Do you want a decent interest rate on your savings, but don’t want to shop around every few months?
There is one account I think is worth considering. Ford Money’s Flexible Saver account is a simple, easy-to-access online account that you can open with £1, it allows you to withdraw your money whenever you want, and the rate isn’t artificially boosted by a short-term bonus rate that disappears after a year.
It also only has three pages of fine print to read.
The best part is that everyone gets the same rate, no matter when they open it, unlike other providers, who have endless “issues” with the same type of account and new ones pay higher rates than old ones.
Stable Rate: Ford Money’s Flexible Saver is a simple, easy-to-access online account that you can open with £1 and withdraw your money whenever you want.
Additionally, Ford Money raised the account interest rate to 4.75 percent from 4.6 percent last Friday.
It doesn’t pay the highest rate (5.04 per cent from Oxbury Bank on £25,000 or more), but it has consistently been competitive since launch.
Ford Money is a trading name of FCE Bank plc based in Essex and owned by Ford Motor Company.
Your money is protected up to £85,000 per person by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
I wish all vendors would pay the same rate to their customers, both new and loyal. In fact, I was hoping this would be the day vendors would be forced to do so.
A year ago, City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced new rules requiring all financial providers to offer customers “fair value”.
It gave them 12 months — until today — to apply the new rules to both old and new accounts.
I think “fair value” means offering loyal customers the same rates as new ones. But if you look at a range of easily accessible old accounts, it’s clear that providers disagree.
Virgin Money believes paying just 0.25 per cent will be enough, while many others pay less than 2 per cent.
How is that fair when the average easy-access account now pays 3.14 per cent and the Bank of England base rate is 5.25 per cent?
Halifax tells me it has moved all its former passbook account holders to its instant savings system.
But that doesn’t help much. On the old accounts, you earned 1.3 percent. Since the transfer, you only earn a little more: 1.45 percent up to £10,000.
The best accounts from other providers pay more than 4.75 per cent. Virgin recommends customers switch to accounts that pay better.
The FCA does not require firms to switch their accounts to higher-paying accounts. You must do so.