Percentage Rate

[jennyjoan]

If a savings account has earned me £98 in the last six months what percentage rate would that have been. Ta for answers.

[jim360]

No idea. We'd need to know how much you started with as well.

[Old_Geezer]

Well if you had put 1p in at the start

980000%

[jennyjoan]

well that's it - the savings is a current account so would have fluctuated throughout the six months but let's say £1,300 went in every month and at the end of the month would have been left £300. Does that help.

[Old_Geezer]

Oh that's more complex with regular additions. I suspect there is a free spreadsheet out there to help calculate interest. I think one needs the full starting conditions though, and what the 'left £300' means.

I'd recommend a web search for an interest calculator. Then you can simply put in what it asks for.

[jennyjoan]

thanks OG - it's not a big deal but I did wonder - thanks anyway to others.

[jim360]

If this is a real-life situation then I'd expect the interest rate to be somewhere close to 2% per year. So on the face of it that's putting the amount of money in the current account at of order £10,000. But since interest is (likely to be) calculated monthly and since the amount in the account is constantly changing I don't think we have enough information to know what the exact rate is. Doesn't it provide that information somewhere at the bank in question?

[jennyjoan]

Thanks Jim - I would be happy with the 2% as when my money was in a ISA - I think it was 0.5% - so that's a bit of a profit.

[jim360]

Should point out that I'm guessing with the 2%, it's an upper bound based on current rates and you should therefore take it with a bit of a pinch of salt. You'd have to check a bank statement or ask your bank if you want to know the actual figure. What is certain is that if you're getting £98 in interest over six months then you will need to have a fair amount of cash in the account to start with, because these days interest rates are pretty poor.

[jennyjoan]

I know Jim - they are very bad ie interest rates. Thanks for your answer.

[ubasses]

Have you looked at the web site of the Bank, they usually have all their interest rates listed.

[Svejk]

2.4892%

[jennyjoan]

That's good interest Svejk - much better than ISAs by a long shot.

[jim360]

Where's that remarkably precise figure come from, svejk?

[Svejk]

its 98 inches in metres.

[jim360]

Right...

Jenny, no-one can tell you precisely what interest you are getting unless we also know what the total amount of money in your account actually is, and how it's varied over the last few months. I wouldn't expect you to reveal that information as it's rather personal. Without we're reduced to guesswork.

[Svejk]

OR DAFT ANSWERS.

[jennyjoan]

that's ok Jim - one thing I do know is I am getting more interest in this account rather in the ISA.

[factor-fiction]

Interest of £98 in six months (£196 a year) seems high based on an inflow of £1300 with £300 remaining at the end of each month, unless you brought forward a balance of quite a few thousand pounds at the start of the year. To make anything more than a guess we'd need to know the average balance over the period to which the interest relates.

[factor-fiction]

Just realised that Jim has said pretty much the same thing

[boxtops]

what's the name of the account, JJ, and the bank name? we could then google to see what the current interest rate is on that account.