Marcus by Goldman Sachs

Marcus, the first international expansion of Goldmanā€™s new retail business, will offer the 1.5 per cent* rate on savings from Ā£1 to Ā£250,000, which makes it the highest-yielding instant-access account available, according to data company Moneyfacts.

ā€œWeā€™re going out with a strong offer, we know weā€™ll attract a lot of savers,ā€ Des McDaid, UK managing director of Marcus, said in an interview. ā€œOur goal is not to compete with the small players, the goal is to move people away from the high street banks that control 80 per cent of the market.ā€

Emphasis mine: variable rate of 1.50% AER, which includes a bonus rate of 0.15% gross for the first 12 months.

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Itā€™s rough out there for the ā€˜challenger banksā€™ (the people in this chart :point_down:), I wouldnā€™t want to try to build a business based on this -

chart from the BBCā€™s coverage of this news

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Quote of the day? from that BBC article:

Anna Bowes, co-founder of Savings Champion, said: "Savers who fail to move their money from the shockingly low-paying easy access accounts on the high street are allowing themselves to be robbed.

Also, this article explains why Marcus is so good in my opinion; simply because it has the least caveats:
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/09/marcus-by-goldman-sachs-launches-in-uk-with-top-savings-rate/

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ā€˜goodā€™ is a very relative term here. CPIH inflation is 2.4%, so even with GS youā€™ll be losing nearly 1% a year of your purchasing power, something a lot of people seem to miss when arguing over a couple of fractions of a %age point here or there.

Inflation is a tax and in these days of low rates the only way to protect yourself is through investing, thereā€™s no guarantees youā€™ll make money but at least thereā€™s not a guarantee youā€™ll lose it!!!

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meh, go with nationwide, a mix of 2.5% (upto 50k) 3.5% Ā£100/ month and 5% Ā£250/month put the rest in an index fund

2.5% up to 50k? Whereā€™s it say that?

Youā€™re right on this and I did think about changing it to ā€œcompetitiveā€. However, I meant good in terms of wrt other so called easy access savings accounts out there.

Iā€™m with you on the investing but Iā€™m also one for a balanced portfolio in oneā€™s personal finances, which will inevitably include a cash buffer zone, be it a emergency cash fund or a rainy day fund. This product falls into this area for me of essentially a risk free asset (other than T-Bills) and cash has maximal liquidity. This is important when itā€™s recommended you have around 3-6 months wages of liquid savings to cover yourself if youā€™re hit by a liquidity shock.

The above is the context for why I said good but yes, in real terms youā€™re losing purchasing power as ā€œ99 per cent of savings accounts fail to beat the consumer price indexā€™ā€™ but in the grand scheme of personal finances & your overall portfolio this is just one factor.

Nearly all savings products fail to beat inflation:

Exactly as you say. Nationwide gives 5% on up to Ā£2,500 so that is a nice cash pillow acting as an emergency fund that beats CPI.

You need to be a child, my 5 year old gets 3.25% on his JISA.

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google it; its called smart limited access, you get one withdrawal and Iā€™m not sure about the pentaly- or if they still even offer it. But imo nationwide is the best high street bank for interest rates

The key word here is limited! :green_apple: :tangerine:

Also doesnā€™t appear on the Nationwide site any more

yes, but at the same time, it matches inflation, so up to you, loose money with freedom, or keep it with limited access (you can withdraw anytime btw). This would be ideal for the emergency fund most people have, but admittedly, not good for much else

Just to be clear, nominally no money is lost, in fact it is gained.

Can you link more info to the proposition? Itā€™s near impossible to find out the key info.

of course not lost on paper just purchasing power. I had a look for the account, and can no longer find it, I still have an account, so it might be worth going into a branch, martin Lewisā€™s website has some good stuff as well

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Tbh I had a hard (aka long) time sorting out my mumā€™s savings account at Santander in branch so Iā€™ll pass on this. Online is present and future, I donā€™t want to increase my interactions with branches but cheers for the tip anyhow.

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Some of the rationale behind this move:

Goldman is offering savers a top-of-the-market interest rate of 1.5 per cent for the first 12 months. That is still much less than the bankā€™s wholesale cost of funding. Goldman is paying a weighted average fixed coupon of 3.86 per cent on the roughly 2,500 bonds tracked by Bloomberg, for example. Meanwhile, rising base rates are squeezing the bankā€™s margins. Over the first six months Goldmanā€™s interest expenses were up 55 per cent, climbing faster than the 53 per cent increase in interest income.

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Customer numbers are inā€¦ and all without a mobile app yet too :bank:

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200,000 customers!

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Has anyone got around to using the Marcus account? Iā€™m thinking of setting one up for an emergency account

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