, it turns quickly. If the market makes its fairly typical 8% in 2024, are you going to still be behind? The falls over the last two years have really been a balance of heavy reductions due to increasing interest rates balanced by surprisingly robust earnings. Once interest rates level out (and even slightly drop) and that headwind disappears, I’m expecting that the earnings growth will dominate.

You can’t compare actual results to what you would have got with pitch-perfect market timing. Of course you’d always have been better off buying at the bottom and selling at the top, but that’s never going to happen. Even if you’d sold at the top, when would you have come back in? During the summer peak before it dropped again? Now? In a years time after whatever happens between now and then has already happened? That’s why you need to look at things over a proper time horizon, and not one that has been cherry-picked.

It’s all just personal opinion, of course. I’m just believing that the entire capitalist system will continue to protect itself in preference to alternatives. And that makes that the stock market as a while the best long term bet. That doesn’t mean there would be one, three or five year spells when it goes the other way, though.
 
Yeah, I have those feels too. Believe me! But when it turns, it turns quickly. If the market makes its fairly typical 8% in 2024, are you going to still be behind? The falls over the last two years have really been a balance of heavy reductions due to increasing interest rates balanced by surprisingly robust earnings. Once interest rates level out (and even slightly drop) and that headwind disappears, I’m expecting that the earnings growth will dominate.

You can’t compare actual results to what you would have got with pitch-perfect market timing. Of course you’d always have been better off buying at the bottom and selling at the top, but that’s never going to happen. Even if you’d sold at the top, when would you have come back in? During the summer peak before it dropped again? Now? In a years time after whatever happens between now and then has already happened? That’s why you need to look at things over a proper time horizon, and not one that has been cherry-picked.

It’s all just personal opinion, of course. I’m just believing that the entire capitalist system will continue to protect itself in preference to alternatives. And that makes that the stock market as a while the best long term bet. That doesn’t mean there would be one, three or five year spells when it goes the other way, though.

The real bath has actually been in bonds rather than equities. I had a small portfolio of flashy fun things like a commodities ETF and high growth nano caps, which have mainly done fine, and then the majority was in apparently sober and sensible Vanguard funds, out of which the ones with a high bond proportion have been the absolute dogs which pull the whole portfolio down.

I suppose that war and pestilence will be good for bond funds in the long run as obviously yields are only going to go up on government paper, and so the bonds those Vanguard funds are buying today will see me okay in 2030, but it’s not fun.

Interactive Investor needs a setting which disables portfolio views irrevocably and simply emails you yearly with a statement of tax liabilities.
 
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