The Bank of England has voted to keep the base rate unchanged at 0.5% for the second month running.
Although expected, the news will nonetheless come as a relief to
savers, who have seen their earnings plummet on the back of six consecutive base rate reductions since October.
By contrast, the millions of homeowners on
variable rate mortgages will be less than pleased with today's decision.
Rather, they were hoping to see base hit 0%, dragging their historically low mortgage rates lower still.
Savings rates on the rise again
The fact we have now seen two consecutive months with no further cuts to the base rate should help encourage banks to offer more
attractive savings rates.
Indeed, we are already seeing more competitive deals filtering through to the market, says Rumina Hassam at price comparison site uSwitch.
“Savers mustn’t resign themselves to suffering low rates as there are signs that the market is becoming reinvigorated,” says Hassam.
“Only yesterday, Alliance & Leicester announced the reintroduction of their Premier Regular Saver account for a limited period, which pays an attractive 7% AER.”
Be prepared for fine print
Such
juicy rates tend to come riddled with fine print nasties, and this Regular Saver is no exception.
To qualify you'll need to open a linked current account and deposit an additional £500 per month into it.
“It will be some time before savers see the wealth of choice and kinds of returns they enjoyed in the boom years, but at least the market is showing some signs of rehabilitation,” adds Hassam.
If you have money to set aside,
click here to take a look at our savings best buy tables.
