The personal finance arm of Saga Insurance has just brought out a new interest rate guarantee for their online savings account.
The online savings account is now guaranteed to offer an interest rate that will always be with a quarter of a percent of the top 5 variable rate accounts average. Saga Insurance personal finance division has calculated that the average rate as it stands is 6.25 percent gross, working out to 6.43 percent AER.
New customers can sign up to the new savings account online at the Saga Insurance website, whilst existing online savings account customers will see their interest rates changed automatically. The account only needs a deposit of one pound to open and as such offers an extremely attractive rate.
Barclays customers who applied for the Tax Haven Cash ISA have received apologies from the bank following significant delays before their accounts were opened.
An apology is all they are going to receive though it appears as Barclays has stated it will not pay the interest that investors would have accrued if the accounts had been opened on time. It seems that a particularly heavy demand for the ISA created a number of administration difficulties for Barclays leading to delays in accepting applications and opening the accounts.
Assuming the person applying for the Barclays ISA had invested the maximum allowed of GBP3,600, they would have lost around GBP9 in interest so far. This in one way is not a vast amount of money, but the underlying principle is of much greater importance. Multiplied by the number of people taking out this particular Tax Haven Cash ISA it also becomes a much larger sum.
Compare rates on ISAs from Barclays and many others at Moneygossip.co.uk
According to information from the Abbey National savings division the people of the UK have been putting their money away to pay for a summer holiday, with Europe being the most popular choice.
With the value of the pound dropping against the Euro this means that summer holidays will cost more this year, meaning consumers need to save more for their break. With the average holiday costing over GBP1,600 it is good that the people of the UK have been saving their money to cover this cost, although a small percentage will be using their credit cards to pay.
The monthly cost for the average holiday is a little under GBP140, which could have earned the full amount needed in one of the excellent Abbey National savings accounts.