Anglo Irish Bank 7% Regular Savings Account V Rabo Direct

Or €2,000 in the case of a joint account.

If you are married, Halifax will let you open 1 Joint account and an account in both names, 3 accounts in total at 7%. This would give a maxium saving of 2,500E as aposed to AIBs 2,000E per month.
 
The current RaboDirect rate is 5.0% (a hefty premium over and above the prevailing ECB rate) for amounts up to €10,000. For amounts over this the rate is 3.75%. Note - this is for money on demand and there are no restrictions on withdrawals.

We believe that our rates and the terms on which they are offered are very competitive, particularly the 5% rate. Of course in a very competitive market that we operate in (and that we have played a major role in stimulating) the customer has a diverse choice of rates and has many options to choose from which is a huge improvement on the past.


Hi RaboDirect

All very true :)

However, each time the ECB rate increases by a full 0.25% and you don't raise your deposit rates by the same, your accounts become a little less attractive I'm afraid.

- What are RaboDirect doing (if anything) in respect of the latest 0.25% ECB rate rise, are you going to increase your rates & if so:

(a) when please ?
(b) by how much please ?

... I'd hate to think a market leader and favorite of the people (not to mention, ultimately a mutually owned institution) would be waiting to see if the competitors do anything, before you will. Hopefully this is not the case.


Also, any thoughts on introducing a regular savings account to top the current offerings from Hallifax, AIB, Anglo & EBS (ie more than 7% car) ?


Finally, it would be very useful if your online system were expanded to facilitate:

- stats on how much (in money terms) was sold / bought for each of the funds you offer each day (kind of like the days trading volume for quoted shares on the stock market)

- the now long awaited & much talked about CGT calculator


Many Thanks

G>
 
We have no plans on introducing a regular saver product in the near future. They are clearly loss leader products at rates of 7%. The rate might look high but when you actually calculate the amount of interest you can earn in one year after taking into account the restrictions, most of them are not as good as you might think. That being said, there is a market for them but unless you intend on paying more than 7% there's not much point in launching one!

Re passing on the ECB rate rise - as previously mentioned our 5% rate for money on demand is a full 1% over the ECB rate so it's unrealistic to expect a rate increase. We are very competitive and will continue to be so in the future. Naturally for reasons of commercial confidentiality we cannot say what our next moves will be.

The CGT calculator - the tax payable on RaboDirect investment funds is not actually CGT. It is the standard rate of tax + 3%, ie, 23%. We are working on the specifications and design of an automated report that will calculate your profit or loss on all trades within the period. You will then need to pay tax on any profits yourself to the Revenue which is straightforward. The hard part (other than handing money to the Revenue!) is the calculation of profits and this will be done for you. We expect to release the calculator by the end of Sep/start of Oct. As you might imagine this kind of technical development can take a bit of time as we have had to liaise with taxation experts before getting the techie developers started.

Re other suggestions for improvements to the site, please keep them coming as we are taking them into account re future developments. We do currently show our 5 most popular funds on our website but not the volume for each fund. We will be relaunching our public website in early August and will include some interesting investment content.
 
The rate might look high but when you actually calculate the amount of interest you can earn in one year after taking into account the restrictions, most of them are not as good as you might think.
Yes - this is something that I have mentioned a few times already. The headline rates are a little misleading if don't consider the effects of the fact that you are drip feeding money into the account. Use this calculator to see how drip feeding €x per month at 7% (or whatever) does not mean 7% of €x * 12 return.
Re passing on the ECB rate rise - as previously mentioned our 5% rate for money on demand is a full 1% over the ECB rate so it's unrealistic to expect a rate increase. We are very competitive and will continue to be so in the future. Naturally for reasons of commercial confidentiality we cannot say what our next moves will be.
Yes - pity the 5% is only on a maximum of €10K though...
 
....

Re passing on the ECB rate rise - as previously mentioned our 5% rate for money on demand is a full 1% over the ECB rate so it's unrealistic to expect a rate increase. We are very competitive and will continue to be so in the future. Naturally for reasons of commercial confidentiality we cannot say what our next moves will be.

The CGT calculator - the tax payable on RaboDirect investment funds is not actually CGT. It is the standard rate of tax + 3%, ie, 23%. We are working on the specifications and design of an automated report that will calculate your profit or loss on all trades within the period. You will then need to pay tax on any profits yourself to the Revenue which is straightforward. The hard part (other than handing money to the Revenue!) is the calculation of profits and this will be done for you. We expect to release the calculator by the end of Sep/start of Oct. As you might imagine this kind of technical development can take a bit of time as we have had to liaise with taxation experts before getting the techie developers started.

....


Hi,

Many thanks for the reply.

With regards to the report to be produced, ideally it should be something with your logo on it which we can attach to our tax return, please.

As for the comment about your rate being 1% over the ECB, the point I was making was it was 1.25% until recently, and even higher in times past, therefore eroding over time :(

Clubman also makes a very fair point about the €10k limit, go on ... increase it a bit if your' not prepared to pay us the higher rate above ECB anymore ;)

Thanks

G>
 
Re: Investment funds profit & loss report

Hi,

Many thanks for the reply.

With regards to the report to be produced, ideally it should be something with your logo on it which we can attach to our tax return, please.


G>

We had further discussions with our tax advisors yesterday on the matter. As you might appreciate we are reluctant to go down the route of providing full blown "taxation advice" to our customers but we are confident that we can clarify matters with the introduction of the investment funds profit & loss report. It will be a report with the RaboDirect logo and footer and we will give more instruction on which Revenue form should be completed and which parts of the form relate to offshore investment funds.

Perhaps when we have test version ready one of two AAM members who purchase investment funds might like to meet with us at our offices to give us feedback on it? If anyone is interested in this please PM us.
 
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Re passing on the ECB rate rise - as previously mentioned our 5% rate for money on demand is a full 1% over the ECB rate so it's unrealistic to expect a rate increase. We are very competitive and will continue to be so in the future..
The balance above 10K receives only 3.75%. This is a quarter percentage point below ECB and cannot be regarded as competitive when compared with for instance the demand rates of Northern Rock (4.5%) and Anglo (4%). Even the likes of Ulster Bank are offering 3.85% on a branch operated account
 
It is rare but when customer service is very efficient then I think it should get a mention. I misplaced my Rabodirect customer account number yesterday. Rang Rabo this morning, it was picked up on the second ring and within 30 seconds I had my customer number after 3 security questions. Hats off to them.
No connection except being a satisfied customer.
 
It is rare but when customer service is very efficient then I think it should get a mention. I misplaced my Rabodirect customer account number yesterday. Rang Rabo this morning, it was picked up on the second ring and within 30 seconds I had my customer number after 3 security questions. Hats off to them.
No connection except being a satisfied customer.


Yup
Credit where it's due alright, I've been more than happy with the response times etc ... top marks on this front (& thanks to the people at Rabo, who read this forum) !

I just wish the Bank would do everything I want now - i.e. raise it's rates further, do my tax returns this year etc etc ;):D)


Hey Rabodirect

Interesting offer, to let a few of us perhaps try and help with the design of the Investment report / calculator, for the tax returns.

At a guess, I'd think the ideal people from here to get are a mix of those using your funds & perhaps, those with some experience of completing Tax returns (ie not just PAYE sector), because they will know how much time calculations take, what could be confusing etc.

Another idea (just food for thought) would be to speak to one or two accountancy services and see if they would work with you, to provide a service to those of your customers wishing to pay them to do the tax returns for them etc ? (probably more appropriate for medium to larger investors, I grant you)

Thanks

G>
 
RaboDirect Investment Funds P&L Calculator

Yup


Hey Rabodirect

Interesting offer, to let a few of us perhaps try and help with the design of the Investment report / calculator, for the tax returns.

At a guess, I'd think the ideal people from here to get are a mix of those using your funds & perhaps, those with some experience of completing Tax returns (ie not just PAYE sector), because they will know how much time calculations take, what could be confusing etc.

Another idea (just food for thought) would be to speak to one or two accountancy services and see if they would work with you, to provide a service to those of your customers wishing to pay them to do the tax returns for them etc ? (probably more appropriate for medium to larger investors, I grant you)

Thanks

G>

Garrottod
If 2 or 3 people want to give us input we will need to get on to this pretty quickly so if anyone is keen, please PM RaboDirect asap. We have a partnership with Barnardos to raise money for their Best Chance programme - we will make a €100 donation for each person that volunteers their time.

Just to be clear - we are developing a report that will detail the gains (or losses) based on FIFO (First in, first out) made on trades of investment funds during the taxable period. We will also provide instructions on how to complete the relevant Revenue form. We will not be doing tax returns for people. In any case, I can imagine in a few years time that we will all be obliged to make an annual tax return to Revenue as in other countries.

We have been liaising with one of the large accountancy firms re the development of the report and what tax instructions we can give our customers. We will also approach Revenue to get their view.

RaboDirect
 
Re: RaboDirect Investment Funds P&L Calculator

In any case, I can imagine in a few years time that we will all be obliged to make an annual tax return to Revenue as in other countries.
Really?! On what basis do you believe that?
 
"Your monthly saving contribution can only be made by electronic transfer."

What does this mean?
Is it the same as direct debit or can lodgment be made online?
 
"Your monthly saving contribution can only be made by electronic transfer."

What does this mean?
Is it the same as direct debit or can lodgment be made online?

From [broken link removed]

"Monthly saving contributions are made electronically from another financial institution (e.g. standing order, direct online payment)"

So usually you set up a monthly SO to anglo.

The advantage of Anglo regular saver is that you do ad-hoc transfers (up to max 1000 pm) manually using online banking.

So you could set up a SO of the required minimum E100 , set up your anglo account as a payee/beneficiary with whatever online banking you use, and do an online transfer every month with whatever you have spare (up to max remaining 900 pm in this example)
 
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