The world of finances and savings moves very fast these days. We used to have to wait for the bank of england to decide which way it blew with our interest rates and it would take weeks before anything happened to mortgages and savings. Nowadays with everything being dealt with at the speed of light, we can be looking at our finances in a second or two.
After being in the doldrums for years, interest rates for savings have been looking much better than for a long time and there are adverts for the main players coming at us thick and fast. It has to be said that the biggest interest paying groups are the online banks and savings groups. Obviously they score because they have no branches to upkeep – no banks of staff to man these offices and high street properties. The savings in staff salaries and on-costs alone are astronomical. When you consider that high street banks are being shut as quickly as they can get away with it, the resulting shedding of staff has been truly staggering but it is not a surprise anymore to hear of a bank paying out £100K goodbyes. With gold plated pensions in many cases. The online banking fraternity don’t have anywere near that amount of costing so can offer more streamlined services, with a concentration on offering higher savings interest with some more flexibility built in for the investor.
For many years, the dear old premium bond was as safe as anywhere – didn’t pay interest but there is always the hope of getting the £1 million prize. These days the national savings institution is paying well for savings bonds and other products. They have the benefit of being backed by government and are totally secure.