Interest rate thoughts
Interest rate thoughts
Author
Discussion

Whistle

Original Poster:

1,654 posts

157 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
So I was thinking of locking away all of my isa funds in one account for either one or two years.

I can get 4.25% for 2 years with nationwide or 4.10% for one year, even more with other providers.

Dose anyone think we are in for some higher rates later this year?
Also would you risk holding more than £80k with one provider?

Thanks.

AdamV12V

5,312 posts

201 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
Whistle said:
So I was thinking of locking away all of my isa funds in one account for either one or two years.

I can get 4.25% for 2 years with nationwide or 4.10% for one year, even more with other providers.

Dose anyone think we are in for some higher rates later this year?
Also would you risk holding more than £80k with one provider?

Thanks.
Santander are offering 4.25% for 18mths or 4.20% for 2 years both cash ISA's, so a little better than Nationwide. Coventry looks like the market leader at 4.40% for one year ISA - ignore the homepage saying no transfers in - we opened two today and both clearly permit transfers in once opened.

That said, what's going to happen? Well clearly the market is still pricing that by 2years the peak will have been and gone and rates starting to drop, with 18months being the high point. That maybe right, who knows - crystal ball time, but I for one certainly am expecting at least one more hike of 0.25% even if the news was reporting otherwise 2 weeks ago when the rates last went up. Time will tell.

Would I risk more than £85k with a single provider - well that depends on how much wealth you have. If you only have say £100k in cash then no, dont risk it, its no hassle to open two accounts and spread your risk for potentially a small loss of interest on the 2nd best a/c. But if you have say over £1m in cash to invest then opening up 12+ accounts is a total PITA, plus the losses begin to diminish themselves as a percentage of your portfolio.

You can never tell which will be the next bank to fail, if indeed any more will at all this time around, but some banks are inherently more risky that others for sure. Avoid smaller lenders if possible and go for the big well know names. They are likely too big to ever be allowed to fail, so in that respect the £85k limit becomes a bit meaningless. That said you can never say never, so diversify if you want to be super safe.

Edited by AdamV12V on Friday 7th April 11:20

Mogul

3,061 posts

247 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
Do you Cash ISA dudes know that you can switch to a Stocks & Shares ISA and then buy a Money Market ETF and earn a similar ~4% return without having to lock your money away for 12-24months…

Simpo Two

91,617 posts

289 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
Mogul said:
Do you Cash ISA dudes know that you can switch to a Stocks & Shares ISA and then buy a Money Market ETF and earn a similar ~4% return without having to lock your money away for 12-24months…
Money Markets seem to be the Thing Of The Week - IM having just launched one. Cash with knobs on it seems.

AdamV12V

5,312 posts

201 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
Mogul said:
Do you Cash ISA dudes know that you can switch to a Stocks & Shares ISA and then buy a Money Market ETF and earn a similar ~4% return without having to lock your money away for 12-24months…
Yes of course, but my balanced portfolio already has more than sufficient exposure to the stock market, so for me ISA's are a tax free way of maximising the return on the "safe" cash side of the balance. Even though an ETF is lower risk, its still higher risk than cash in a savings a/c.

For other people they simply cannot entertain the risk of loosing anything at all ever via Stocks and Share, ISA or otherwise.

Something to keep in mind for everyone really - never put all your eggs in any one type, shape, make or model of basket!

Edited by AdamV12V on Thursday 6th April 21:32

Caddyshack

14,218 posts

230 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
AdamV12V said:
Whistle said:
So I was thinking of locking away all of my isa funds in one account for either one or two years.

I can get 4.25% for 2 years with nationwide or 4.10% for one year, even more with other providers.

Dose anyone think we are in for some higher rates later this year?
Also would you risk holding more than £80k with one provider?

Thanks.
Firstly its 18mths with Santander for 4.25%, and 4.20% for 2years ISA. Coventry looks like the market leader at 4.40% for one year ISA - ignore the homepage saying no transfers in - we opened two today and both clearly permit transfers in once opened.

That said, whats going to happen? Well clearly the market is still pricing that by 2years the peak will have been and gone and rates starting to drop, with 18months being the high point. That maybe right, who knows - crystal ball time, but I for one certainly am expecting at least one more hike of 0.25% even if the news was reporting otherwise 2 weeks ago when the rates last went up. Time will tell.

Would I risk more than £85k with a single provider - well that depends on how much wealth you have. If you only have say £100k in cash then no, dont risk it, its no hassle to open two accounts and spread your risk for potentially a small loss of interest on the 2nd best a/c. But if you have say over £1m in cash to invest then opening up 12+ accounts is a total PITA, plus the losses begin to diminish themselves as a percentage of your portfolio.

You can never tell which will be the next bank to fail, if indeed any more will at all this time around, but some banks are inherently more risky that others for sure. Avoid smaller lenders if possible and go for the big well know names. They are likely too big to ever be allowed to fail, so in that respect the £85k limit becomes a bit meaningless. That said you can never say never, so diversify if you want to be super safe.
In the credit crunch when banks failed I do not believe anyone lost any money on deposit

Caddyshack

14,218 posts

230 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
said:
Not really a bank in the normal concept as they were savings only with savings, isa and investment bond…bit of a weird one with them but point taken.


Jiebo

1,084 posts

120 months

Thursday 6th April 2023
quotequote all
Mogul said:
Do you Cash ISA dudes know that you can switch to a Stocks & Shares ISA and then buy a Money Market ETF and earn a similar ~4% return without having to lock your money away for 12-24months…
No. Cash ISAs are accessible, you just need to close your account and pay a penalty of 90 days interest or so.

They are different to non-ISA fixed savings, which are very restrictive and your money is fully locked away.

From a liquidity perspective, cash ISAs are better than money market ETFs, and obviously risk free.

Sheepshanks

39,505 posts

143 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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Jiebo said:
No. Cash ISAs are accessible, you just need to close your account and pay a penalty of 90 days interest or so.

They are different to non-ISA fixed savings, which are very restrictive and your money is fully locked away.

From a liquidity perspective, cash ISAs are better than money market ETFs, and obviously risk free.
If you’re saying fixed term cash ISAs are accessible then that’s not always correct - some do not allow withdrawals during the term (except on death).

Mogul

3,061 posts

247 months

Friday 7th April 2023
quotequote all
A Junior ISA (in the name of a <16 yr old) cannot be accessed/closed until the child turns 18 (or upon the death of the child) but other ISA accounts (all types) which include ‘fixed terms’ can generally be accessed/closed but there can be penalties (some larger than others). This is an advantage over other types of fixed term savings accounts/bonds.

It’s true to say that Cash ISA rates are improving, and the early access penalties are likely to be digestible if there is a liquidity need, but although some are described as ‘flexible’, you need to know what your provider means by that definition as you may find some of their restrictions to be more or less restrictive based on what you would like to achieve…

Another benefit of the Cash ISA as that you can get one from your bank and you won’t have to pay any platform fees to hold it there, but the interest rates on offer have been relatively poor (although improving).

If you find a decent Cash ISA rate in today’s market, they can work.

The potential benefits of money market ETFs are that you can have as much flexibility as you want to dip in and out (although you have transaction charges and platform costs to deal with).

They are therefore pretty liquid (although who knows what would happen when Vlad gets his nukes out, but if he does, we’ll all have bigger things to worry about even if we have the FSCS behind our Cash ISAs).

There is a risk of capital loss but the short-term MM funds are rated 1 on the 1-7 risk scale…


Kirkmoly

186 posts

42 months

Friday 7th April 2023
quotequote all
Mogul said:
Do you Cash ISA dudes know that you can switch to a Stocks & Shares ISA and then buy a Money Market ETF and earn a similar ~4% return without having to lock your money away for 12-24months…
Which ETFs are these? I can’t find any GBP denominated Money Market ETFs that yield even 1%

Loads of USD ones out there but for people who don’t want to take on more USD exposure are there any serious UK products?

WayOutWest

1,074 posts

82 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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An alternative ETF to look at (iShares ERNS)
https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/...

Kirkmoly

186 posts

42 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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^ Ah, penny dropping. I though the yield data was annualised when looking at the performance of these funds. However, because the monthly distributions are steadily increasing, I need to annualise the last distribution to get to an expected future yield.

Mr Whippy

32,351 posts

265 months

Friday 7th April 2023
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
Mogul said:
Do you Cash ISA dudes know that you can switch to a Stocks & Shares ISA and then buy a Money Market ETF and earn a similar ~4% return without having to lock your money away for 12-24months…
Money Markets seem to be the Thing Of The Week - IM having just launched one. Cash with knobs on it seems.
MMs…

I notice banks are in there, and we all know what happens to bank bonds if the bank goes tits up these days… bailed in.

Unless you’re not being a bank bond holder?!

Mogul

3,061 posts

247 months

Jon39

14,564 posts

167 months

Saturday 8th April 2023
quotequote all

Simpo Two said:
Mogul said:
Do you Cash ISA dudes know that you can switch to a Stocks & Shares ISA and then buy a Money Market ETF and earn a similar ~4% return without having to lock your money away for 12-24months…
Money Markets seem to be the Thing Of The Week - IM having just launched one. Cash with knobs on it seems.

Not my sphere, but does an Exchange Traded Fund involve borrowing, therefore create gearing to (hopefully) magnify returns ?
What could possibly go wrong, if debt is involved ?


Edited by Jon39 on Saturday 8th April 12:32

BoRED S2upid

20,996 posts

264 months

Saturday 8th April 2023
quotequote all
To answer the OP question America are up at 6%+ so are we likely to see rates much over 4.25% then yes quite possibly.

Whistle

Original Poster:

1,654 posts

157 months

Saturday 8th April 2023
quotequote all
BoRED S2upid said:
To answer the OP question America are up at 6%+ so are we likely to see rates much over 4.25% then yes quite possibly.
May just fix for 1 year and hopefully get a better rate next year.

OutInTheShed

13,377 posts

50 months

Tuesday 11th April 2023
quotequote all
Boo-urns said:
Interesting prediction from the IMF: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65237286

Everything I've seen so far seems to point to 4-5% being the 'new normal', or the 'old normal', if you look at things from a long-term perspective.
They are talking about real interest rates of 1 to 2%, which I take to mean 1 to 2% over inflation.
So quite likely in the 5% area for a while?

But how many of these genius economists predicted today's interest rates 5 years ago?

Mr Whippy

32,351 posts

265 months

Tuesday 11th April 2023
quotequote all
OutInTheShed said:
Boo-urns said:
Interesting prediction from the IMF: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65237286

Everything I've seen so far seems to point to 4-5% being the 'new normal', or the 'old normal', if you look at things from a long-term perspective.
They are talking about real interest rates of 1 to 2%, which I take to mean 1 to 2% over inflation.
So quite likely in the 5% area for a while?

But how many of these genius economists predicted today's interest rates 5 years ago?
Or 4% 18 months ago?

It’ll be going way up over 5% for a bit imo.

Reversion to the mean is never smooth. And overshoots are expected.

I’m starting to think 7 or 8%
Wheels come off into a recession.
Drop to ~ 4-5% to stimulate economy.

Back to ‘normal’ trend.