Economy stuff - now with March's base rate cut to 0.5%

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

Yep. The One Account was the first, and they are collectively known as Offset Mortgages.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Thu Nov 06, 2008 16:40

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

ComicalGnomes wrote:

I'd never heard of this before, but I found the idea fascinating.

These were widely touted a while ago, but seem to have died a death now, often called something like a "one account" or an "offset" account. I did the numbers on them a few times, as you say, the enhanced interest rates meant they often worked out pretty similar for most people. I think that's why they have slowly disappeared.

Edit -- Virgin One Account, I think that was the one that kick-started this little mini-sector. Most of the hits on google for that are 2005-2006.

With no research to back me up, I could hav sworn the trend was started by IF, 'Intelligent Finance'... but I could be wrong.

Either way, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the rate cut. Hopefully it will strengthen the pound. I have no iea why it might do that, but it would help me pay for my wedding.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

I too thought it was IF. We have a majority!

BikNorton · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 10173

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

Asda are bringing petrol down to 92p starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Tezzie are already running the 5p vouchers again, making it 89.9p if you've got one (and live near a the Tezzie that does petrol at 94.9p, like I do).

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6608

I've a mate who reckons he's knocked about 10 years of his mortgage by clever offset usage, so the do work if you've the right set-up. I think it took some fairly clever direct debit / creditcard mangling to get it to work as well as it does though.

I'd heard HSBC were in one of the strongest positions. If they're in trouble, it could be bad for everyone - they're a vast bank, aren't they?

GazChap · **Posted:** Thu Nov 06, 2008 22:05

Morrisons are already selling petrol at 92.9p in Shrewsbury. Woo!

Pod · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2568

thread name change madness!

ElephantBanjoGnome · **Joined:** 22nd Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 8175

Well slap my arse and call me charlie, the banks have actually responded to the direct pressure of the government and many have passed on the full 1.5%, including Northern Rock.

Lovely, a phone call is in order to ensure I pay slightly less interest until the rates go back up.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

So the fact that I actually paid a higher percentage rate in order to get a tracker instead of a standard variable rate is completely pointless then? Fuck you, Brown. Fuck you in the face.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Hahahah! Loser.

That was a bit harsh, actually. Sorry.

Hahahaha.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3304

Craster wrote:

So the fact that I actually paid a higher percentage rate in order to get a tracker instead of a standard variable rate is completely pointless then? Fuck you, Brown. Fuck you in the face.

Seems a little harsh - damned if they do and damned if they don't at the moment - it's not as if banks are actually in a position to start lending more yet, still shoring up their reserves and trying not to go bust. Any other type of business would be quietly making sure they got as much money from their customers as competition (assuming a fairly free market, not that we really have one, but that's a problem for regulation and the like) allowed them to, but pressure from the government and their own status as "oh, you're evil if you make a profit, not like those nice M&S people, where we all get a bit worried if their profits go down" has meant they've decided to respond. Normally you'd be much better off with the tracker, so the sad fact that policy is being set for homeowners overtly at the moment has just worked against you for a change.

But then, I speak as a saver, who is therefore being right royally shafted at the moment - oh look, month by month my cash is actually losing money after inflation. In fact, with that in mind perhaps I agree with your GB slating, just from the opposite side, as it were.

Dudley · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 8679

Quote:

Seems a little harsh - damned if they do and damned if they don't at the moment - it's not as if banks are actually in a position to start lending more yet,

And I'm not sure the way to solve that is to force them to lend what money they do have cheaper and mean it's impossible to offer attractive rates to get more.

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:13

There was talk in the Metro this morning about Herr Brown cutting 5% off VAT. Is this likely?

myp · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:14

Crikey, I'd have thought not.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:18

My fixed rate ends on 1st Jan, then it changes to a tracker so I will get to save a few quid, until I can find a decent fixed rate.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Grim... wrote:

There was talk in the Metro this morning about Herr Brown cutting 5% off VAT. Is this likely?

I suspect not. He may nick the Tory idea of allowing delayed VAT payments for businesses to improve cashflow, though.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:22

Grim... wrote:

There was talk in the Metro this morning about Herr Brown cutting 5% off VAT. Is this likely?

Mentioned on the Radio last night on the drive home.

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:23

Attachment:

tax.gif

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Well, if it's in the Metro, it must be true. Will this mean my shopping bills will go down, then? Excellent.

ElephantBanjoGnome · **Joined:** 22nd Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 8175

I wonder how many businesses that's going to fuck up who have hard-coded in a 17.5% VAT rate into their systems

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:25

Mr Chris wrote:

Well, if it's in the Metro, it must be true. Will this mean my Tomcat kit will go down, then? Excellent.

FTFM

myp · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:26

Where do you think he's going to send Stan P Duty then? I'm betting the Bahamas.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:26

That is cool.. that will help with the amount of travelling I have to do

Kern · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:28

I'm losing track of things. Are these the irresoponsible unfunded tax cuts he warned us the Tories were plotting that would force the NHS to slaughter old people to serve as stock in the soup kitchens? Or is just not in anyway at all an ill-thought through piece of populism which we'll pay for in few year's time? ?:|

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Kern wrote:

I'm losing track of things. Are these the irresoponsible unfunded tax cuts he warned us the Tories were plotting that would force the NHS to slaughter old people to serve as stock in the soup kitchens? Or is just not in anyway at all an ill-thought through piece of populism which we'll pay for in few year's time? ?:|

Indeed. He's basically going to bankrupt the government in the hope that we'll spend the extra cash this gives us on shit we don't need to help prevent/reduce the recession. The eventual improvement in the economy will then increase the tax take and he can balance the books again.

I for one don't like him making that much of a gamble, but there we are. I'm not prime minister, and he is. Something went wrong, somewhere.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

ComicalGnomes wrote:

I wonder how many businesses that's going to fuck up who have hard-coded in a 17.5% VAT rate into their systems

I remeber the last time VAT changed in value causing chaos in computer systems. Most proper enterprise grade kit would allow for this -- certainly the billing systems I've worked on had it in the database as a variable.

I bet there are some knocked-together-by-non-programmers Excel financial worksheets that will go cock-a-hoop though. There is some real evil done in Excel by people who, frankly, don't understand about how important software QA is. You see a lot of that in your line of work, Cras?

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:34

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

You do a lot of that in your line of work, Cras?

FEEX

ElephantBanjoGnome · **Joined:** 22nd Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 8175

Fuck me, I should pay more attention - the grammar of my previous post is appalling. Clearly it's still too early in the morning for cogent opinions.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

There is some real evil done in Excel by people who, frankly, don't understand about how important software QA is. You see a lot of that in your line of work, Cras?

Shocking amounts - there is very little you can do to stop an Excel user turning into an Excel developer, after all.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Avoid using Excel in the first place. I have stayed clean of Excellery my whole life. I have no idea how to even do formulas.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Grim... wrote:

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

You do a lot of that in your line of work, Cras?

FEEX

That is indeed what I was saying but I was being tactful

Our software competes with engineer's homegrown Excel software quite often. It's usually shockingly bugridden.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

I don't write software.

Often

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:39

Craster wrote:

an Excel developer

A what?

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

It might perhaps need inverted commas around the word developer, but the complexity of some of the homegrown stuff out being used by our trading folks is unbelievable.

ElephantBanjoGnome · **Joined:** 22nd Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 8175

Excel has its place, for doing a few simple operations or churning out the odd graph, but you'd never countenance using it for any kind of complex system, heck no. The last time I checked it wasn't very good at getting values from other sheets in the same workbook, and despite technically having the functionality to get values from other workbooks on the local drive, I found that never worked well either. This was a few years ago, mind, but I don't imagine it's changed much.

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:47

Hmm. Sheet2!A1 is all you need to get a value from another sheet, or filename!sheetname!cell for another file, I think.

ElephantBanjoGnome · **Joined:** 22nd Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 8175

In my experience (we're probably talking pre-office 97), you'd plonk those functions in, but it would struggle to reliably get the data. It'd either do the #VALUE thing, or the values would appear and dissapear at will.

Joans · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 8655

You all just suck at Excel

(although I haven't really used it for ages).
I'd guess the reason most people hardcode stuff into Excel, is that it doesn't lend itself well to having a list of configurable varialbles (obviously you can just create a hidden worksheet full of them, but it seems that doesn't occur to most people).
I do seem to remember having problems referring to cells on other workbooks, I think that some functions (like Match?) don't work if the data you want is on another workbook. Sometimes it was a lot easier to just write some vba that would open the other workbook, get whatever data was required off it, then close it again.

ElephantBanjoGnome · **Joined:** 22nd Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 8175

You'll come out the woodwork to take a poke at me and yet you don't have an opinion about Sarah Beeny's tits? Forshame Joans

Zardoz · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:07

The interest rate cut will be great for when booze goes up.

Joans · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 8655

ComicalGnomes wrote:

You'll come out the woodwork to take a poke at me and yet you don't have an opinion about Sarah Beeny's tits? Forshame Joans

I hadn't read that at the time, and I have to admit I've no idea who she is.
Very nice though. :hat:

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Grim... wrote:

Craster wrote:

an Excel developer

A what?

You can write insanely complex stuff in Excel, even before you start invoking VBA; and like Cras said, people do. You fucking shouldn't, mind, but arguably it's the most popular IDE in the world. It's totally rife in some industries, including finance. Scary, eh?

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Can you all take the nerdly Excel stuff somewhere else where people might care, please? Ta. This thread is for economics issues, and possibly Beeny's norks.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

You've probably all read this, but DailyMash.co.uk had an ace article today:

Quote:

NATIONALISED BANKS TO PAY GOVERNMENT FINES WITH TAXPAYERS' MONEY

BANKS controlled by the public which do not lend the public money will have to pay a fine using public money.

Ministers believe the only way to get the credit system moving again is to give billions of pounds to the banking sector and then threaten to take it back from them, bit by bit, in multi-million pound fines.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said: "We will use the money raised from the fines to recapitalise those banks that have been forced to pay very heavy fines.

"The banks must then use that money for lending and if they don't they will be fined.

"We will then use the money raised from those fines to recapitalise the banks that have been fined and if they don't lend that money they will be fined. Again."

Mr Darling said those fines would then be used to recapitalise the banks that had been fined before he was interrupted by a senior Treasury official.

The chancellor was then wheeled into the corner of the room where a heavy woollen blanket was draped over his head.

Meanwhile, Tom Logan, an overdraft holder from Peterborough, said: "By all means please do stop me if I'm being a total and utter fuckwit, but if we control the banks and we know what the banks are supposed to do, why can't we just tell them to do it?"

The Egg · **Joined:** 16th Aug, 2008 **Posts:** 412

Vote Tom Logan - The People's choice for Chancellor.

myp · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:35

So it looks like collar rates may be unenforceable, if interest rates drop below 2.75%.

Anyone here have a collar rate that's been slipped in unawares? We're just checking ours now.

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 26076

I jut want to say that for weeks now this has bothered me.

thread title wrote:

Economy stuff - Now with November's 1.5% Interest Rate Cut

Was: "UK currency haha Yanks"

It was not "UK currency haha Yanks" because I started the thread and didn't call it anything like that, and I don't like the way it comes accross. Nobody asked me if they might change it nor even told me thatthey had done so, but I was bored to misery with the behaviour of some posters at the time, and I couldn't be bothered even bringing it up, but it irks me every time I see this thread.

myp · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:43

Blame Chris. What would you like it changing to?

MaliA · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:45

MyoptikElf wrote:

Blame Chris. What would you like it changing to?

"The Recession: Mr Chris to blame"

Jon · **Joined:** 2nd Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 225

MaliA wrote:

"The Recession: Mr Chris to blame"

Well, he is getting old. The first stages of senility are bound to cause him to make some mistakes.

Don't be so hard on him, you meanie.

Be Excellent To Each Other

Economy stuff - now with March's base rate cut to 0.5%
Was "Americans asking about £"

Who is online

Be Excellent To Each Other

Economy stuff - now with March's base rate cut to 0.5% Was "Americans asking about £"

Who is online

Economy stuff - now with March's base rate cut to 0.5%
Was "Americans asking about £"