Martin Lewis says everyone should switch to these four banks
Money-saving expert Martin Lewis has urged all bank account holders to consider switching their accounts. He stresses the significance of securing favourable rates amidst the fluctuations seen in easy-access rates across the UK.
On Twitter, Martin remarked: "The top easy access savings now beat fixes. Check what yours pay, you can still get 5% or more."
In his widely-read weekly newsletter, Martin elaborated on the current financial trends, saying: "What's happening to savings is a mirror of mortgages, except here higher rates are good, lower bad. The rate you can fix at has dropped, as they're based on longer-term interest-rate predictions, while the top paying variable (easy-access) rates haven't, as they're based on the UK base rate, which the Bank of England held last week."
He went on to clarify the present circumstances for savers: "So while normally you tend to get better rewarded for locking money away in a fix, right now you don't. The market consensus is the UK base rate will be cut in November, so easy-access rates are likely to drop 0.25 percentage points then, but that'd still leave the best of them on par with current fixes, so it's looking good, especially if you want access to your cash.
"Though the benefit of fixing is long-term rate surety, so if you want to ensure a certain rate, and not risk big future drops, fixing and fixing longer does that (and as fixed rates may creep down a touch over the coming months, sooner is likely safer). For everyone though, the key rule is there are HUGE variances between the best and the bog-standard rates in each category, so check what you earn, and ditch and switch if you can."
The MSE guide has identified the top four as Chip at 5 percent, Oxbury at 4.87 percent, OakNorth Bank at 4.82 percent, and Monument at 4.81 percent, as reported by Birmingham Live. Chip comes with no minimum deposit and is accessible through an app, while Oxbury requires a minimum of £25,000 and allows up to £500k online.
OakNorth Bank asks for a minimum of £20k, and Monument's accounts start from £25k.
"There are far more options in top savings, including top big-name savings, plus higher rates if you have (or open) the right current account," Mr Lewis said.