Virgin Money interest rate drop - is this the beginning of saving rate drops??

Tryinghardtosave

I have just received an email telling me that my M Plus saver account interest rate is dropping down to 2.50% from the 3.55%
It wasn't the best rates to begin with, but that is quite a drop.
I wonder if the other institutions will also begin to drop the rates - might be time to lockup in a 1 or 2 year deal now. 

boingy

Yep, I got the same email today too. A bit annoying because Virgin is my main current account and it's handy having an associated savings account at the same bank to hold a bit of contingency cash without any risk of transfers between it and the current account being blocked. I'll probably reduce that amount now but still keep about £1000 sitting there earning the paltry 2.5%

jimjames

boingy said:

Yep, I got the same email today too. A bit annoying because Virgin is my main current account and it's handy having an associated savings account at the same bank to hold a bit of contingency cash without any risk of transfers between it and the current account being blocked. I'll probably reduce that amount now but still keep about £1000 sitting there earning the paltry 2.5%

You could always use their ISA at 4.75%?

boingy

jimjames said:

boingy said:

Yep, I got the same email today too. A bit annoying because Virgin is my main current account and it's handy having an associated savings account at the same bank to hold a bit of contingency cash without any risk of transfers between it and the current account being blocked. I'll probably reduce that amount now but still keep about £1000 sitting there earning the paltry 2.5%

You could always use their ISA at 4.75%?

Yep, except my ISAs are going to be maxed each tax year for the next 2-3 years (mostly not with Virgin). After that my ISAs will probably have a bit of space in them.

eskbanker

Tryinghardtosave said:

Virgin Money interest rate drop - is this the beginning of saving rate drops??

[...]

I wonder if the other institutions will also begin to drop the rates - might be time to lockup in a 1 or 2 year deal now. 

In terms of the thread title question, no, that ship has been sailing for a while now, in the fixed term space at least, where three months ago you could get 6+% for a one-year fix, then 5.91%, 5.66% and 5.31% have been the leading rates in (the middle of) subsequent months....

allegro120

boingy said:

Yep, I got the same email today too. A bit annoying because Virgin is my main current account and it's handy having an associated savings account at the same bank to hold a bit of contingency cash without any risk of transfers between it and the current account being blocked. I'll probably reduce that amount now but still keep about £1000 sitting there earning the paltry 2.5%

I've got 4 pairs of them.  They used to be paying top rates for some time, but never became competitive again since their rates were overtaken by other providers.  I have £0 balance in all 8 accounts for a few years now. From time to time they send me reminders that the account was inactive for a long time and will be closed, so I do occasional in-and-out payments to these accounts alive.  However, I have ISA with Virgin that matures at the end of this month and already opened a new 5.25% ready for transfer.  AFAIK best ISA offer on the market at the moment.