In the ongoing saga of bank branch closures, Santander is the latest high street bank to announce its plans to close 140 branches – it says this is in response to changes in how customers are choosing to carry out their banking.
However, news out today states that Santander’s latest figures show pre-tax profits have fallen by 14% to £1.6bn and the bank has failed to meet its customer target – ending the year with 4.1m customers against a target of 4.7m.
Santander will still have a network of 614 branches plus they point out that Santander current and business account holders can also bank using over 11,000 Post Office branches across the UK. But many people will find this extremely annoying, even upsetting, as they may not be able to easily visit a branch to do their day-to-day banking.
For savers, however, it could be the catalyst needed to encourage them to move their hard-earned cash away from their bank and start to earn some far better rates.
The good news is that there are plenty of alternatives, even if you are not happy to open and manage savings online, although branch access is usually far more localised.
These days many of the very best rates available can only be opened and managed online – but there are still some competitive accounts which are available to open by post and in branch (although they may not be very convenient), as well as online.
For example, the Kent Reliance Easy Access Account Issue 32 is available by post, branch and online and is paying a rate of 1.40% gross/AER, so is a little off the top accounts that are paying up to 1.55% AER – but on a balance of £10,000, you are only losing £15 gross interest per year.
And there are a number of providers who recognise that many savers would prefer not to open accounts online – providers such as Virgin Money offer postal and branch access to many of their accounts and even newcomers such as PCF Bank.
And more recently, previously online-only provider Charter Savings Bank has added a postal option to its stable – thereby offering more traditional savers access to some of its - often very competitive - accounts.
Some building societies, mainly the smaller ones, offer rates that are only available to the local community, so it’s always worth checking the rates on offer - although just because the account is for locals only, it doesn’t automatically mean that it’s a competitive rate.
For example, the Loughborough Building Society Instant Access account, which is only available to local customers, is paying 0.20% on balances of £10 - £750,000.
At the other end of the scale, the Newbury Building Society’s Welcome to Newbury account pays 1.50% gross/AER on balances of £50 to £3,000 – but is only available to locals. And if you’ve been a customer for at least a year you could have access to the Existing member account, which is an easy access account paying a market-leading rate of 1.75% gross/AER on deposits of up to £2,000 per tax year.
If you need help finding the best account for your needs, be it a branch-based account, or you feel ready to try out an online account, call one of our savings experts for help on 0800 011 9705.
Our Best Buy tables include a selection of the best rates that are available to the majority of savers, so we won’t include accounts for locals only, like the Newbury ones mentioned above – but we do monitor all savings accounts, so we can point you in the right direction.
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