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My simple strategy to avoid ending up with a dud account as banks furiously cut rates: SYLVIA MORRIS
Updated: 06:04 EDT, 14 May 2025
If you want to get a top rate on your savings, make a note in your diary now to act in two weeks’ time.
Rates have started to tumble since the Bank of England base rate was cut from 4.5 per cent to 4.25 per cent last week, its lowest level for two years.
Savers are always the losers when the Bank cuts rates, but what is different this time is the speed at which banks and building societies are cutting their popular easy-access accounts.
They started to chop rates on both ordinary and cash Isa versions of these accounts within hours.
It’s not a question of whether your rate will fall, but by how much and when. However, that doesn’t mean you can accept a cut as inevitable and ignore what’s happening.
The size of rate cuts will vary – and some will even mete out reductions greater than the 0.25 percentage point fall in base rate. I urge you to check emails, texts, letters, messages and apps for what is happening to your rate.
Interest rates have started to tumble since the Bank of England base rate was cut from 4.5% to 4.25% last week, its lowest level for two years
And when the dust settles at the beginning of next month, you can look to see if your rate has been cut more harshly than others – and whether it’s worth moving your money. Those which have cut so far – including
Aldermore, Atom, Chip, Charter Savings Bank, Cynergy Bank, Kent Reliance, Lightyear, Plum, Skipton BS, Tandem, Secure Trust and Zopa – have done so either because they are linked to base rate or because they have launched new accounts at lower rates.
Check the best cash Isa rates in our savings tables
Big banks HSBC and NatWest, along with Co-op Bank, quickly announced new lower rates that will come into effect shortly.
Building societies Principality, Leek United and Hinckley & Rugby joined them. Expect others to follow this week.
Large providers such as Halifax, together with Nationwide, Coventry and Yorkshire building societies have all put their rates under review. That means cuts are on the way, but we don’t yet know by how much or when.
The rate cuts so far are mainly for new savers.
Providers can’t cut them immediately for their existing savers because the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, rules they must give you at least 14 days’ notice.
There is an exception for those that link their rate to the Bank of England base rate – and they don’t have to give any warning.
Some will close its highest-paying account and replace it with one that pays less. Then they trawl through all their accounts that are closed to new customers and reduce their rates too.
For example, Skipton was quick off the mark with a new version of its Easy Access Saver Issue 7, just three hours after the base rate cut announcement, paying 2.8 per cent.
Previous issues 1 to 6 still pay a higher 3.05 per cent. This rate is under review and likely to fall in line by the start of next month.
Those that have announced larger cuts than the base rate fall include Atom Instant Saver, which is down from 3.2 per cent to 2.9 per cent.
There’s also a huge 0.5 percentage point cut in the amount you earn in any month that you make a withdrawal from your Atom Reward Saver – down from 3 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the headline rate – which you earn if you make no withdrawals in a year – stays at a top 4.75 per cent.
NatWest’s popular Digital Regular Saver goes down from 6.17 per cent to 5.5 per cent from the end of this month.
... but grab these 4% fixed deals NOW before they go
Now might be your last chance to get a rate above 4 per cent for a while – if you are happy to tie your money up for a year.
Rates are down from their peak and fell further last week because money markets expect rates to fall faster and further than before.
Forecasters have pencilled in further cuts down to 3.5 per cent by the end of the year.
Granted, anything can happen between now and then, but as it stands the 4 per cent plus on offer now on one-year fixed rate deals are not set to last.
If easy-access accounts get less generous, your rate will look increasingly attractive. If you are renewing a fixed rate bond or cash Isa, you will have to put up with less interest than last year.
The top fixed rate bond last year paid 5.18 per cent from SmartSave. Now the best you can do is 4.5 per cent from Cynergy or 4.4 per cent from Access Bank.
On fixed-rate cash Isas, you could have enjoyed 4.73 per cent with United Trust Bank or 4.72 per cent from Shawbrook over the last year.
The top rate is now 4.25 per cent from Santander, Kent Reliance and Vida Savings.
Among the largest providers, National Savings & Investments one-year Guaranteed Growth Bond at 4.05 per cent is among the winning fixed-rate bonds, only beaten by Santander’s 4.15 per cent.
Don’t expect it to last much longer. The last time the Government-sponsored savings arm offered a top paying bond at 6.2 per cent it was on sale for just six weeks.
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