Savings is going to be more lucrative
London(online-unsecured-loan.co.uk) Jun 26, 2008: Keeping the increasing cost of lending in mind the British banks are desperate to attract money from the High Street. Foreign banks, active in the United kingdom financial arena have traditionally been better compared to the British banks at as they have fewer branches, lower costs and can offer higher rates. The former table-topper in the field of high street banking, Icesave has failed to overstep the two British banks at the top of the variable rate tables with a series of rate hikes yesterday.
Icesave has increased the rate on its popular easy access account from 6.05% to 6.3% AER, but this still puts it behind other majors like Bradford & Bingley and Birmingham Midshires. The latter two banks have hiked their rates to 6.51% and 6.52% respectively in June 2008.Icelandic bank follows the foot steps of these two British banks' with a rate of 6.5% and is just ahead of Egg's easy access offering at 6.3%. Other British lending institutions also offer high rates on savings accounts. Alliance & Leicester's eSaver pays 6.5%, but the negative clause with it is that free withdrawals can be made from the account only in July.
High Street bank's saving options have become so lucrative that British banks desperately trying to follow the queue. However a poll conducted by a well known financial website found that majority of Britons are comfortable with saving at a foreign bank following the onset of the credit crunch, even if the bank is operating under a foreign compensation scheme. 53% of of Britons are willing to count on foreign banks when savings is concerned. The Overseas banks also remain popular in the hugely competitive fixed rate savings market compared to their UK counter parts. Icesave has increased the rate on its one, two and three-year fixed rate bonds from 7.01%, 6.6%, 6.5% respectively to a single 7.06% rate recently.
