Would you mind giving a complete novice the ABC of moving money into foreign currency accounts please? My bank doesn't seem to want to help, perhaps understandably. Where are these accounts accessed?

Cheers

I want to transfer my ISA to an account which besides giving a better interest rate does not lock up for seversl years!!

Gogs

I did get the hint of Scandinavia with your posting name.

I do trade rather large amounts of GBP and USD currencies and deposit in these two but that is because they are my spending money wherever I travel and live, but I think both will get hammered at some time soon.

Aussie Dollar has had a good showing last year or part of it but I can't take the exchange risk with your two favoured currencies, thanks for sharing the info though.

Changed into foreign currency ( Norwegian Kroner & Australian Dollar), both pretty stable countries.

stokkevn

These overseas accounts that you are using now for your saving, can you tell us if your deposits are held as Sterling or converted to another currency, if so which one.

Any chance of the name and location of some of these banks, preferably not in Iceland, Zimbabwe etc though

ATM

I'm paying an extra £350 a month into my mortgage - essentially gaining 6% interest a month on that money; a much better return than the measly interest rates. In the current environment there is no way i'm going to save my cash, and no way i'm going to spend it - the government/BoE wont get me spending by cutting interest rates. I find it funny that the government (for years) have been telling us to save and prepare for our retirements, and now they appear to want us to do exactly the opposite... will they support us in our old age if we have no savings due to supporting the economy now? I think not.

A fifth option of "Yes - I've moved my cash savings to other forms of investment" would be useful. I'm personally going to move some cash into equity funds and there has been discussion of moving into gold quite alot recently.

YES. Have moved my funds to overseas accounts, as have many of my friends. Despite paying tax at a higher rate for some of them the returns are far greater than the UK. The capital loss in the banks of my savings and many others like me are most likely greater than the cash injection given by the government, thus the overall looser is the borrower in lack of capital and higher interest rates

Savers have seen their returns plummet following the recent interest rate cuts. The average easy access account is now paying 0.9% and nearly 200 accounts are paying less than 0.25%. Have you changed your savings habits because of the low interest rate environment?