Interest

[matkirk]

Just went to Santander today the manager was trying to tell me they have fixed rate saving accounts that are between 10 and 12% interest per year!

Is this right? In England they are paying a pathetic 3% at the moment!

Sounds great, but am I missing something?

[Life_N_Cancun]

That sounds too good to be true to me.. if there were such a thing right now I would expect people from all over the world would be flooding the Mexican banking system to capitalize on that "fixed" return.... I'd imagine either the guy just didn't know what he was talking about, was misrepresenting an INVESTMENT account with a possible yield of 10-12% annually, or was telling you about a loan offer that perhaps you misunderstood... but by all means look into it an let us know...

[Steve]

Couldnt find anything on their website about it:
Santander...El valor de las ideas.

As Life says, sounds a bit too good to be true. Maybe they pay you 12% interest a year but charge 20% to manage the account. That would be more like it

[matkirk]

Yeah it does sound a bit wild, but when they charge 13% for a mortgage here and 60% on a credit card I didn't think it was outside the realm of possibility they might also pay a good rate of interest.

I'll investigate further and let you know my findings. Although I think it is gonna be an investment type account like you say.

Just out of interest anyone know off hand what the average rate is on a regular savings account here then?

[Dougout2424]

Don't forget the currency translation. Rates fluctuate daily so you have to add or subtract from the 12%. For example if you started in May and turned pounds into pesos at $18.15 per pound and then got your 6% (half a year) you still lost as you had to convert them back at $19.50. In other words you had more Peso but it took a LOT more pesos to buy back your original Pounds. The real result is a loss. It's Complicated and that is not including any exchange fee!