ING Rates down again

|I have just received an email saying the rates are going down to 4.5% from | 1st January. | | Where do I shift my money to now?

Halifax - fixed rate of 5% for a year

but with min 1K invest.

Or....

First Direct:

- only need 1 to open but rate not fixed

Icici..5.1% on any balance

How come this happened? Interest rates haven't moved for a while, and worldwide they seem to be increasing...

Have ICICI improved? Or are there any other monthly interest savings accounts that have unrestricted money transfers to them that now have a better rate than ING?

I recently opened a cahoot bonus savings account, gives you 5.25% for first

6 months. Not sure if they are still doing it.

Gav

They're not in the UK which is where all of these accounts are linked to - the UK Base rate. With inflation dropping yet lower to 2.1% expect naff savings rates for some time to come. Still - you save on your mortgage if you have one and it isn't fixed rate.

I have my ICICI account. The web based system appears to work well once you've persuaded them to open the account with a 1 pound cheque.

Jeremy

I would not be surprised to see BofE base rate to increase in the near future.

yes,id looked at this but for some reason I feel uneasy dealing with an Asian bank? or am i misinformed?

Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

Yep, it could take over 3 months for ICICI to open the account so it's not worth transferring a lot of money until the account is up and running with a £1 minimum deposit.

ICICI are regulated by the FSA, so you should get 90% of up to 30 grand or so if they go bust (I don't know how long that would take...). AFAIK, they don't follow the banking code, however...

I would be very surprised if that happens. At the moment all talk is of cutting it further. With unemployment up and inflation dropping I would be surprised if it manages to rise all that far for a very long time.

Bummer for savers.

Possibly, who knows?

I think rising interest rates in Europe and US will put pressure on the .

And the overheated UK property market could do with more cold water.

You would think so. But the US is will probably level out soon and the Euro rate is still very low. On the other hand the US has just announced an increase in their trade gap which may signal better exports for the UK.

What might happen is that any further UK rate drop or continued talk of low interest rates may well stoke the house market further.

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4 Jan 2006 type: system message Bonus savings account - limited availability. The cahoot market leading bonus savings account has been extremely popular and is likely to be withdrawn shortly. If you wish to open an account please apply straight away. Just go to 'cahoot products', then click on 'apply'. Full details of rates available on the 'cahoot products' page.

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Note that you'll only get 5.25% for the first 6 months if you have £15,000+, otherwise it's 4.25% (dropping similarly). Not quite as good as the 5.3% they're giving people with an `introductory rate savings account` with far less than £15,000 - no wonder they want me to switch! Hurry Hurry Hurry - don't read the small print, just switch from your savings account to our new super amazing "bonus savings" account which offers 30% less interest!