Monday, May 10, 2010
Still Propping up House Prices
Guardian: The £3bn cash Isa swindle
"As annual cash Isa statements plop through letterboxes this week, savers will be shocked at how their interest rates have plunged".
Posted by alan @ 08:34 AM (1571 views) Add Comment
10 Comments
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1. wdbeast said...
Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill and while we still have the chance
Let's face the music and dance
2. p. doff said...
The best one I could find recently was Santander's min 3.2% (now withdrawn to new customers), but that didn't allow transfers in. The rest of mine is languishing at 2.5% - could get a smidgin more, but can't be @rsed moving it for the measly gain.
You can do better than 2.5% on an ordinary savings account, so those dastardly banks are stealing the tax advantage.
3. mark wadsworth said...
p doff: "those dastardly banks are stealing the tax advantage."
Of course they are. It's called tax arbitrage, and any bank that did otherwise would be stupid. but at least this lays to rest the idea that the government can 'encourage saving' using 'tax breaks'. With ISAs, the value of the indirect subsidy to banks is relatively small - the real biggy is the value of the tax breaks creamed off by the 'pensions industry', which is in the order of £40 billion or so (i.e. roughly as much as the total basic state pension paid out every year).
In other words, we could scrap all this pensions tax breaks nonsense and introduce a Citizen's Pension of about £160 a week instead. Not necessarily what I would do, but definitely worth considering.
4. tyrellcorporation said...
Does 2.5% cover your own risk of one of these banks going under? Probably not. I have a great deal of cash tied up with various banks now and frankly I'm thinking of taking most of it out if all they're going to give me is a couple of percent.
5. paul said...
This swindle has been sponsored by The Bank of England - demonstrating monetary incompetence and short-termism since 2003
6. mrflibble said...
Savers are the ones being gamed the most in this environment as they are the ones with the real wealth. Buy an house or we'll burn your savings was the message I received, to which I replied fvck off, instead I bought Dollars and Gold.
7. p. doff said...
@6 ''instead I bought Dollars and Gold''
Just sold some gold this morning. Ok, so it may go up more but I'm not greedy and I'm happy with the profit. Don't think I'm cut out for gambling - respect to techie.
8. mrflibble said...
@7. p. doff...
Nothing wrong with taking profit. I must confess I've been riding the current Sterling upswing since Friday - 1.45 was just too tempting given the election result. I'll probably ditch it at 1.55 as I'm not greedy either.
9. fjcruiser said...
The government does not want people to save.Also with inflation currently at 3.4%, most savers are loosing big time.
10. tenyearstogetmymoneyback said...
Get your own back on the banks.
Open a Santander Reward bank account paying 5% and a Halifax Current account paying £10 each month you pay in £1000
and set up standing orders between the two. Get the timings right and you will get about 8% on £2500. If you are married get
your wife to do the same.
Certainly agree with the comment about tax arbitrage. My best paying account (after tax) isn't an ISA (but is now withdrawn
to new savers). In the past I got the impression that ISAs paid high interest because the restrictions made it unlikely that
people would keep withdrawing their money. Now they just seem to rely on savers apathy. It will catch up with them.