Silly question really I suppose, and someone will shoot me down, I'm sure. .... But -why do we all let the banks have our money at 0.5% interest (if we're lucky) and pay tax on that so they can pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses, for lending (our) money to others at high interest rates? - What's the point?
Why don't we all just draw our money out in cash, rent a deposit box and just put it in there for safety?
No interest, so we don't pay tax.
The banks can't lend it out, so they need to have it so have to offer a decent return to persuade us all to lend it to them again.
There must be a catch, but I can't see it. After all, inflation (UK) is pretty well zero or negative now, so we have nothing to lose...
Well, -have we?
Banks don't need to pay us interest.
Last year they made 40 billion in overdraft fees.
Heck, with those profits - they don't even need to make loans.
Thank the idiots who keep overdrafting and making windfall profits for the banks.
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They ARE paying 'proper' interest. The fact is 'proper interest' is DEFINED by what they have to pay in order to attract enough deposits to meet THEIR needs. If they need more deposits than they are getting, they increase rates to attract more.
Interest rates are at record lows. I don't see any of the people that are refinancing their mortgages complaining. How much of an interest rate can you expect when mortgages are at 5.0%? You have to take the good with the bad.
Why don't you just go to a credit union? Mine offers 6% on checking.
Yeah, go ahead and do that. Ruin the banking system. Make the current recession look like a walk in the park. When all the banks go bust, where you going to get a car loan, a home loan, a student loan, a business loan? Moronic ideas like yours make me better understand how we elected a buffoon like Obama. If you think you have this idea so good, go to www.prosper.com and loan your money out to people who can't otherwise get loans at high rates and tell me how it works out for you.
That's why I opened an online high interest savings account. Until the interest dropped to 1.5% then I invested in some bond mutual funds.