Best savings accounts?

Kenai · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:49

Rex-Kramer said:
Agreed, like everything on the internet its all moot.

Well no, it's not moot at all

There's a group of people here giving advice which reads sensibly with reasonable precautions taken for future security and then there is your advice which results in having to bail out of your home at £20,000 less than market value if you were out of a job for more than 2 or 3 months.

[TW]Fox · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:51

Rex-Kramer said:
Couldnt disagree more

Which therefore means you beleive that most people do not price to sell, inferring that most people put a house up for sale they do not wish to sell :confused:

'Priced to sell' is one of the most irritating terms ever. Everything is priced to sell - thats why it has a pricetag on it. You don't mean 'price to sell' you mean 'priced so far under market value you get a queue of people wondering what the catch is'

Trifid · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:54

[TW]Fox;21792998 said:
Price to sell... lol, yea, thats kinda the point in any house on the market no? I mean you don't price it not to sell.

I've been keeping a close eye on the house market in my area for about 2 years now and a lot of people seem to do this. There are still some houses that have not sold and not had a price drop since I first started looking... A lot of people seem to think what they have (not limited to houses but usually for higher value items) are worth more than what they really are.

Rex-Kramer · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:54

This goes back to my 10% headline rate. That 20k could be any percentage depending on the value of the house, in my case last week it was 10%.

Havent lost my job, didnt need the money, just couldnt be arsed renting that one out anymore and sold it. My financial advice works for me, and serves me well, what works for me might not work for you.

My original advice was just overpay as much mortgage as you can, as imo, it offers the best savings.

[TW]Fox · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:57

Rex-Kramer said:
My original advice was just overpay as much mortgage as you can, as imo, it offers the best savings.

But to be honest in a thread by a guy who doesnt have a mortgage your original advice was about as much use as posting tips on the safe care of horses in a thread about buying a gerbil

Rex-Kramer · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:58

[TW]Fox;21793162 said:
Which therefore means you beleive that most people do not price to sell, inferring that most people put a house up for sale they do not wish to sell

'Priced to sell' is one of the most irritating terms ever. Everything is priced to sell - thats why it has a pricetag on it. You don't mean 'price to sell' you mean 'priced so far under market value you get a queue of people wondering what the catch is'

I disagree Fox, Trifid has hit the nail on the head.

In this country we have an over inflated value of what our own house is worth as we have a sentimental attachment to it. People seem unable to drop the price as they think they are losing money.

To me priced to sell means exactly that, its going to sell at that price because its a fair price. With a house people dont have to wonder what the catch is, put your hand in your pocket and get the relevant qualified surveyors to take it apart.

Its the same as people on here buying a BMW and not asking your opinion, you know your BMWs and offer the best advice on them, mainly free

Rex-Kramer · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:59

[TW]Fox;21793200 said:
But to be honest in a thread by a guy who doesnt have a mortgage your original advice was about as much use as posting tips on the safe care of horses in a thread about buying a gerbil

I know, and i skipped to end cos i cba to read it all the way through

The Halk · 29 Apr 2012 at 10:59

[TW]Fox;21793200 said:
But to be honest in a thread by a guy who doesnt have a mortgage your original advice was about as much use as posting tips on the safe care of horses in a thread about buying a gerbil

Not to mention it was poor equine advice. :/

Rex-Kramer · 29 Apr 2012 at 11:00

I've actually got 5 horses so if you do need any i can help

The Halk · 29 Apr 2012 at 11:02

Rex-Kramer said:
I disagree Fox, Trifid has hit the nail on the head.

In this country we have an over inflated value of what our own house is worth as we have a sentimental attachment to it. People seem unable to drop the price as they think they are losing money.

To me priced to sell means exactly that, its going to sell at that price because its a fair price. With a house people dont have to wonder what the catch is, put your hand in your pocket and get the relevant qualified surveyors to take it apart.

Its the same as people on here buying a BMW and not asking your opinion, you know your BMWs and offer the best advice on them, mainly free

Priced to sell is code for taking a hit.

The lower the price is, the more likely someone who the house doesn't quite suit will take it anyway. If you find the right house it's worth paying the right price. If you find the wrong house then you need to get a discount. Priced to sell is just taking a hit so that someone else will buy your house when it's not quite right for them.

People do though have an overinflated impression of the value of their house. I see it every day of the week in my job. However that doesn't mean a massive discount is the only way to sell a house.

Rex-Kramer · 29 Apr 2012 at 11:05

By the way Halk, Halk was always a pick of mine in Dungeon Master, along with Wuuf the Bika, Daroou and Tiggy Tamal.

I spent hours on that game and used to get Tiggy and Wuuf to make the mana potion to give to halk so he could get some wizard points!

The Halk · 29 Apr 2012 at 11:08

Halk, Wuuf, Stamm and Chani was my party! Wuuf was my favourite.

Did you see the game that came out a couple of weeks back, Legend of Grimrock? A DM indie remake, worth a look.

Rex-Kramer · 29 Apr 2012 at 11:11

Nope but will have a look now. I purposely bought the 512k upgrade just for the game, the most expensive RAM ever!

Rex-Kramer · 29 Apr 2012 at 11:16

That looks great, getting it now!

arekgreenman888 · 6 Sep 2012 at 17:24

So at moment top banks give 3% for indefinite time for no matter how much you put in bank?

If you were to but in say 20 million pounds on interest, locking it away for 10 years that will give about 1500 a week on interest alone right?

Mark A · 6 Sep 2012 at 19:01

I think someone said there are special bank accounts for people with that sort of cash with a higher rate.

After this thread i tried opening a post office saver account but they wanted me to send them 2 sets of documents, original copies and not only that, they had to be signed by a doctor or solicitor :mad:

.

So hard work swapping banks about to get .3% more, its just not worth the hassle. Luckily I got a letter from the Ulster bank saying they were upping the rate of my current savings account that I emptied because the rate went down, so I moved my funds back with them.

Tachyon · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:35

The Halk said:
That is not true. I strongly advise against it. You seem to be advising it instead of savings and that's what's wrong. It isn't necessarily wrong in addition to savings.

To start off with you can usually find parity with a good savings account. Tracker mortgage rates have been lower than ISA rates for the past 10 years, on average. If you had a decent tracker in 2006 or before then you'd be on a rate of 1.5% or so, while your ISA would be at 2.5%. So you can actually make money by saving rather than paying off your mortgage - however it's not much really.

Rob Skinner has picked up on something else - you can't just put your hand back into your mortgage.

The only time I'd suggest people pay off their mortgage is to lower the LTV to get a better rate, and only once they have some savings built up. Either that or when you've reached the cash ISA allowance, this year it's £5640.

Realise this was posted a few months back but just read it. Going to go against your advice and strongly recommend it. No idea who Rob Skinner is but from what you've said, I get the impression that he thinks any overpayments are locked away. If that's what he's is saying it's not true.

I have paid overpayments previously and was able to access them at any time, make an underpayment or put my mortgage on hold depending on how much I had overpaid by. I can't remember the figures but I was saving much more on interest that I would have earned in a savings account.

Anyway, as to the OP, I have found Nationwide BS to be very good providing you pay £750 into a current account with them. I currently have a 1 year 4.25% cash ISA which seems to be much better than anything else I've seen advertised this year although it's currently not available at that rate now. This rate was dependant on the £750 current account. Also get free European travel insurance with that current account as well.

Theophany · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:37

You could be a bit brave and go with Funding Circle. Average yield is something like 7%, you can withdraw your money whenever you like. As long as base rates are this low and inflation is high, savings accounts are a waste of time, end of story.

Theophany · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:47

Moses said:
Not really. The savings accounts and bonds offered by banks don't offer a great returns... but it's the best available, without risking the deposits. If interest rates are less than inflation, they're at least limiting the damage done.

Sure. If your idea of saving is losing money.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 7 Sep 2012 at 12:34

Tachyon said:
No idea who Rob Skinner is but from what you've said, I get the impression that he thinks any overpayments are locked away. If that's what he's is saying it's not true.

Just someone who has read through lots and lots of mortgage terms and conditions

Something most people do not even do when signing up for their own mortgage.

The vast majority do not allow an automatic draw down of anything overpaid, you would have to apply to do so, and thats the jist, the time your most likely to want it is when they are most likely to say no (ie being made redundant).

If you have a flexible mortgage, (often one that allows you to automatically move property and maintain the same mortgage) then you are usually entitled to draw back any overpayments to take you back to the position as if you had never made them.

Like with everything one size does not fit all and one product will not be identicle to every other, but by far the most common mortgages terms do not allow automatic drawdown of overpayments.