It seems such a short time ago that people who invested all of their money in the stock market were regarded as being "risqué," and those who kept their money in the bank in short and long term deposit accounts were described as being "sensible". Well that role has certainly been reversed over the last crazy year or so, when the financial world turned upside down for so many.

Nowadays people who still have money on deposit at the bank are regarded as being some form of masochists, and no less than the banks themselves. With interest rates seemingly stuck forever on 0.5%, money left in a bank account is not only gathering dust, it is also paying for the privilege. On the other hand, the FTSE can almost do no wrong. And it has been that way for more than half a year, when the first indications that the global economic downturn might not last forever began to look evident. Sufficient to say that, the FTSE 100 rose by 21% in the third quarter of 2009, and 45% since March the highest percentage rises since the exchange was created in 1983. At current interest levels, investors would have to leave their money in the bank for around 7 years to earn that kind of return on their investment.

Leading economists argue that by trying to jump start the economy, the UK government has damaged national growth for the foreseeable future, with the only way that the situation can be reversed is to put an end to the stimulus passage and increase interest rates. They go on to suggest that as soon as the government does increase interest rates, only then will the stock market boom begin to fizzle out. That will be the time for the smart investor to release their equity exposure and return most if not all their capital to their bank account and earn some reasonable interest. Like the good old days.

financial

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Tags: Bank Account, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Currency, Economic Downturn, Economics, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, Global Credit Crisis, Interest Rates, Investment, Money, Money Management, Recession, Savings, stimulus passage, stock market, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, UK Banks, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession

Most people have a bank account and a lot more people are nowadays accessing their bank accounts via online services.

Why wait in a queue at your local bank, when you can switch on your computer, type in your personal details view your current balance, pay bills and order a new cheque book; all from the peace and quiet of your own home?

Great, or it would be if there weren’t a determined bunch of cyber criminals out there who are determined to illegally part you from your money, through various online banking scams and phishing techniques.

The downside with online banking is that you gain access to your bank account via a web-site, which asks you your personal details, checking your identity, and then letting you in through the portal.

But, unlike standing at your local branch and talking to the teller staff who might know who you are, an online system can’t tell if it’s actually you who have typed in the correct details. If someone else has your details and enters your account, then they can do all you can, including draining your account of all its funds.

Now, let’s not be too hasty – pinching your account details is not easy, but there are a number of tricks and deceptions that the cyber thieves use to try and get your information.

The classic one is phishing. A cyber criminal will have access to say a million or so email addresses. He will then write and design a very clever looking email which purports to come from your bank. They will use a logo, an official address and lots of official words. They will then say something like your bank is updating it servers and unless you contact them and provide your details, unfortunately, your service will be discontinued. All very polite and all, unfortunately, for most of us, very believable.

Now, the best bet is to ignore all such emails. Your bank does not play free and loose with your details, so they won’t be sending you emails asking you for your online banking log-in codes. It just won’t happen, so bin the email straight away.

If you want any more convincing, take a close look at the wording of the email. Many are sent from overseas and they often don’t have a grasp of common-day English. So look for a bad spelling, an odd choice of words, or a strange phrase. Also, the tone might be slightly aggressive. Why would a bank technical update involve you giving them their personal details again? That’s there problem, not yours. And have a look at what address it originates from. It might have come from a free email service (and banks don’t use those), or use the name of the bank, with lots of numbers and other words.

Finally, in the case of online banking, it’s best to be very, very safe, than sorry.

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For More information on specific Banks use these links

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings

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Tags: Bank Account, Online banking, Phishing, Scams

Central banking is the most ingenious scam in the world. Here’s how the scam works. Firstly, let’s look at a situation where the fiat currency system is just starting. The government needs money. It goes to the bankers who create the money out of thin air by taking some pieces of paper and putting a lot of official looking writing on them. This writing is called a government bond or gilt. It basically means that the government promises to pay the bankers the money back, with some interest, let’s say 5% per annum. The government sends the notes over to the central bank and the central bank sends back a suitcase full of other printed pieces of paper called banknotes equal in amount to the bond they were sent by the government. All that has happened is that a few pieces of paper have changed hands. This is basically the start of the money creation process.

Now…if this was the start of a fiat money system and the government wanted to make their first transaction with the central bank or let’s say £100m, they would send £100m of bonds to the central banks and the central bank would send them £100m in notes…with an interest understanding attached to each of those notes.

Now….the government deposits this money into their bank account and the money is then available to the retail financial world to make loans with. The financial system, the retail banks, know that they can lend out 9 times the amount of this deposit, so they lend £900m to customers who want to borrow for businesses, cars and homes etc. This is how money is created, out of thin air, from the central bank.

Now….I DO wish I was a central bank…because this is a great business. What the central bank does is that it gets interest each year from the government who collect it from the banks who collect it from the borrowers. The people who own the central bank can then go out and buy houses, cars or anything else they want with the interest on the money they create out of thin air! How cool is that!

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For More information on specific Banks use these links

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings

Related Websites

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Tags: Bank Account, Central Bank, Fiat Money System, Money