After a brief respite, inflation is on the rise again; another blow to savers, especially as once again the Bank of England base rate was kept on hold in the latest MPC meeting.
However, the good news is that best buy savings rates have also been on the rise and whilst they haven’t quite kept up with inflation since the beginning of the year, some of the best rates on offer are over 35% higher than they were at the start of 2017.
But many of the names at the top are not well known, so savers need to feel confident that their hard-earned cash is safe.
The likes of Atom Bank, Paragon Bank and Wyelands Bank will be unfamiliar to many and therefore some may prefer to leave their funds languishing in less competitive accounts, rather than trying out someone new.
However, with rates on the high street as low as 0.01% - now really is the time to take a leap of fully-informed faith. Which is where Savings Champion can help.
10 years ago, when the queues were forming outside the branches of Northern Rock, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) limit was far lower than it is today – and far less well known.
But since then it’s risen substantially, so it’s much easier to protect most, if not all, of your cash savings.
At that time, the maximum FSCS pay-out for depositors was just £31,700 per person, made up of 100% of the first £2,000 and then 90% of their next £33,000.
Since then, recognising that this was not enough to reassure savers, in October 2007 the limit was raised to £35,000 and a year later, raised again to £50,000.
It was first increased to the current limit of £85,000 on 31st December 2010.
Our Financial Services Compensation Scheme Licence information, is a handy guide to check if the provider you are considering is protected under the FSCS and vitally if that provider is linked to another provider, which could leave you exposed unwittingly.
Savings Rate War Continues….. but now you see it, now you don’t
Talking of improved rates, just over a week ago, Secure Trust Bank launched a new range of best buy fixed rate bonds, pipping their predecessors by the narrowest of margins, in order to elevate themselves straight to the top.
But following the removal of the 1-year bond last week just a week later, yesterday the rest of them were withdrawn as well. It just shows how important it can be to act quickly.
However, we hope that the other providers get into the fray, which will help push up best buy rates further.Click here to see who is at the top now
Manage your cash
At Savings Champion, we research and monitor the whole of the savings market to provide our clients with completely independent and unbiased savings advice.
For regular information about the best products on the savings market, sign up to our Best Buy Tables and Rate Alerts.
We can also advise on the appropriate action to take to spread funds over different providers to reduce risk and ensure full FSCS protection.
For clients that want the peace of mind that their savings are working as hard as possible and would like to have a savings professional monitoring their savings portfolio on their behalf, we have our Concierge Service.
> Download our Concierge Guide on how to supersize your cash savings; or
> Call one of our Savings Experts on 0800 011 9705
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