Martin Lewis warns bank account holders who have an open savings account
Martin Lewis has warned bank account holders who have money sat in a savings account. The BBC Sounds podcast host spoke out to Adrian Chiles on this week's podcast, sharing his expertise and warning with savers up and down the country.
ITV regular Mr Lewis said as the Bank of England has started to cut interest rates, we have all been focused on mortgage rates dropping, that we have not realised savings interest rates have been dropping alongside them.
Martin said: "It's worth talking about savings for a minute as we have been talking about mortgages, but the mirror of what is happening with mortgages is, with mortgages variable rates have stayed high and fixed rates are dropping. The same is happening with savings.
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"The easy access rates, which are the variable savings where you can put your money in and take it out, have stayed high but fixed rate savings had dropped. The highest access payer at the moment is at 5.15% and it's the cash ISA from Trading 212. The next highest is now Oxbury Bank at 5.13% with a 90 days notice."
He added: "So if you're looking to fix right now, there are no fixes available, apart from the one that's a bit tricky, over 5%. So the question you have to decide when it comes to saving is, do I want to go for easy access savings? It's expected that the Bank of England base rate will be dropping soon.
"So most easy access savings will drop. The fixed rates that are available have factored in, to an extent, future drops. Just like with mortgages, savings fixed are based on long term future predictions. So you might say 'Hmm I could go easy access because I can get a slightly high rate' or you might say 'I'm worried those fixed rates are going to drop even further.
"I'm going to get them while I can access them'. So there's actually a very mirror debate going on in savings about what you should do as there is in mortgages."