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#26 January 20 2018

Mhdskr
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

I read about a insane offer by BOB a while back. the conditions are aggressive but one can reach up to 9.65% on LBP deposits. those interested can google "SMACC" account at BOB (https://www.bankofbeirut.com/en/Persona … /105/smacc)

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#27 January 21 2018

nefe_lpmk
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Mhdskr wrote:

I read about a insane offer by BOB a while back. the conditions are aggressive but one can reach up to 9.65% on LBP deposits. those interested can google "SMACC" account at BOB (https://www.bankofbeirut.com/en/Persona … /105/smacc)

Can you give more details?

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#28 January 21 2018

Mhdskr
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

nefe_lpmk wrote:
Mhdskr wrote:

I read about a insane offer by BOB a while back. the conditions are aggressive but one can reach up to 9.65% on LBP deposits. those interested can google "SMACC" account at BOB (https://www.bankofbeirut.com/en/Persona … /105/smacc)

Can you give more details?

All I know is what's given in the link I provided earlier. Haven't went to a BOB branch and asked in person. I'm more inclined to go for a retirement plan with Metlife instead. It's a better option IMO. 7.1% interest guaranteed on USD + life insurance.

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#29 February 2 2018

Guitaret
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Just an update guys, judging by the publications of BDL online, the interest did officially go up.

Please check the below link:
http://www.bdl.gov.lb/webroot/statistic … me=t5272-6

Private banks usually offer more than that, so @Xsever we should negotiate a better deal.

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#30 February 5 2018

Xsever
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Guitaret wrote:

Just an update guys, judging by the publications of BDL online, the interest did officially go up.

Please check the below link:
http://www.bdl.gov.lb/webroot/statistic … me=t5272-6

Private banks usually offer more than that, so @Xsever we should negotiate a better deal.

Thank you for the update and the link. I will definitely print a screenshot and take it with me to the bank as I'll meet with the branch manager. She always handles the interest rate on my savings account.

You probably know that we can't get near the 6.91% with a monthly maturity and with mid-range amounts, but any basis point increase we can get would definitely be welcomed.

Let's keep each other posted.

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#31 February 9 2018

Salloum
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

The important thing is to get monthly compounding. Roughly speaking, a 5% per annum rate, when compounded monthly, will translate to around a ±5.6% effective rate. Also, I'd highly encourage leaving your sums in LBP. The rate is higher because of the higher risk, but practically speaking BDL has enormous amounts of USD and gold, so if there's a crisis on the LBP, it wont happen overnight. You'll have more than enough time to sell them and buy dollars. If you have a decent amount of money, you can get 8 to 8.5% on LBP compounded monthly which is pretty amazing for a basically/practically risk-free investment.

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#32 February 10 2018

Guitaret
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

@Salloum your points are understood and appreciated.

Salloum wrote:

If you have a decent amount of money, you can get 8 to 8.5% on LBP compounded monthly which is pretty amazing for a basically/practically risk-free investment.

Please share if you have information about banks that offer this much.

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#33 February 10 2018

silo_m8
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Nobody in this thread is accounting for inflation and taxes. It would be interesting to see the exercise being done. Sadly I don't have the data for inflation

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#34 February 10 2018

Guitaret
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

silo_m8 wrote:

Nobody in this thread is accounting for inflation and taxes. It would be interesting to see the exercise being done. Sadly I don't have the data for inflation

It has been mentionned in this thread but to be honest it is not a big concern of mine because this investment is not a long term one for me. A better way to help you see it: Consider it a piggy bank for a young working man in Lebanon that will give him interest, plus a restraint & a discipline plan against overspending on stuff you don't really need, stuff that will help keeping you poor like the average millennial.

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#35 February 10 2018

Salloum
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Guitaret wrote:

@Salloum your points are understood and appreciated.

Salloum wrote:

If you have a decent amount of money, you can get 8 to 8.5% on LBP compounded monthly which is pretty amazing for a basically/practically risk-free investment.

Please share if you have information about banks that offer this much.

I work at a top 3 bank (Audi, BLOM, Byblos) and we are able to offer this rate, usually for $250k+ deposits.

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#36 February 12 2018

Xsever
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

silo_m8 wrote:

Nobody in this thread is accounting for inflation and taxes. It would be interesting to see the exercise being done. Sadly I don't have the data for inflation

I did mention the taxes in a previous post for sure. My current nominal rate is 6.2% per year, but when I factor the 7% tax and the bank's $5 annuity fee (monthly for me), the real rate drops to 5.63%. Samer mentioned that inflation was 4.5% last year so that leaves you with 1.13% which is sad but still safe.

On the other hand, inflation will not always be 4.5%. This is just an outlier.

For access to a ton of data, check this out and thank me later.

https://brite.blominvestbank.com/

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#37 February 12 2018

Xsever
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Guitaret wrote:

Consider it a piggy bank for a young working man in Lebanon that will give him interest, plus a restraint & a discipline plan against overspending on stuff you don't really need, stuff that will help keeping you poor like the average millennial.

Very very well said! That's something I really learned by living abroad and reading a lot of books on investing. One must always live below their means so that they can save and invest throughout their working life. By the time it's retirement time, one must have easily collected ~1M or an equivalent amount for them to retire comfortably. When you reached retirement age, you start shifting your investments from riskier to safe (stocks to bonds).

The books I recommend are: 1)The Millionaire Next Door and 2) Common Sense on Mutual Funds.

Sadly in Lebanon, people want to live way above their means while having non-matching salaries and this results in loans piling up: car loan, personal loan, wedding loan, plastic surgery loan, phone loan, etc....

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#38 October 1 2018

AVOlio
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Hi guys, revving this thread.
And after reading quite a few posts, I'd like to ask for some guidance and suggestions.

My work place, which is in private sector, has recently given us the choice of fixing our salaries with 2 banks,
Fransabank or Bank or Beirut.
First thing to note is, that after talking with the representatives of both banks, that they are excluding any sort of fees for us, including account fees, income tax, debit/internet card fees, free credit card (but of course they will take interest If I use it).
So basically, there are no fees for using their services I guess, and these are with both banks.

But I would like to ask for your opinions on which one to go with.

When I talked to fransabank, they had :
-above mentioned no fees what so ever.
-he mentioned that I can receive interest on the money in my account every 6 months, precisely June and December forgot the exact percentage.
I think this is the maturity thing that @guitaret and @xsever were talking about, I would like to know more about this
-every month, they can duplicate the amount of my salary in my account and if I want I can use those funds paying 1.xx interest.

When I talked to Bob they had:
-the same above mentioned no fees.
-every month, they charge 2$ on my internet card, IF I use it. But they charge once per month only and I can use it as much as I want. If I don't use it they won't charge anything.
-every month, they can quadruple (4x) my salary, and I can use them if I want with a 1.xx % interest to pay.


So I'd really appreciate anyone with experience in the matter to help me make a good choice.
Oh and I totally forgot to ask both banks if they have online banking, in which I can check the balance of my current account, balance in the internet card, ability to transfer my salary from my account to use it on the internet card (or they would do that automatically idk).
I will ask them tomorrow.

Thank you.

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#39 October 1 2018

Draguen
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

@Avolio, out of experience, take the bank with the ATM closer to your place of living / working. Interest rates on average salaries are not worth committing to a specific bank and having to go back and forth between their ATMs if they are not well located. Noting that usually if you use an ATM that is not from your bank, you have a 5$ fee.

quick math, if you save 10% of your average salary (let's say 1500$ * 0.10 = 150 $ per month, which will end up being 1800 per year, placed at a rate of 5%, it will amount to 90$ at the end of the year (after another year), which are the equivalent of 18 ATM transactions not from your bank, which is quite frankly, not a lot.

If however you decide to only use ATMs from your bank, but they are not located on you daily commute or close to your place, then you'll spend them on fuel.

Last edited by Draguen (October 1 2018)

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#40 October 4 2018

Guitaret
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Hello @Avolio

In interest terms, you are not going to get something of worth unless you made an effort to put money aside each month as @Draguen said. After all, it is about spending the money left after saving and not about saving the money left after spending. You did not mention the currency of your salary. USD is safer in this current economy, LBP has the better return. All in all, keep some money aside in USD for God knows what will happen. If you need to get more interest, try to go for an account that is not current, ask for a sight-saving account as it offers better interest and you are still able to withdraw money when you want.

In terms of banks you mentioned, I have experience with BOB. They have great support and they do offer free online banking in which you are able to transfer between accounts, outside accounts (wire transfer) & even send/receive Western union. About internet card, I think it is 2$ per month (maybe more SMS fees) so if you guys as a group tried to negotiate your internet card for free it would be great. Please don't be tempted to join their clubs as I did, they have hidden drawback (ex: Gold club).

About what they offer in terms of salary credit, the interest is very high (about 30% year & more) so do not be tempted by this option. The only loan worth taking is related to real estate ( buying, building, renovating) or if you have to, a car loan.

Let me know if you have further concerns.

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#41 October 4 2018

AVOlio
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Thanks @Guitaret
I actually chose fransabank in the end and my decision was based on many factors .
First, I stopped looking at the savings acount or interest that I would receive when keeping money in my account because my salary isn't that high so not worth the consideration .
I concentrated on the interest rates they had on credit cards .

Fransabank was at 1.5%
BoB was at 1.95%

So Fransabank was the better option .

Plus after further talking and inquiring with the representatives from both banks, I found out that:
BoB :
The credit card/ debit card / current account was only free for the first year and then I will be charged for them .
(They did not explicitey mention this part when I first talked to them and they said its just free).
And as mentioned , there was a 2.5$ fee on the Internet card monthly if I use it .

Fransabank :
After further talking and inquiring as well,
Their offer was all true .
Current account / credit card / debit card / Internet card free for life (as long as I am still at my workplace that is ).
Add to that all the free actions/ transactions that I can make like balance inquiry , cash withdrawal etc etc at their ATMs and online .
I even think that BoB would have crossed me over with all those fees later .

So based on all the above, plus a very good word of mouth experience by a friend of mine with Fransabank branch near me I went ahead and chose Fransabank .

Oh, and I get my salary in LBP.

Last edited by AVOlio (October 4 2018)

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#42 October 6 2018

Guitaret
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

I am glad you made the right choice @AVOlio and as I see this is a much better package than the one we have (or don't) for employees salary domiciliation at Audi.

Account fees per month 3$ ( 1$ service charge, 1$ SMS fees and another 1$ (BVE) we do not have any idea what it is)
Credit card: free but interest is 1.95% per month on POS & for cash: 2.59% instantly then 1.95% per month.
Internet card: 20$/year + 1$ SMS fees per month

The worst part is their evil value date:
On account credit, the value date is 1 day after and on account debit the value date is 1 day before and so if you withdraw money the same day you get your salary, you get interest charges (as if they have lent you the withdrawn money for 1 day).
The worst example of this bad practice: I took a personal loan and for the silly me I withdrew it in cash the same day it got credit to my account to find out that I got 7$ interest charges. On top of (interest fees, stamp fees, file fees, insurance fees, staff commision fees), I get interest on top of the interest.

I know this information was not requested but I wanted to share my experience with Audi to add value to this thread so it can be used as a guidebook for the beautiful community we have here and maybe some visitors.

Cheers

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#43 October 8 2018

sero
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Hello

I noticed many banks are raising their interest rates on saving accounts, some are giving 16% over 5 years on LBP.
And its not on a huge amount of money (A bank offered 15% annual rate over 5 years for 30k LBP (and 10% over 1 year on same amount).

What do you think about these rates?
Are we close to an economic Collapse?
In this case would it be clever to wait and see if the rates rise even higher before putting money in a saving account?

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#44 October 8 2018

joe2k17
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Hello Sero,
Thanks for raising this I also have the same question, how wise it is now to block money in LBP for 5 years and the current  economic situation is so bad ?
I am not sure if it is even better to put your money in  USD and get lower interest and stay safe ?
Or may be block them in LBP/Monthly  and Monitor to have a little  higher rate and a  small chance to convert  them to USD in case of any economy collapse.
Let see what other member think it s best to do at the moment ?

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#45 October 8 2018

samer
Admin

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

I've been thinking about this and it's hard for me to completely grasp the situation. I hope other members that have deeper knowledge about economics will step in to enlighten us.

Here's what I see:

- Sharp rise of interest rates as discussed in this topic
- Lebanese gov bonds trading at a discount (95 cents on the dollar for short-medium term), which hints that the market thinks the government will default on its debt obligations
- Nominal debt at 152% of GDP.  Third-highest in the world.
- No government formation in sight means no budget for 2019 and unclear handling of outstanding debt
- Every business-owner I know complaining that "business is slow"
- Housing loans on hold, real-estate dip

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#46 October 8 2018

Draguen
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

samer wrote:

I've been thinking about this and it's hard for me to completely grasp the situation. I hope other members that have deeper knowledge about economics will step in to enlighten us.

Here's what I see:

- Sharp rise of interest rates as discussed in this topic
- Lebanese gov bonds trading at a discount (95 cents on the dollar for short-medium term), which hints that the market thinks the government will default on its debt obligations
- Nominal debt at 152% of GDP.  Third-highest in the world.
- No government formation in sight means no budget for 2019 and unclear handling of outstanding debt
- Every business-owner I know complaining that "business is slow"
- Housing loans on hold, real-estate dip

There is also one other major issue that is not really discussed by local media : if by any divine intervention we manage to get a government, as of today there is not one serious external investor that believes that they will be able to reform the economy as it was promised during CEDRE.

Basically even if we get a government, nobody believes that they will be able to reform anything

Last edited by Draguen (October 8 2018)

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#47 October 9 2018

Draguen
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

sero wrote:

Hello

I noticed many banks are raising their interest rates on saving accounts, some are giving 16% over 5 years on LBP.
And its not on a huge amount of money (A bank offered 15% annual rate over 5 years for 30k LBP (and 10% over 1 year on same amount).

What do you think about these rates?
Are we close to an economic Collapse?
In this case would it be clever to wait and see if the rates rise even higher before putting money in a saving account?

@sero, could you please mention or DM me the name ofnthe banks proposing these interest rates? I might block a bit for a year or so

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#48 October 9 2018

sero
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

Draguen wrote:

@sero, could you please mention or DM me the name ofnthe banks proposing these interest rates? I might block a bit for a year or so

Done!

joe2k17 wrote:

how wise it is now to block money in LBP for 5 years and the current  economic situation is so bad ?

I have a loan in LBP with maturity 20 years.
The way I see it, I can put LBP money in a saving account to pay part of the loan's fees.
In this way even if an economic collapse took place, the saving account money will still pay for the loan money.

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#49 October 9 2018

sero
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

samer wrote:

I've been thinking about this and it's hard for me to completely grasp the situation. I hope other members that have deeper knowledge about economics will step in to enlighten us.

Here's what I see:

- Sharp rise of interest rates as discussed in this topic
- Lebanese gov bonds trading at a discount (95 cents on the dollar for short-medium term), which hints that the market thinks the government will default on its debt obligations
- Nominal debt at 152% of GDP.  Third-highest in the world.
- No government formation in sight means no budget for 2019 and unclear handling of outstanding debt
- Every business-owner I know complaining that "business is slow"
- Housing loans on hold, real-estate dip


Exactly!
I can't find a single positive explanation for the current economy to get better

Some say CEDRE (this is the 3rd one if I'm not mistaken, what did we see from the first 2?), others say when war ends in Syria Lebanon will boom (but probably the Syrian gov will only allow a few Lebanese ally business men to benefit from this), others say president Aoun will not accept an economic collapse to take place during his ruling (I think its not his call), others say we have Riad Salemeh (the guy is smart, but won't be able to handle this due to the amount of corruption we have), others say we have gas/petrol now (lol)....

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#50 October 9 2018

Draguen
Member

Re: Bank savings account interest rates

sero wrote:

Exactly!
I can't find a single positive explanation for the current economy to get better

Some say CEDRE (this is the 3rd one if I'm not mistaken, what did we see from the first 2?), others say when war ends in Syria Lebanon will boom (but probably the Syrian gov will only allow a few Lebanese ally business men to benefit from this), others say president Aoun will not accept an economic collapse to take place during his ruling (I think its not his call), others say we have Riad Salemeh (the guy is smart, but won't be able to handle this due to the amount of corruption we have), others say we have gas/petrol now (lol)....


Cedre is different from other previous conferences because due to the miserable failures of Paris I and Paris II, the money will only be unlocked if the reforms are implemented, instead of before.

basically no reforms, no money.

Last edited by Draguen (October 9 2018)

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