Have banks & building societies raised their savings rates?

YorkshireBoy

From Yorkshire Building Society...

GREAT NEWS:
The annual interest rate on our Internet Saver account will be increased to 4.85% gross (3.88% net) on 13th August 2006. The monthly rate will increase to 4.75% gross (3.80% net). These rate increases will apply to all existing 'Internet Saver' account holders and all new applications.

http://www.ybs.co.uk/savings/interest_rates/internet.jsp

home_alone

I think they are all playing cat & mouse scared to come in with a figure then all the rest can beat it. Come on ing do something good for a change.

gary

edda

Quote from Yorks B. Soc.:

GREAT NEWS:
The annual interest rate on our Internet Saver account will be increased to 4.85% gross (3.88% net) on 13th August 2006.

Yeah - great for them but not for savers. :mad:

The rise was planned before the increase in base rate - so they've effectively got 2 increases in one (and only up by 0.15% as well).

thor

This kind of thing was always on the cards once the interest rates started going up again. The banks & building societies had for years mainly changed their rates inline with the base rate but for the last couple of years and particularly the last year they have seen that they can get away with cutting whenever they like. The reason they can get away with it is not because of apathy as is commonly believed but because they are all at it. I mean where are you going to move to if everyone cuts 0.15% when there has been no boe change and all the other acounts are paying similar returns?

Moggles_2

Within days of the BoE base rate rise, the big players had raised their mortgage rates, most with immediate effect. More than 3 weeks later, the majority of savers have yet to see an increase and many of those announced will not come into force until 1 September.

This week, we had the promise of better returns anyway from Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Yorkshire Building Society, whose no-strings internet savers will join Indian bank ICICI at the top of the best-buy, easy-access savings tables.

While some banks, building societies and savings providers have shown their hands, most of the big names are obviously still playing a waiting game, watching for competitors' next move before making a decision.

The reason they can get away with it is not because of apathy as is commonly believed but because they are all at it.

You never know, if enough MSEs vote with their wallets on Monday, we could, together with Abbey, B&B and YBS, spark a flurry of announcements next week!

dwsjarcmcd

edda wrote:

Quote from Yorks B. Soc.:

GREAT NEWS:
The annual interest rate on our Internet Saver account will be increased to 4.85% gross (3.88% net) on 13th August 2006.

Yeah - great for them but not for savers. :mad:

The rise was planned before the increase in base rate - so they've effectively got 2 increases in one (and only up by 0.15% as well).

YBS have increased their savings rate by a further 0.25%, the Internet saver account now pays 5.10%

edda

Yes - I notice that the YBS has increased some of its rates from today.
Like all organisations though, you need to check your own accounts - some of them have not gone up by the whole 0.25%.

Incidentally, are the larger building socities and banks really waiting to see what everyone else does? Some of them have their interest rates literature ready on the day of their announcement - hopefully 1st Sept at the latest. In this case, they must have already decided, as the print run needs to be planned in advance.

More power to MSEs - if we all chase the best rates, maybe it will help chip away at those who don't pass on the full rate increases but are quick enough to take the reductions off immediately (or even when there is not a change in the base rate).

Kazza242

edda wrote:

Yes - I notice that the YBS has increased some of its rates from today.
Like all organisations though, you need to check your own accounts - some of them have not gone up by the whole 0.25%.

Incidentally, are the larger building socities and banks really waiting to see what everyone else does? Some of them have their interest rates literature ready on the day of their announcement - hopefully 1st Sept at the latest. In this case, they must have already decided, as the print run needs to be planned in advance.

A number of the larger banks announced their savings rate increases last Friday.

- Alliance & Leicester, see [url=http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=250565
]this[/url] thread.
- Halifax, see [url=http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=250895
]this[/url] thread.
- Abbey, detailed in [url=http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=250945
]this[/url] thread.
- Bradford & Bingley in this thread.

Nationwide, Derbyshire BS and Birmingham Midshires etc. have yet to announce their savings rates, following the BOE rate rise. Also, Halifax have still to announce all of their new rates.

I think a lot of banks do wait to see what their competition is doing before officially announcing what they intend to do. Last week, when ING Direct announced they were increasing their savings account from 4.50% to 4.75%, a number of other banks announced their savings rate rises a couple of hours after.

Moggles_2

More power to MSEs - if we all chase the best rates, maybe it will help chip away at those who don't pass on the full rate increases but are quick enough to take the reductions off immediately (or even when there is not a change in the base rate).

I'll go with that.

A number of the larger banks announced their savings rate increases last Friday...

Yes, but that leaves most of the big names - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Natwest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Woolwich and, as you say, Halifax and Nationwide, still to announce their new rates.

That said, some have broken ranks at last. Abbey, B&B and YBS, in particular, are offering market-leading rates on their easy-access internet savings accounts.

IMO, they deserve some credit for this. Also, we owe it to ourselves to support them.

[Deleted User]

Nationwide have finally announced their changes today. See here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=2803879#post2803879