G
Gautama
Guest
I don't think that people should be discouraged from wringing every last cent of deposit interest from financial institutions.
Exactly. The concept of loyalty to a particular financial institution is out-moded. Back in Ireland of the 80ies you were either AIB, BOI or CU for life. It was like a political allegiance to FF or FG or Labour.
Another political analogy: The "floating voter" (i.e. rate tart) has the power and holds the key.If we all just settled for the "nearly" best rates then this would erode competition and probably cause the best rates to be dropped. Customer inertia is one enemy of competition!
Once you open one of these new "higher interest" lump sum deposit accounts, you can open more in your sleep, just about.Also .... I found opening an AIB account slightly more difficult than opening one with most other institutions since I was forced to drop into an AIB branch to do so while with the others I did it all by post.
It may seem like hassle for the first one, but then you get the documentation back and re-use for the next.
Incidentally, I opened an FA eSaving account and an Ulster Bank eSavings account simultaneously. They are almost identical. Even the account number differ by less than 20!
Being a rate-tart is simple once you've the first account opened.
Especially for anyone with more than 20k to put on deposit, it's worth having no more than about 20k with a single financial institution. Should they go wallop, you are protected by the IFSRA up to a max of about 20k.
If you've got, say 40k, at least split it two ways, and into two institutions.