Moving my money

[lurker]

I'm in quite an enviable position where I owe nothing to anyone (mortgage paid, kids independent etc).

We have always banked with Leics Alliance and they have been OK. but now our meagre savings are earning bugger all and i suspect they will go down the pan customer relations wise now they are part of a much bigger group.

I'm thinking of putting the lot in a local building society more to remove it from the clutches of the multinationals. Hopefully there will be a slight interest improvement too, and I'd like to think my money is helping local people to get a mortgage, rather than someone in Spain.

I'm also attracted towards the Co-Op for their ethical stance ( I'm not a tree hugger but ........). Are the Co-Op all that are cracked up to be.

 

[misterfish]

Co-op have always had a good reputation.

The ethical approach is quite laudable but you need to consider the value of your savings and the interest rate. If the interest you are receiving after the deduction of tax is lower than the rate of inflation then rather than savings you are getting losings.

SWMBO and I always look at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com as the site gives a lot of useful and dispassionate advice.

Local Building Societies can offer very good savings products but you do need to keep an eye on what is happening. We find that with internet enabled accounts we are kept up to date with interest rates but our postal mini cash ISAs had the rate plummet from one of the highest to one of the lowest without any notification - we had to search to find the current state of play.

The other thing to consider is a fixed rate bond where you effectively tie up cash for an agreed period (typically 1, 2 or 3 years) - you can get much better rates doing this.

The only way to decide what is best for you is to spend time on the web getting information and then acting on your decision.

Just remember to keep your wits about you and read ALL the info - it's amazing what is in the small print.

Misterfish

 

[wizer]

Put it all on the lottery :twisted:

 

[chiba]

Option : buy gold (as a solid metal)? The governments are all printing money, so your savings could well be inflated away...

 

[gardenshed]

Had money in the CO-OP for years, good bank, good service, decent interest rates. What more can I say . They do an online service too.
which is very good.

 

[Geno]

As it turns out for some, it would have been better for investors to have had it under the mattress than in shares!

The unfortunate thing at the mo for anyone coming out of bonds etc is that they will find interest rates for new bonds slashed. Banks aren't even offering decent rates for long terms as they really don't know whats going to happen. It may be necessary to shift it along on a more regular basis to optimise earnings.

Gold wouldn't be the best option anymore since its towards the top end of its purchase price. Yes it is one to invest in as it holds and increases its value but again it will depend on how long you want to put these funds away for.

Its a bit of a mine field at the mo cos of all the uncertainty. Banks certainly won't be doing you any favours, unless its a bucket load of dough you've got!

Just make sure you read the fine print as they say, the banks are adding all the backups and protection they can and even when they are saying its capital protected its not always the case - on top of that, even if its capital protected, the bank ur placing it in may not be as secure as you believe! Scary stuff at the mo and more interesting times ahead!

 

[p111dom]

Option : buy gold (as a solid metal)? The governments are all printing money, so your savings could well be inflated away...

Thats actually a pretty good idea. I have a friend that has been doing this for the last year, buying gold sovereigns from a dealer in Blackpool. There's a pretty hefty 12% charge for the conversion but it's a much better bet than Sterling at the moment.

 

[wizer]

I wonder if Bricks and Mortar is a good investment at the moment? Surely the prices will rise again? and in the recession, people are renting. Win/Win?

 

[BradNaylor]

Are the Co-Op all that are cracked up to be.

I bank with the Co-op and find their service excellent, particularly the online banking. Just as importantly for me, I like their ethical stance and the fact that they are a mutual organisation acting in the interests of their members rather than chasing profits for their shareholders.

If all our banks had been run on these lines the world wouldn't be in the financial mess it now is.

I would love to see everyone moving their banking business to the Co-op or to the remaining mutual building societies.

If I had a sum of money to invest right now though, I'd stick it in Premium Bonds. The interest rate is no worse than the bank (i.e 0%) but there is a good chance of a few tax-free wins.

Property? Don't make me laugh! House prices will be falling for another 2 or 3 years yet, until they are around half their value in 2007.

They won't regain their 2007 values for 10 -15 years

Cheers
Dan

 

[Blister]

I'm in quite an enviable position where I owe nothing to anyone (mortgage paid, kids independent etc).

We have always banked with Leics Alliance and they have been OK. but now our meagre savings are earning bugger all and i suspect they will go down the pan customer relations wise now they are part of a much bigger group.

I'm thinking of putting the lot in a local building society more to remove it from the clutches of the multinationals. Hopefully there will be a slight interest improvement too, and I'd like to think my money is helping local people to get a mortgage, rather than someone in Spain.

I'm also attracted towards the Co-Op for their ethical stance ( I'm not a tree hugger but ........). Are the Co-Op all that are cracked up to be.

Need any tools :wink:

you may just be lucky :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

only joking

put it somewhere 100% safe or it may go the way lots of other peoples have gone :roll:

 

[Karl]

Depends how much cash you've got.

Despite DT's pesimistic view on property prices (he's been spending too much time with that House Price Crash lot :lol: ) I personally think that the end of this year would be a good time to invest in SMALL properties. You have to do some serious homework though and buy the right property in the right area at the right price.

Cheers

Karl

 

[devonwoody]

How about buying bankrupt stock and selling on Ebay.

My daughters see a sale item advertise it then go and buy to honour orders.

You might become another Sir Alan Sugar.

(In fact I recall some of the radios didnt have anything inside the case) :wink:

 

[BradNaylor]

Depends how much cash you've got.

Despite DT's pesimistic view on property prices (he's been spending too much time with that House Price Crash lot :lol: ) I personally think that the end of this year would be a good time to invest in SMALL properties. You have to do some serious homework though and buy the right property in the right area at the right price.

Cheers

Karl

Nowt pessimistic about it, Karl.

Falling house prices are a good thing!

The sooner the average house goes back to being worth 3 times the average wage the better. Restricted bank lending should keep it there too.

Then maybe my kids (and yours) will be able to buy a house at a realistic price when the time comes.

Houses are for living in, they should not be investment vehicles. The housing bubble of the last 25 years (with a brief hiccup in the early '90s) has had a horribly corrosive impact on society in general.

Hopefully it won't happen again in our lifetimes.

 

[ike]

Houses are for living in, they should not be investment vehicles. The housing bubble of the last 25 years (with a brief hiccup in the early '90s) has had a horribly corrosive impact on society in general.

Truer words never spoken.

 

[Jenx]

Property? Don't make me laugh! House prices will be falling for another 2 or 3 years yet, until they are around half their value in 2007.

They won't regain their 2007 values for 10 -15 years

Cheers
Dan

Serious question - Dan, do you reckon this is the way it'll be ?

I ask, because having been sat in my curent house for 16 years, the mortgage isn't big.. and I'm considering making what could be a 'final move' to try and make the best of the current slump in the market's prices.
To try and make the most of it - I guess you could say 'timing is critical' , relatively speaking of course.
I too get the feeling that we're perhaps some way from seeing the 'bottoming out' in the housing market.
I understand that differing areas around the country will have their own little quirks and be slightly different from the next... but the 'general trends' will likely as not be fairly similar.

I think that I may be a wee bit too early to make a move on the idea yet, and the prices will continue to go down, perhaps quite considerably for maybe a good year or so.

I'm going on 'gut feel'.. as I'm out of my original trade as a Plumbing and Heating Engineer, and have been for a few years.. and no longer have maybe quite the finger on the pulse as perhaps I once did.
-- You are perhaps more 'in tune' and have a better insight..... so am interested to get your ( and anyone else's of course ) thoughts.

Just for info - where I am, an 'average' 3 bed house, detached, by a wimpey or a barratt or a scotia homes had up until the start of the slump, been going for around £240 K
My mate just sold his 'new' one which cost him that a year ago.. and he got £212K for it ( ouch ! )

Ta !

Alun

 

[Gower]

I'm giving Premium Bonds ago. Can't do much worse than the paltry interest I'm getting at the moment. Regarding house prices, I agree 100% with Dan. Hope they remain at a reasonable level for my kids & grand kids sake. I'm sure someone makes a killing when the prices are ridiculous but it's not Joe Average.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[devonwoody]

Didnt the government say they needed to build another 3 million homes only a few months ago, so there is going to be a shortage down the line somewhere.
If things are in short supply prices usually go up.
No deflation around IMO, cars went up 5% last month, new freezer also went up 5% last month.

 

[BradNaylor]

Property? Don't make me laugh! House prices will be falling for another 2 or 3 years yet, until they are around half their value in 2007.

They won't regain their 2007 values for 10 -15 years

Cheers
Dan

Serious question - Dan, do you reckon this is the way it'll be ?

I ask, because having been sat in my curent house for 16 years, the mortgage isn't big.. and I'm considering making what could be a 'final move' to try and make the best of the current slump in the market's prices.
To try and make the most of it - I guess you could say 'timing is critical' , relatively speaking of course.
I too get the feeling that we're perhaps some way from seeing the 'bottoming out' in the housing market.
I understand that differing areas around the country will have their own little quirks and be slightly different from the next... but the 'general trends' will likely as not be fairly similar.

I think that I may be a wee bit too early to make a move on the idea yet, and the prices will continue to go down, perhaps quite considerably for maybe a good year or so.

I'm going on 'gut feel'.. as I'm out of my original trade as a Plumbing and Heating Engineer, and have been for a few years.. and no longer have maybe quite the finger on the pulse as perhaps I once did.
-- You are perhaps more 'in tune' and have a better insight..... so am interested to get your ( and anyone else's of course ) thoughts.

Just for info - where I am, an 'average' 3 bed house, detached, by a wimpey or a barratt or a scotia homes had up until the start of the slump, been going for around £240 K
My mate just sold his 'new' one which cost him that a year ago.. and he got £212K for it ( ouch ! )

Ta !

Alun

My thoughts on this are quite simple Alun.

Over the long term, there has to be some kind of linkage between earnings and house prices. If house prices become too far detatched from earnings, then sooner or later people will not be able to afford to enter the market.

This linkage is not a fast and constant one. The laws of supply and demand play the major role in setting prices at any particular point in time. Factors which affect the demand for housing include interest rates, the availability of mortgages from banks, and the sentiment of the population as regards where prices are heading.

The supply of housing is fairly static, although there are currently a huge number of unwanted new-build flats in all our cities.

The demand for houses has reached bubble-like proportions in the last few years due to a 'perfect storm' of a combination of the facctors listed above, the main one being the total abandonment by the banks of the prudent lending policies they had established over centuries.

It is difficult to see how the banks are going to be allowed to be so stupid and greedy again in the forseeable future. They have damn near bankrupted the world.

Without idiocies such as 125% mortgages and loans of 5, 6, or 7 times someone's earnings it will be literally impossible for house prices to rise in the way they did in the recent past.

he long term linkage between prices and earnings wil be restored.

In the short term I see prices overshooting on the way down to below their long term average in relation to wages.

Average 3-bed house - £80k

We too, have been contemplating that 'final move'.

We have abandoned the idea however, in favour of building an extension with a very cheap extra bit on the mortgage.

Cheers
Dan

 

[devonwoody]

Well in the 50's they didnt take wifes earning into account when setting a mortgage, now they do, if I tell the banks to take into acounts childrens earnings do you think they would take that one up.

What will put the prices up again is that thing called inflation, do you think there will never be inflation again?

Of course there will, that is the way those debts that are around will eventually be paid.

 

[BradNaylor]

Well in the 50's they didnt take wifes earning into account when setting a mortgage, now they do, if I tell the banks to take into acounts childrens earnings do you think they would take that one up.

What will put the prices up again is that thing called inflation, do you think there will never be inflation again?

Of course there will, that is the way those debts that are around will eventually be paid.

I never said that prices wouldn't go up again; just that they would be more closely linked to earnings.

ie. they would rise in line with inflation.

Dan