Expensive deposit: what happened to the pensioner who wanted to close the savings in the bank?

Do you have a bank deposit?

Now want to check how much interest the bank is paying you on it.

The Bank of Israel raises the interest rate to curb inflation, but the citizens of Israel have no gain from keeping their money.

The difference between the prime rate and what you get from the bank could have been funny, if he hadn't told a sad story

Liat Ron

04/09/2022

Sunday, 04 September 2022, 12:51 Updated: 13:09

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We all know how much the price of gas or bread has gone up.

The bank is allowed to wrap the real price in all kinds of wording that the reasonable person does not understand (Photo: ShutterStock)

Let's start from the end: do you have a deposit in the bank?

Now want to check how much interest the bank is paying you on it.

If you think that the banks changed direction after being caught red-handed and hit on the head for their stinginess in giving interest on the plus, while on your minus they are celebrating with maximum interest, and they are finally thinking about the customer as well, think again.

Let's all be my mother, an 81-year-old pensioner, who took the initiative and decided to check last Thursday what was happening with her deposit at Bank Hapoalim.

If I hadn't witnessed the conversation as a signature legacy, I would have thought it was a particularly bad joke.

In the middle of March, the previous plan was opened for her, and the bank offered her to close her nice deposit, amounting to several hundred thousand shekels, in an annual plan, with exit stations every month, and she, as someone who belongs to a generation that puts its trust in the bank and its officials, immediately agreed, with the absurd argument, " Because the bank is guarding me."

When we asked the clerk how much the not-so-modest deposit was earning her, he said coolly, 0.06% per year.

I was sure there was confusion.

According to data from the Bank of Israel, the average interest rate on a monthly deposit (at a fixed rate) in the five major banks, to which Bank Hapoalim belongs, was 0.57% on average, almost ten times the insulting interest rate the bank gave to my pensioner.

When the tuna became more expensive by the shekel, we switched to purchasing another brand.

What alternative does the little saver have? (Photo: ShutterStock)

The official still had the audacity to insult

According to the calculation we made, the phenomenal yield that the deposit yields - hold tight: NIS 228 per year!

This means that with inflation of 5.2% a year, an interest rate of 2% and a prime interest rate of 3.5%, she loses at least two thousand shekels a year.

I mentioned in the clerk's ears that the amount sounded ridiculous, it was insulting, and I asked again how much the interest was, because you can always make a mistake, and he repeated, 0.06% and complained that I said "ridiculous", because it is not correct.

I won't bore you with the difficult exchange that followed in the conversation, I will only say that I informed him that it would be useful and respectful to open the deposit at the nearest station, because the money is going to another bank.

This personal story is just an illustration of what all banks, not just Hapoal, can do to you if you don't keep your eyes open.

In their defense, they will claim that they acted with the transparency that the Bank of Israel requires of them, but they make sure to wrap the "transparent" information in a layer of inflated economic terms, which sounds like heavy gibberish to the ears of the common citizen.

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Go blow the money on shopping - at least you'll earn its current value.

This is how the banks' greed thwarts the plan of the Bank of Israel (Photo: ShutterStock)

You don't have to open a deposit in your bank.

It is recommended to check and compare

We all know how much the milk or bread went up under supervision, and how much the fuel became more expensive or cheaper.

The information is accessible, clear and published everywhere.

But no one bothers to explain to the reasonable citizen how much he will receive for his deposit, without dumbing him down with fractions of percentages, deposits, repayment times and other obfuscated data and convoluted sentences.

I'm willing to bet that most of you didn't know, for example, that until last weekend, some banks gave a significantly higher interest rate on deposits to "premium" customers, who belong to the "private banking" route.

The same amount of money, plus, we emphasize, yielded double interest for the privileged and reduced interest for the common people.

That's how it was for years, until by chance members of the "Raise Up" community discovered the trick, and in no time the banks wanted to compare the two routes, which was supposed to be the case in the first place.

The public can boycott a company because it priced the pasta in a shekel or charged an exorbitant price for a ton, and will buy another brand.

With the banks the story is different.

Because there is no real competition between them, and miraculously the interest rates they give on deposits are very similar, there are really no substitutes in the market that you can turn to.

And what about the elderly?

Who guards them?

We have become accustomed to seeing all kinds of crooks exploiting the elderly, who take advantage of their extreme age to make a fortune.

As it seems, the banks are also apparently stinging them as much as possible, all of course under the auspices of the law, with authority and authority and under a multitude of excuses and responses.

That's how there is no one to run after them on heels in the streets.

The one who was supposed to do it, the supervision of the banks, whose job it is to protect the elderly and the depositors, is showing laxity and lack of interest, which will come back to him and the Bank of Israel like a boomerang.

Because when the banks do not reward the deposits with a reasonable amount, the message that goes to the public is: Go blow the money on shopping and traveling abroad, because if you put it in the bank you will lose. So with one hand the Bank of Israel raises the interest rate to curb inflation and with the other hand it falls asleep on the watch and sends the people of Israel to spend money on crazy shopping to preserve its value.

And we'll end with an important tip: you don't have to put the deposit in your bank, the one that manages the checking account for you. Go to the bank that gives you the highest interest on the deposit, place it there, without pay an account opening fee and with a minimum of paperwork. Just as Diplomat's tuna sales suffered after consumer pressure, you will see that the interest on your deposits, even if they are only for a month, will soon yield much more than 0.06% per month.

: "The customer's funds were deposited in a deposit at a fixed interest rate of 0.06% on 3/14/22, when the Bank of Israel's interest rate was 0.1%. In order to receive an updated interest rate, the deposit must be withdrawn at the existing withdrawal station every month. These days, customers with a deposit of the type This is expected to receive an initiative request by the bank to withdraw the deposit and redeposit it in a monthly deposit with interest that can reach 1.35% depending on the amount of the deposit.

• Of money

• our money

Tags

• Bank Hapoalim

• security deposit

• interest

• inflation