Savings account in Hungary.

You can look them up yourself.

Interest Rates

The interest rates are rubbish.  The way things are going, it could end up at negative interest rates.

People are using spare cash to improve their housing or acquire property as there's more value in it longer term.  So there is (or was) a mini-building boom.

Wherever you go, interest rates are likely to be low except where there's a larger risk - i.e. your deposit is not guaranteed.  In HU, your deposit is guaranteed up to (I think) 80K EUR per named person per account per bank.  That's an EU rule. 

Banking is quite complicated - if you shared your aims and objectives, it might be possible to get a better answer from someone.

I agree 110% with what fluffy2560 said.

In my entire life I have never bothered with a so called "Interest bearing" bank account. Oh, sure if you have a few million Euro, you can get an income, but if you have a few million Euro you certainly know better than to waste your time on the pittance a bank account can give you in interest. The bank is making far more off your money that they give you. Invest like they do. Just one word to consider when investing to spread out risk, and keep yourself solvent: Diversify.

klsallee wrote:

.... Invest like they do. Just one word to consider when investing to spread out risk, and keep yourself solvent: Diversify.

Yup! Exactly!

The usual advice is:

1/3 cash (or liquid assets easily accessible otherwise)
1/3 property or land (income and hopefully capital growth)
1/3 shares (for speculation and growth)

Depends how much really.   One could also divide by four and have another safe harbour with 1/4 in government bonds which are of course guaranteed (apart from revolutions but even then...) 

Summed up by "not putting your eggs in one basket".

First of all, thanks for taking the time to reply
Secondly I'll explain, I currently live in Israel and we can put our money in the lowest possible risk for 3.5% avg interest rate.
As I also have a HU passport I thought maybe you get better rates with low risk. But I see how it is. Thanks for everything guys.

nadavb1983 wrote:

First of all, thanks for taking the time to reply
Secondly I'll explain, I currently live in Israel and we can put our money in the lowest possible risk for 3.5% avg interest rate.
As I also have a HU passport I thought maybe you get better rates with low risk. But I see how it is. Thanks for everything guys.

No you'd never get a better rate somewhere else in a legitimate bank with lower risk.  That's regardless of country.

3.5% is quite good but it depends what currency.  If it's EUR or USD, it doesn't sound that bad but you'd have to weigh up if you can actually get hold of the money from the bank in an emergency - if that was a criteria.  In a crisis you might not be able to get the cash. i.e. risk increased.

If you are referring to deposits in local currency, then you'd need to look at inflation as interest rates should reflect that.  i.e. if interest rates are 3.5% but inflation is 2.5%, your real rate would be 1%.

The safer bet is property or government bonds (unless you think the entire country will collapse or there will be a revolution).   Even if a country has international debt and the country collapses into a mess like Somalia, it doesn't mean the debt goes away. They still owe and no-one forgets.

Anyway, you're into a new government soon and who knows what that'll mean in Israel.

But that's getting off topic.

Good morning!
Although I have left the country for over a year now I was considering having a saving's account in Hungary. After a lot of research, I found that MKB has a saving's account that gives 2% but this comes with no card or internet baking. You can visit one of the their branches and ask them.

mariamlilia wrote:

Good morning!
Although I have left the country for over a year now I was considering having a saving's account in Hungary. After a lot of research, I found that MKB has a saving's account that gives 2% but this comes with no card or internet baking. You can visit one of the their branches and ask them.

2% interest when even the official inflation is more? Genius! 

There are 5-year treasury bonds that yield 5%-ish, but it's in HUF, somehow I'd be more confident keeping my savings in USD or EUR in a bank account without any interest...

atomheart wrote:

mariamlilia wrote:

Good morning!
Although I have left the country for over a year now I was considering having a saving's account in Hungary. After a lot of research, I found that MKB has a saving's account that gives 2% but this comes with no card or internet baking. You can visit one of the their branches and ask them.

2% interest when even the official inflation is more? Genius! 

There are 5-year treasury bonds that yield 5%-ish, but it's in HUF, somehow I'd be more confident keeping my savings in USD or EUR in a bank account without any interest...

It's probably negative interest when you factor in opportunity costs and the lack of access to the cash.

You can access the cash while you are in Hungary. I just talked about my experience.

mariamlilia wrote:

You can access the cash while you are in Hungary. I just talked about my experience.

But with no Internet banking, it's not exactly a liquid asset.

mariamlilia wrote:

You can access the cash while you are in Hungary.

For the modern mobile expat, that is not really of much use.

If one is abroad from Hungary, and needs to access their money... one is thus basically.... well... to be direct... screwed.....

mariamlilia wrote:

I just talked about my experience.

Fair enough.

But the experience of other expats may differ. Just saying.

So we are here to speak about our experiences and everybody can take everything into account in order to decide regarding the best solution. 

And in general, referring to the people that commended my original post, it is not nice to make fun of people. For example I am not very good with investement and stuff, and I come from a country that uses euros so I tend to forget about the inflation. Be kind please this is a forum.

mariamlilia wrote:

And in general, referring to the people that commended my original post, it is not nice to make fun of people. For example I am not very good with investement and stuff, and I come from a country that uses euros so I tend to forget about the inflation. Be kind please this is a forum.

No one is making fun of anyone. They have made fair comments.

Do you think that this:

"2% interest when even the official inflation is more? Genius!  "

is a fair comment? Maybe some people like me are not very good in these terms in English or even in my mother tongue. Anyway, I will refrain from answering from on.

mariamlilia wrote:

Do you think that this:

"2% interest when even the official inflation is more? Genius!  "

is a fair comment? Maybe some people like me are not very good in these terms in English or even in my mother tongue. Anyway, I will refrain from answering from on.

Life ain't fair, was never meant to, deal with it. 

There is nothing about being fair. It is about manners that some seem to lack, savoir vivre and savoir faire
Have a good day in this unfair world.

mariamlilia wrote:

It is about manners that some seem to lack, savoir vivre and savoir faire

Maybe it's about people who want to take any opportunity to get offended by complete strangers. 

Excellent, today I learnt that people can be offended only by those with who they are familiar. Thank you very much for the insight.

I'm actually  with mariamlilia on this.

I don't see why we cannot provide information,  opinion, discussion and be polite all at the same time.

mariamlilia wrote:

Do you think that this:

"2% interest when even the official inflation is more? Genius!  "

is a fair comment? Maybe some people like me are not very good in these terms in English or even in my mother tongue. Anyway, I will refrain from answering from on.

That is just Atomheart being Atomheart. He is often very blunt with his views and they are often a bit rough at times. I am an American, and we are often and equally blunt people. But that is not true of all cultures or people in all cultures. The world is diverse.

This is indeed a forum, and civility should be respected, but when it does not, the best option is to simply ignore the behavior of others. In other words, you can not control others, but you can control how you allow them to affect you. Simply brush them off if needed. My 2 cents worth.

And of course, this is a moderated forum. If you really think someone is violating the forum rules, you can select to report them. IMHO, Atomheart's comments were not worth reporting, as he was simply giving a opinion -- the hard way.

klsallee wrote:

mariamlilia wrote:

Do you think that this:

"2% interest when even the official inflation is more? Genius!  "

is a fair comment? Maybe some people like me are not very good in these terms in English or even in my mother tongue. Anyway, I will refrain from answering from on.

That is just Atomheart being Atomheart. He is often very blunt with his views and they are often a bit rough at times. I am an American, and we are often and equally blunt people. But that is not true of all cultures or people in all cultures. The world is diverse.

This is indeed a forum, and civility should be respected, but when it does not, the best option is to simply ignore the behavior of others. In other words, you can not control others, but you can control how you allow them to affect you. Simply brush them off if needed. My 2 cents worth.

And of course, this is a moderated forum. If you really think someone is violating the forum rules, you can select to report them. IMHO, Atomheart's comments were not worth reporting, as he was simply giving a opinion -- the hard way.

Well, I get what you mean but being diverse doesn't mean it needs escalation in an inflammatory way.  Could have just said it doesn't make economic sense and that'd be that.

fluffy2560 wrote:

being diverse doesn't mean it needs escalation in an inflammatory way.  Could have just said it doesn't make economic sense and that'd be that.

I absolutely agree.

But everyone, in this diverse world, is not PC. And they may not give others their safe space. What you and I think would be an appropriate response, as I already said, is trying to control the behavior of others. And that is often... problematic. In a moderated forum such as here (it ain't Twitter, Reddit, or Facebook), better to just control yourself, and simply not feed anyone if you consider them a troll or if you think they have a trollish comment.

The exception of this rule (all rules have exceptions) is if one wants to show the absurdity of the comment, via humor or logic (but logic rarely works these days -- Too few people understand logic -- they work more on a glandular level).

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

being diverse doesn't mean it needs escalation in an inflammatory way.  Could have just said it doesn't make economic sense and that'd be that.

I absolutely agree.

But everyone, in this diverse world, is not PC. And they may not give others their safe space. What you and I think would be an appropriate response, as I already said, is trying to control the behavior of others. And that is often... problematic. In a moderated forum such as here (it ain't Twitter, Reddit, or Facebook), better to just control yourself, and simply not feed anyone if you consider them a troll or if you think they have a trollish comment.

The exception of this rule (all rules have exceptions) is if one wants to show the absurdity of the comment, via humor or logic (but logic rarely works these days -- Too few people understand logic -- they work more on a glandular level).

Well, OK, sure, it's not snowflake territory. 

But the upshot is people could reflect on exercising more self control, being more polite or if they want to do some trolling, at least try to be entertaining and amusing while doing it. 

Oscar Wilde once said "sarcasm was the lowest form of wit". 

There's scope to disagree with that because if it's done well, it can work in the right circumstances.

fluffy2560 wrote:

But the upshot is people could reflect on exercising more self control, being more polite or if they want to do some trolling, at least try to be entertaining and amusing while doing it.

Fact: it is unreasonable to expect everyone to behave nicely with each other and with you. Fact: you can control how you react to (perceived) rudeness against you. Assuming you misunderstood the tone and intention, or just letting go the (perceived) insult is wise. Trying to school the offender, creating and escalating a drama, especially over the internet, with people you will never ever get to know in person, is not so wise. Trolling was never meant to be entertaining for anyone but the troll. PC is overrated (and overdone these days). 

atomheart wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

But the upshot is people could reflect on exercising more self control, being more polite or if they want to do some trolling, at least try to be entertaining and amusing while doing it.

Fact: it is unreasonable to expect everyone to behave nicely with each other and with you. Fact: you can control how you react to (perceived) rudeness against you. Assuming you misunderstood the tone and intention, or just letting go the (perceived) insult is wise. Trying to school the offender, creating and escalating a drama, especially over the internet, with people you will never ever get to know in person, is not so wise. Trolling was never meant to be entertaining for anyone but the troll. PC is overrated (and overdone these days). 

Well maybe but that's sort of off topic for Savings Account - why not join in at the Absolutely Anything Else thread?

But just to say, it's not entirely just PC but perhaps a skill worth learning how to deal with trolls.  It's like hecklers, political types have to learn to deal with them and remain calm even  in the most trying circumstances.  It's very interesting how people moderate combatants in war zones where the stakes are so much higher.

atomheart wrote:

PC is overrated (and overdone these days). 

You might have a point.

Even a liberal news outlet might have your back*:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/opin … ested.html

*If anything, unlike reactionaries, liberals are more often honest about being fair and willing to weight the facts and circumstances.**

** does not mean they are always honest as described. It is basically a ratio thing......