What the hell is this .025% APR on savings accounts BS?
Is anyone else sick and tired of a banks ability to charge us 29.99% APR when they lend to us, but only pay out a fraction of a percent on our savings? Even CD rates the past few years have been pretty damn low.
I realize that right now half the big banks in the country are technically insolvent so they won't be paying out much to anyone, but I wonder how much people would have had in savings the past decade if savings accounts actually paid out a decent rate.
Anyone remember back in the 70's we could get a money market account that paid 18% easy? And that was before banks were pulling in tons of interest from loans.
Now it seems if you want ANY return over 5% you have to put your money in high risk "investments" and pray to god a situation like this one doesn't wipe you out.
The banks could have EASILY paid out a decent rate on savings. Americans have a negative savings rate and are swimming in debt to these same banks. We are talking trillions of dollars in loans charging anywhere from 10%-30%.... with such a small proportion of that in savings accounts they could easily have paid out a decent rate to peoples savings accounts and actually filter some of that loan interest BACK TO THE PEOPLE. Instead it went to $50 million jets.
3. 18% sounds good, but in the 1970s, inflation was well over 10%.
The rates were only so high in order to stay above the rate of inflation. The real rate of return, as a result, was like 4 or 7% or somewhere in that range.
8. Some places offer you "a little more yield" and later on you find out
you put your money into a risky slush fund just to get an extra 0.5%. I got screwed by Ameritrade that way... they count on their customers being dissatisfied with the low interest rate and offer them something "a little better." Then a few weeks later you find out you've got a handful of something like IOUs from bankrupt companies, and (by the way) the bank was skimming some of the returns off the top before they passed on the rest to you...
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. But especially damned if you do. These days.
Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators
Important Notices: By participating on this discussion
board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules
page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the
opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent
the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.