Animal Crossing: New Horizons players are today being greeted by a message informing them of a reduced interest rate on their savings accounts. This letter from the Bank of Nook has been deployed in the 1.2.0 update, with players learning that the Bells they once received from storing their money in the ABD will now be reduced.
This latest change has seemingly been made to prevent players from “cheating” their way through Animal Crossing: New Horizons. As plenty of players have been “time traveling” — skipping ahead in the game by changing the Switch’s internal clock — in order to maximize their profits, the interest received in their savings accounts would allow them to accumulate a great number of Bells.
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While interest rates declining don’t exactly fit in with the whole feeling of escapism that Animal Crossing: New Horizons typically provides, Tom Nook has provided a couple of gifts to help soften the blow. Attached in the latter is a Bell Bag rug and a world map, which don’t exactly make up for this big shift in the game’s economy, but at least it’s something.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons | What is the reduced interest rate on savings accounts?
The interest rate on the Bells you stored in your savings account would be provided over set intervals. The prevailing theory is that this interest would be applied every two weeks, but given how many Bells flow in and out of each players’ saving account, judging exactly what percentage players were offered is difficult.
This also means that knowing what this percentage is now is impossible at this point, unless the player time travels ahead in order to judge how many Bells they’ve gained in their Bank of Nook savings account.
The general reaction to this change hasn’t been positive. While some were surprised that they received interest on their savings accounts whatsoever, others pointed out how this is effectively “punishing” all players just to prevent time travelers from filling their pockets. With the community not exactly being in favor of time travelers in the first place, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons not employing many other methods to dissuade them, some feel that this is unfairly impacting the game as a whole rather than just those who are skipping ahead in the game.
