Britain’s biggest banks including Lloyds and Halifax agree to raise interest rate for savers after The Sun’s successful Save Our Savers campaign
The Sun called on banks to reward savers by boosting rates after The Bank of England announced the rise in interest rates from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent
SOME of Britain’s biggest banks, NS&I, Halifax and Lloyds, have announced they will boost interest rates for savers in a major victory for The Sun’s Save Our Savers campaign.
The Bank of England last week announced the base rate will increase from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent, The Sun called on banks to reward savers and increase interest rates in line with the base rate.
NS&I declared it would increase the interest rate on Premium Bonds as well as boosting interest rates on their savings accounts by 0.25 per cent.
Lloyds Bank also said they would raise their rate for savers across a range of accounts, most increasing partially by 0.15 per cent and some by 0.50 per cent.
Halifax will boost savings rates by various amounts, ranging from 0.15 per cent to 0.50 per cent.
Following the Bank of England’s announcement on Thursday last week, banks were quick pass on the full base rate rise to variable mortgages which will cost borrowers more.
But greedy banks delayed an announcement on whether they would reward savers by increasing interest rates in line with the base rate rise, to capitalise on an increase in their margins.
Andrew Hagger, personal finance expert at MoneyComms said: “It’s great that The Sun have been able to put this pressure on the banks and within a week we have seen some raise interest rates for savers.
“Hopefully other banks start to follow suit, but if they don’t start thinking about moving your money elsewhere - if your bank won’t give you a good rate find one who will.”
Other banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Santander and RBS, are yet to announce if they will raise interest rates for savers.
National Savings and Investment have now said the prize fund rate on Premium Bonds will increase by 25 basis points to 1.40 per cent and the odds will improve from 30,000 to 1 to 24,500 to 1.
This means the number of prizes paid out each month will increase from 2.3 million to 2.9 million.
Ian Ackerley, Chief Executive, NS&I, said: “By reflecting the change in the base rate we are continuing to meet the needs of savers.
“For our 25 million customers, including around 21 million Premium Bonds customers, these changes will present a welcome boost. NS&I will be giving out the largest number of Premium Bond prizes every month.”
A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson said: “Following a review of our savings range we will be making increases to rates on a number of accounts. Most of our savers will receive an increase of 0.15%.”
The rate rise will be passed on to Halifax, Lloyds and NS&I customers from December 1, 2017.