Published: 8/7/2010
The Bank of Scotland has a fantastic opportunity for first time buyers saving a deposit for their first home – doubled up savings.
The way this works is that savers who regularly deposit money into a Bank of Scotland savings account, up to a maximum amount saved of GBP5,000, will have the balance matched by the home builder Persimmon. The one proviso is that this only happens if the savings are used as a deposit on a new house.
A spokesman from the housebuilder saw it as making a real difference for first time buyers, though they would still need a considerable amount saved elsewhere in order to make the 25 percent minimum deposit most mortgage providers require. The Bank of Scotland are also in favour of the scheme as they want to help home buyers as much as they can.
The Alliance and Leicester is passing on the Bank of England base rate cut to its customers by reducing the interest rate on most of the savings accounts it offers by the full 0.25 percent. The changes by the Alliance and Leicester will come into effect on 2 May, with only a small number of accounts not having their interest rates cut. These will include the Premium Regular Saver, eSaver and their ISA products Premier ISA and Premier ISA 2. One other Alliance and Leicester savings account, the Direct Saver, will have an interest rate cut of 0.23 percent rather than the full 0.25. Other financial institutions are expected to follow suit, looking at ways to improve their profitability and cash flow in these difficult times.
Having looked at the savings habits of the nation the Halifax can now highlight which parts of the country save the most, and the least. Top of the Halifax savings league is London, with an average savings balance of over GBP14,200. In second place was South Buckinghamshire, followed by Shrewsbury to make up the top 3 saving locations. The top performing savers outside the south of England can be found in Derbyshire, having an average savings pot of just over GBP11,600. A spokesman from the Halifax was pleased to see how good the average figures were but did hope that those without such levels of savings would aim to increase the amount they save.
Good advice comes from Sainsburys Bank as they advise consumers to look at the different savings accounts available and choosing the one that best suits their needs. Sainsburys Bank looked at the top 50 savings accounts currently on the market, specifically the instant and easy access ones to see how they worked out for customers. A dozen of them restricted the number of withdrawals available, 4 of them had penalties for withdrawals and 9 were for specific age groups. Considering these factors and understanding how well they fit into your existing lifestyle is key to getting the most out of savings accounts said Sainsburys Bank and they are correct.
