Moneysupermarket: check the small print on savings

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Moneysupermarket: check the small print on savings

Although frequent headlines describe the current financial turbulence, there is an upside.

In the UK today there are a plethora of savings accounts providing good rates of interest, according to price comparison site moneysupermarket.com.

However, the website’s savings chief Kevin Mountford warns that a number of these accounts offering impressive interest rates are contingent upon also opening a secondary product that can be distinctly less value.

Mountford advises consumers to check the small print carefully, to make sure they are not obligated to open a second product at the same time as taking advantage of a good savings account.

A huge 12% interest rate is paid out by Alliance & Leicester for those with a Premier Regular Saver, but that account obligates the consumer to put the same amount into a current account offering a measly 1.5%, a full 7% lower than its best current account.

Such cross-selling is set to continue, Mountford states, and is becoming common in the mortgage market too.