October 27, 2009

Domestic and overseas savings rates

Filed under: News — Tags: saving, savings —

National Savings & Investments (NS&I), the government’s financial arm, has raised savings rates this week in the hope of attracting more savers. The good news is that this already means that it enters the top league tables on returns.

Even still, is that savings rates for branch and online savings accounts remain suppressed by low interest rates.

The international market isn’t much better due to tax changes that mean offshore saving doesn’t necessarily offer strong benefits, especially while interest rates worldwide remain subdued.

Still, at least it is encouraging to see some providers actively trying to encourage more savers to join with them. This is especially important as the savings ratio for the UK has increased to 5.6%, which means that more people in the UK are trying to save and invest their money.

The savings tables at Moneyfacts shows an interesting perspective, with building societies in general leading the way with savings rates for normal accounts, though interest does generally stay under 2%.

The really interesting part of the modern savings landscape, though, is that both banks and building societies are trying to lock savers into bond or fixed term accounts - ie, that instead of instant access or notice savings accounts, they are looking for guaranteed periods of investment where the money cannot be touched.

This has to be a disturbing development, though, because in the current landscape, savers really should be able to rely on competitive savings rates, and still have access to their money. Instead, they are being asked to put up with little access and little return.

While the hope is that the financial crisis is easing, the warning remains that the UK could still face a “lost decade” as Japan did, which means the current savings environment could be here to stay a lot longer.

Story link: Domestic and overseas savings rates