Financial guru Martin Lewis has issued a call to action for bank account holders to reconsider their current arrangements. The popular TV personality underscored the significance of securing the most favourable account rate amidst variable easy-access rates nationwide.
On Twitter, he advised: “The top easy access savings now beat fixes. Check what yours pay, you can still get 5% or more.”
Elaborating on this in his latest newsletter, Lewis drew a parallel with the mortgage market, stating: “What’s happening to savings is a mirror of mortgages, except here higher rates are good, lower bad. The rate you can fix at has dropped, as they’re based on longer-term interest-rate predictions, while the top paying variable (easy-access) rates haven’t, as they’re based on the UK base rate, which the Bank of England held last week.”
He continued to explain the current financial landscape: “So while normally you tend to get better rewarded for locking money away in a fix, right now you don’t. The market consensus is the UK base rate will be cut in November, so easy-access rates are likely to drop 0.25 percentage points then, but that’d still leave the best of them on par with current fixes, so it’s looking good, especially if you want access to your cash.”
“Though the benefit of fixing is long-term rate surety, so if you want to ensure a certain rate, and not risk big future drops, fixing and fixing longer does that (and as fixed rates may creep down a touch over the coming months, sooner is likely safer). For everyone though, the key rule is there are HUGE variances between the best and the bog-standard rates in each category, so check what you earn, and ditch and switch if you can.”, reports Cambridgeshire Live.
The MSE guide points out the top contenders like Chip at 5 percent, Oxbury at 4.87 percent, OakNorth Bank offering 4.82 percent and Monument at 4.81 percent, as per a report by Birmingham Live. Chip comes with no minimum requirement and is accessible via an app, Oxbury allows online dealings starting from a hefty £25,000 up to £500k.
OakNorth sets the bar at a £20k minimum, while Monument requires a starting point of £25k. “There are far more options in top savings, including top big-name savings, plus higher rates if you have (or open) the right current account,” Mr Lewis highlighted.