Over 850,000 depositors will soon pay their banks for their “savings” accounts…

The Guardian reports British bank NatWest will begin charging its patrons to hold cash in the bank. Said another way, negative interest rates are now affecting everyday bank customers…

[Negative interest rates are a perversion of normal lending practices. Some call it “voodoo banking.” Instead of earning interest on deposits and bonds, negative interest rates mean you pay to let others use your money.]

We’ve long tracked the spread of negative interest rates around the globe (see here, here, and here). Until now, regular bank depositors have avoided paying negative interest in most cases. It’s the banks themselves that have paid to keep funds on deposit at their country’s central bank.

But that’s all changing…

Reuters reports Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, couldn’t rule out passing negative interest rate charges on to its regular clientele. And NL Times reports Dutch bank ABN AMRO will charge its business customers to hold their money at the bank by October 1.

Longtime Daily readers know these are all part of the global War on Cash…

Central banks have lowered rates into negative territory to try to stimulate their economies. They hoped folks would choose to spend or invest their money rather than pay negative interest rates on their deposits.

But it’s had the opposite effect…

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The lower rates go, the more depositors have begun “hoarding” cash. They’d rather put paper notes “under the mattress” than leave them in their accounts or bid up investment assets that are already sky high. And that’s caused bankers to say cash must go.

Despite its lunacy, negative interest rates and the global War on Cash will continue to grow. The world now holds over $13 trillion in negative-yielding debt… and that number is growing fast. This destabilizes the entire global financial system more with each passing day.

Bottom line: It’s critical to follow Tom’s advice: Remove some cash from the corrupt banking system now. A “bank holiday”—where banks close and ATMs shut down—could strike at any time. Tom provides his recommended cash allocations and favorite “off-the-grid” savings techniques right here.