Q – I have € 35,000 in my bank deposit account. I only found out this week the best demand interest rate is 0.75% so I am going to transfer it but where is safe ? Tom – Rathmines D 6
A – The number one investor consideration when it comes to savings Tom is safety. The State Savings, managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) and distributed online but mainly through An Post offices throughout Ireland would be regarded as safe, guaranteed by the Irish government. However you are confined to their term and threshold ( usually maximum € 120,000 per person, with Prize Bonds up to € 250,000 ) offerings – the Savings Bond yielding 4% net ( gross 1.97% per annum ) after 3 years. The Saving Certificate – 9% net (2.6% gross pa) after 5 years and Solidarity Bond – 22% net (3% pa gross) after 10 years. The other Irish deposit takers (AIB Bank, Bank of Ireland, PTSB, EBS, Revolut and N26) are all guaranteed up to € 100,000 per person per institution by the Deposit Protection Guarantee scheme. At € 35,000 you are well inside the threshold for any deposit taker. Best rates ? Best demand rate – always accessible – is An Post Money’s 0.75% ( net 0.5025% after 33% DIRT tax deduction. Attractive eh ? ) and best regular saver account is AIB Bank & EBS’s 3% (family saver account .. net 2.01% after DIRT tax ). One final thing – check and recheck your deposit rates on a continual basis as your deposit taker is NOT going to notify you when your deposit rate is being reduced or a better product is being launched. Revolut with 2.7million customers recently launched a suite of attractive deposit rates that are worth checking. Email me for my daily fact sheets on Ireland’s best deposit interest rates.