The Financial Blog

From Monday, 19th May, Yorkshire Building Society is launching a 2 year fixed rate savings bond paying a market leading rate of 6.50 per cent, Gross PA with a monthly interest option for people who may rely their savings for an income.

The new fixed rate savings bond is available for a limited period only and you’ll need a minimum deposit of £100 to open the account. The offer is open to new and existing customers so everyone can take advantage of this great rate.

Yorkshire’s Head of Mortgage and Savings Development, Chris Edwards, said “There are currently some great interest rates available, but they are mostly just for one year. We have no idea where interest rates will be next year, but with this new bond savers are guaranteed of a great rate, and therefore peace of mind, for a longer period.  We will however be limiting the amount we take into this new bond and I would therefore urge savers to act quickly if they want get this market leading rate for their savings.”

You can apply online at www.ybs.co.uk or call them on 0845 1200 100 or go to your local branch.

Make sure you >> Click here to compare savings rates and get the best deals available.

The Coventry Building Society is increasing the interest rate on it’s 50 plus esave account from today.

The new rate is 6.10 per cent AER/Gross PA, fixed for 12 months from the date an account is opened. The account also offers unlimited access to your money so no fees or penalties are payable if you need to withdraw.

You can open a 50 plus esave account with just £1 deposit and you must operate and open the account online so get to www.thecoventry.co.uk and apply online today!

>>Click here to compare savings accounts and find the most competitive rates

Egg.com, the internet bank, have launched an offer to new and existing customers who open a new Egg internet savings account.

The rate of 6.05 per cent Gross pa/AER is available on the Egg internet savings account, fixed for 12 months.

The minimum deposit is £1 and the account is easy access so there are no notice periods or penalties to pay if you need to get to your money quickly. After the 12 month fixed rate period the interest rate will revert to the standard variable rate at that time; currently the standard variable rate is 4.75 per cent Gross pa/AER.

Head of Savings and Investment at Egg, Tobias van der Meer, said:

“Our new fixed introductory rate is one of the highest of any easy access accounts available in the UK today and it gives customers a guaranteed rate for the next 12 months. Unlike some accounts which have eye catching rates but only benefit regular savers, Egg savers have the flexibility to pay in or withdraw however much they like, whenever they like without penalty (£2 million maximum).”

This is a very good offer and worth considering even for just the 12 month introductory period. There is no need to make regular deposits and you can get to your money at any time without penalty, which is good news in the current financial climate.

>>Click here to compare savings accounts today and find the best rates!

Yorkshire Building Society has launched an internet based fixed rate savings bond - a 1 year bond paying 6.20 per cent Gross AER. This product is available until 31st May 2008. After this first issue all subsequent bond rates will be set in line with current market conditions. This new bond is only available online and you can deposit savings using your debit card, which will start earning you interest quicker than if you deposited a cheque.You can open an e-Bond with just £100 and have up to £500,000 and there is a monthly interest option if you rely on your savings for your income.

At the end of the bond term the product will move onto Yorkshire’s Internet Saver account, providing instant access to your funds and this is currebtly paying 5.75% Gross AER. The additional bonds to be launched by Yorkshire will have fixed terms ranging from 6 months to 5 years.

Yorkshire’s Head of e-Commerce, David Jackson, said “Increasingly people value the flexibility offered by the internet and the convenience of managing their lifestyle at a time and place that suits them. Every aspect of the new bond can be processed from a laptop without the requirement of printers and postal services, which I believe meets the demands of today’s consumer.”

Abbey savings seem to be going from strength to strength, every week their market leading savings rates hit the headlines.

Today Abbey have launched an instant access savings account that pays 6.50 per cent, Gross on balances above £1,000. You can open an account online and then manage the account by telephone or local branch. The rate includes a 1.00 per cent bonus for 12 months from the date of opening and after 12 months the interest rate drops to 5.50 per cent.

This is the first time that a bank is offering the generally higher interest rates you see with online savings accounts but for this account managed by phone or branch. Banks usually only offer higher rates with online accounts as the administrational costs are less for the bank.

Director of Savings and Investments at Abbey, Reza Attar-Zadeh, said: “This is an exceptional rate for a telephone access account.”

This market leading rate is backed by the strength of one of the world’s biggest banks. The account can be applied for online at Abbey.com and can be managed by telephone or at your local branch.

Abbey say that from today their super ISA is the only ISA product offering 10 per cent and certainly the 2 financial comparison web sites I checked out just now do not have the Abbey Super ISA listed on their sites, unless of course I missed something…If these sites do list the Abbey Super ISA it certainly isn’t very easy to find.

The Abbey Super ISA offers 10 per cent if you put an equal amount, or more, into any Abbey investment product. The minimum investment is £1 for the Super ISA and £1500 for the investment side.

The Abbey Super ISA offers;

• 10 per cent AER fixed for one year
• Customers can get access to the whole of their balance should they need it and without penalty
• Allows transfers in and out

Head of Savings and Investments at Abbey, Reza Attar-Zadeh, said: “This is a tax efficient way to build a diversified portfolio to save for the future.  Since markets have fallen, the product combination of the top paying cash ISA rate offering instant access with an appropriate investment is compelling.”

You can apply for an Abbey Super ISA Account by visiting your local branch, telephoning the customer sales line on 0800 234 6065 or online @ Abbey.com

Commenting on the competitive fixed rate bonds available, Kevin Mountford, head of savings at price comparison site http://www.moneysupermarket.com, said:

“There’s a lot of noise in the fixed rate bond market with a wealth of launches and competitive rates topping 6.8 per cent AER - and we can only expect more to come.

“While the current rate environment and last week’s base rate cut would suggest customer pricing should start to come down, this has yet to be seen. This week Alliance & Leicester issued a fixed rate bond with a competitive 6.83 per cent AER. Kaupthing Edge and Icesave are still clinging to the top of the best buy table though, with 6.86 per cent, and Heritable Bank is close behind with its new offering of 6.80 per cent as of this weekend, indicating Icelandic banks are still dominating the savings market.

“Competition is as strong as ever as the inter-bank rate gap is getting bigger and bigger. Easy Access accounts have featured heavily of late, but those deposits can leave as quickly as they arrive. Fixed rate products, which command a level of consumer commitment and therefore limit providers’ exposure to risk, now have very strong one and two year rates.

“I would suggest anyone interested in these bonds moves quickly as no one can predict how long they might last.”

Sourced by Moneysupermarket.com 16.04.2008  

Alliance and Leicester has launched a new range of competitive Fixed Rate Bond savings accounts savings accounts. The features are;

• Interest payable monthly, or on maturity
• Minimum balance £1,000 (£2,500 for monthly interest)
• Maximum of £1,000,000
• Available to both new and existing customers, however the Bond will not be accepting transfers or cheques from other Alliance & Leicester accounts.

Interest rates are;

• 6 Month Fixed Rate Bond, paying 6.83% AER (6.72% gross)
• 1 Year Fixed Rate Bond, paying an interest rate of 6.50% pa gross/AER
• 2 Year Fixed Rate Bond, paying an interest rate of 6.30% pa gross/AER
• 3 Year Fixed Rate Bond, paying an interest rate of 6.05% pa gross/AER

These new Fixed Rate Bonds are available from all Alliance & Leicester branches, for sums of between £1,000 and £1,000,000.  These offers will only be available whilst funds last.  The 6 Month Fixed Rate Bond will mature on 1 November 2008, and the others will mature on 1 May 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Martin Leake, Savings Manager at Alliance & Leicester commented: “Fixed rate bonds provide security of capital and a guaranteed return, so you know exactly what you’re getting for your hard earned savings.  Our latest bond offers are a strictly limited opportunity to invest anything from £1,000 to £1,000,000, at some of the best rates of return on the market.”

Click here to compare savings accounts or if you want to apply for one of the Alliance and Leicester Fixed Rate Bond accounts then call 08000 68 66 99 to book an appointment.

More than £218 million worth of food is wasted every week which equates to over £800 million worth of waste per month!

The average UK household throws away 6 per cent of food bought because we just don’t eat the items before their sell-by dates, this is all from new research conducted by Abbey.

So if we all shopped a bit more accurately, taking the time to shop for a specific weekly menu it would stop the over purchasing and then non-consuming of £218 million pounds worth of food per week. This equates to an average of £5.10 per UK household. Younger shoppers are even worse, throwing away 10 per cent of food shopping, on average £7.31 per week.

Director of Abbey Banking, Steve Shore, said:  “Despite our best intentions, it’s often difficult to estimate food consumption - but doing so helps prevent waste both in terms of food and money.  Saving an extra few pounds on the weekly shop can go a long way, especially when people are already feeling stretched.  If you put that away in a high interest account, such as Abbey’s 8% in credit account, you could put it towards something else.”

If you think about it, the £7 or £8 per week would easily make up for the extortionate fuel prices we’re seeing. I know the cost of filling up my car has certainly increased by at least £7 over the last 12 months…

Abbey has increased the rate on it’s esaver account to a market leading 6.50 per cent Gross, available on balances of just £1.

The revised interest rate is available from today and it’s the highest savings rate available for easy access accounts.

Director of Savings and Investments at Abbey, Reza Attar-Zadeh, said: “This is an excellent rate for customers who wish to manage their savings online.

“Our research shows that increasingly customers are managing their savings accounts online and so we want to make sure that we offer our customers great rates whichever channel they chose to open their account.”

Abbey have also increased the rate on the 50+ saver account to 6.50 per cent. This is the savings account exclusively for customers aged 50 years and over.

Make sure you compare savings accounts online before you apply or click here to goto abbey.com Abbey.com