NationStates Jolt Archive

How high is the interest rates on savings accounts where you live? How much would you need to put in before you felt the interest rate made it worth it?


I don't know the interest rates around here, and I plan to open one when I get an extra $200...even $0.01 is better than $0.00.

Unless the savings account interest is more than inflation, it's probably better to save your money elsewhere. My daughter's checking account gets like 4% which isn't much but she doesn't really keep enough money to worry about it. I have my savings in a money market account, I make about 12% on it on average (sometimes more sometimes less).

Where I live? About 32% annually. Any amount would be worth it with that.:p

I make 1.24% monthly on savings and .25% monthly on checking, and that's with a credit union.

32% is just ridiculous. I'm so jealous.

My interest rate on my savings account is 0.25%, but I'm not sure if that's monthly or annually. (God, I hope it's monthly.) No interest on my checking, unfortunately, but it's got other benefits. Like a 1.5% kickback if I sign when I use my debit card.

I make 1.24% monthly on savings and .25% monthly on checking, and that's with a credit union.

32% is just ridiculous. I'm so jealous.
*Gloats*

There are places with even more insanely high rates though. I still love this place :D.

*Gloats*

There are places with even more insanely high rates though. I still love this place :D.

Where on Earth do you live?

Where on Earth do you live?
Suprisingly enough, a little mountain town in MD.I'm looking for a link to the bank's website.

Erm... I seem to have made a mistake. The rate was for the Certificate of deposit. *Is embarressed by lack of knowledge* :(

Save? Money? Money starts burning a hole through my pocket as soon as I get it, so I'm forced to spend it.

I get a lame 1.64% bimonthly.

Erm... I seem to have made a mistake. The rate was for the Certificate of deposit. *Is embarressed by lack of knowledge* :(
Okay, what kind of CD is paying 32% interest? That's still better than loan sharking.

My main 'savings' account pays .5% p.a but I keep as little amount of money in there as I can only what I need as it is my access account. My other account pays 7.1% p.a calculated daily and paid monthly, this rate is also variable which means I am one of the few people in Australia wanting interest rates to rise over the year. I currently have a 90 day term deposit which pays 8.8% p.a

How high is the interest rates on savings accounts where you live? How much would you need to put in before you felt the interest rate made it worth it?


I don't know the interest rates around here, and I plan to open one when I get an extra $200...even $0.01 is better than $0.00.

I have my money in a credit union. I don't know what the interest rate is.

How high is the interest rates on savings accounts where you live? How much would you need to put in before you felt the interest rate made it worth it?


I don't know the interest rates around here, and I plan to open one when I get an extra $200...even $0.01 is better than $0.00.

right now you'd be better off buying gold if your in the US. declining dollar values + high inflation. right now your money is not at 0 it is at a negative. A savings account it going to only be slightly less negative.

Low intrest rates lead to declining value of the dollar.

Okay, what kind of CD is paying 32% interest? That's still better than loan sharking.

they are likely listing the interest for the entire 5 year term
in which case 6.4 per annum. which sounds about right for money you cant touch for 5 years.

*Gloats*

There are places with even more insanely high rates though. I still love this place :D.

Hmmm sounds suspicious. I think we need a link. ;)

Also is this a FDIC insured account?

Unless the savings account interest is more than inflation, it's probably better to save your money elsewhere. My daughter's checking account gets like 4% which isn't much but she doesn't really keep enough money to worry about it. I have my savings in a money market account, I make about 12% on it on average (sometimes more sometimes less).

That much huh?

Is it suffering because of the economy right now? And how low has it gotten?

We have some savings with a Dutch bank at like 6.5 % or some such. My wife is the banker. Oh I have $8.00 in an old 401K savings account from a job I had many years ago making who-knows-what?

right now you'd be better off buying gold if your in the US. declining dollar values + high inflation. right now your money is not at 0 it is at a negative. A savings account it going to only be slightly less negative.

Low interest rates lead to declining value of the dollar.

You can also open a bank account that allows you to pick your accounts currency out of many choices.

http://www.everbank.com/001Currency.aspx?gclid=CIW9odLNu5MCFSMYagodWBZ0DQ

You can also open a bank account that allows you to pick your accounts currency out of many choices.

http://www.everbank.com/001Currency.aspx?gclid=CIW9odLNu5MCFSMYagodWBZ0DQ

might as well open one in an off shores account and avoid taxes then.

might as well open one in an off shores account and avoid taxes then.

Well depends on where the offshore account is. Many now report directly to the IRS.


The trick to holding money overseas is to not bring it into an American account. All one needs is a debit card to take money out without even worrying about the IRS overlords.

Well depends on where the offshore account is. Many now report directly to the IRS.


The trick to holding money overseas is to not bring it into an American account. All one needs is a debit card to take money out without even worrying about the IRS overlords.

that and for the common man the interest is considered foreign income up to 75,000 per year. take that IRS overlords taxing my interest. The majority don't even have to hide it.

they are likely listing the interest for the entire 5 year term
in which case 6.4 per annum. which sounds about right for money you cant touch for 5 years.
I understand. It's all about how you define the terms.

Don't use a savings account. A majority of my cash (barely) is in checking, rest goes into my 401(K) which outperforms any savings account anyway.

Oz is a pretty good place for savings accounts at the moment. First a housing boom, now commodity prices have pushed up inflation, and a central bank using a fairly strict inflation targeting regime has reacted accordingly.

The cash rate is at 7.25% right now, which means normal 180-day term deposits pay in the 8.15% range. Macquarie now does a 1-year one with 8.35%. Around 7% is possible for some savings accounts that let you withdraw your money as you please. New Zealand is paying pretty nicely as well (linky (http://www.interest.co.nz/term2.asp))...8.8% is not bad, and it's all virtually risk-free.

Makes me wonder what I'm still doing with my student account that pays no interest. But then, that's what the deposit industry is based on. :p

For the internationally mobile money though, I hear some of the Icelandic banks are struggling with subprime-related funding issues and are trying to attract depositors. Fun thing about that is that Icelandic target cash rates are 15.5%.

Oddly, I can't find anything from those banks on the web that would reflect that. It seems almost like the Australian ones pay better. Weird.

Wow, some of the rates given in this thread are incredibly high. *sulks*

In Germany right now, the best you can get in terms of interest are about 5% - and that's for call money ("overnight money" - the dictionary doesn't seem too sure how to translate it), not for lowly savings accounts.
And that includes foreign banks (including some fishy ones) pushing onto the market here.

And those 5% are actually really good compared to the last few years where the most you could hope to get on any kind of bank savings was, like, 3%.
Rates have been steadily going up since the mortgage crisis struck because investing in the stock market suddenly got less attractive than even the super lame interest rates of the banks and the banks are competing to get as big a share of all those new customers as possible (and, as NL said, some are probably looking to simply shore up their hurt money base).

I'm pretty sure that the interest rate for call money will go up to about 7% this year (it's literally rising almost every week) but that's probably gonna be it.

Meh!

About 4% is considered quite decent here for a normal savings account at a small bank. The big banks tend to circle around 2,5%.

When depositing money for a while the interest rates goes up. When applying for a mortgage most banks consider 7 or 8% a realistic payout for investments, when trying to sell those products those same banks of course often claim rates of 15%+% will easily be reached.

fuck all, but i never have any savings anyway. i did have, but not any more really. i really don't know what my rate is as a result, as it makes little difference to me now...

if i actually had money to save, i think i'd know :p

Recycling a thread.


If a saving account had a 3% interest rate and compounded daily, would that be 3% a day or 0.01% a day?


Yay for monetary ignorance...


Also, which would you choose, ING (3% compound monthly) or Etrade (3.15% compound daily paid monthly)

As it happens, I work at a Financial Institution!

We have a regular savings account, and a "investment savings" one which has better interest rate but cannot be put onto a debit card (Although one can transfer its funds to other accounts through the usual online and telebanking). The investment account is halfway between a regular demand deposit (ie. One put on a card) and a term deposit (Which cannot be withdrawn without penalty until it matures).

Our regular savings rate depends on how much one deposits, and there are a few different ways of doing it, usually compounded monthly and compounded daily for some account-types. For the investment savings, the rate is currently at 3.05%, compounded monthly no matter the amount in the account.

Current financial policy for the country as a whole is to keep the prime interest rate low, to encourage folks to take out loans and make large purposes. We are trying to avoid being sucked into the recession going on in the USA. In fact, this may be the lowest level within my lifetime, and is certainly the lowest since I have cared about what the rates were doing. This is a great thing for folks buying houses and whatnot, but not stellar for those just saving money in an account. As always, in order for financial institutions to stay in business, loans and mortgages have slightly higher interest rates than deposits.

I have a student debt to eliminate first (Nearly there!), but once that is done I am going to start making use of that high-interest account. It is one of the best rates availiable in this country.

Hmph. Government takes away much of what little interest I am supposed to get. The money seems to depreciate faster than it grows... no incentive for saving...

Hmph. Government takes away much of what little interest I am supposed to get. The money seems to depreciate faster than it grows... no incentive for saving...
Is state/private pension schemes running out of steam not a good enough incentive?

Around here (Pacific Northwest, USA) it tends to be 1.5-3.0% for savings. Most checking is 0% unless you have a large balance.

As to "is it worth it?" That really depends on your situation. If you are working, you should try to get about 3-6 months of gross salary into a demand account (checking, savings, or anything else that earns interest, but can be withdrawn without waiting) for those things that happen in life. Additionally, and especially if you are under 35, you should be socking away at least 10% of your gross into other investments. If you have a 401(k), that is almost always an excellent first place. IRAs are also a good place, though thanks to Congress, they are really complex to work out here in the USA.

Stocks are fun, but you have to accept that the securities are probably tied up for years before you can get the cash back without taking a loss.

The best advice I've ever read was, "If you are losing sleep because of your investments, move more of them to safer vehicles."

The books "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" by Dale Carnegie and "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason both have excellent basic money advice for us average folk.

Just remember, if it were easy, we'd all be wealthy.

Is state/private pension schemes running out of steam not a good enough incentive?
Pension schemes? What's that? :confused:

My mother saves my money I save in a savings account. It doesn't grow. :(

If a saving account had a 3% interest rate and compounded daily, would that be 3% a day or 0.01% a day?

I'm going to give an example with more round numbers.

If it were 3.65% APR (annual percentage rate), it would be 0.01% per day. However, usually banks keep track of daily compounded interest at least 2 decimal places past the penny (otherwise, it might be 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 - etc). Most banks that do this sort of compounding will also list an APY (annual percentage yield), which is what would be given after a year of compounding in that manner at that rate.

Pension schemes? What's that? :confused:
Ahh, for some reason I thought you were in the UK.

Pension schemes or pension funds are funds that you and another party (in the UK, either the government, your employer, or both) pays into regularly, so that when you retire, you have a guarenteed income to live off.

However, the UK's population is rather old. In fact, Europe's population is rather old. I can't find the source, but I remember a BBC report saying that currently there are 3 workers for every 1 pensioner (those over-65) in Europe, but by the time people of my generation will be pensioners, the ratio will be 1:1.

This, plus various economic and political decisions, means that current UK pensioners get very little money to live on; which the rising costs of food and fuel affect badly. By the time I'm eligible for a pension, the current government predictions say there won't be any pension fund to speak of.

Thus, they are encouraging private saving. However, fickle young 'uns such as myself don't think much about when we're old and grey, so we don't save. Ensuring much of the British population will live in relative poverty when we should be kicking back and complaining about the weather.

Ahh, for some reason I thought you were in the UK.

Pension schemes or pension funds are funds that you and another party (in the UK, either the government, your employer, or both) pays into regularly, so that when you retire, you have a guarenteed income to live off.

However, the UK's population is rather old. In fact, Europe's population is rather old. I can't find the source, but I remember a BBC report saying that currently there are 3 workers for every 1 pensioner (those over-65) in Europe, but by the time people of my generation will be pensioners, the ratio will be 1:1.

This, plus various economic and political decisions, means that current UK pensioners get very little money to live on; which the rising costs of food and fuel affect badly. By the time I'm eligible for a pension, the current government predictions say there won't be any pension fund to speak of.

Thus, they are encouraging private saving. However, fickle young 'uns such as myself don't think much about when we're old and grey, so we don't save. Ensuring much of the British population will live in relative poverty when we should be kicking back and complaining about the weather.
I think we have here something like that. You will (I can't remember it you are required or merely encouraged) to pay into either of two pension schemes run by the government :eek:: one for government employees, one for private employees. Then you will draw upon them when you retire.

The system's corrupt and inefficient, and it's not enough for a senior citizen to live off. AFAIK government does not give pension benefits. Heck, we don't even have unemployment benefits.

People do invest in non-government run schemes because there's no such thing as pension given by the government. Aside from that, many have their own pension scheme: their children. It is quite common for adults to take care of and support their elderly parents (actually, it is strongly encouraged by our culture, that's why we only have few nursing homes). As for me, though, I'm still a student, not working, and not having children (yet). I will think about it later on.

Something like 2.0%, I think.