He reminded fans of his ‘golden rule’ for any of your finances
Martin Lewis has told savings account holders how they can get high interest rates. He shared some thoughts after a fan told him about their success story with changing their bank account.
The person explained how they were previously trying to switch from First Direct over to a Barclays Premier Account, to get a £400 switch bonus. They had a regular saver with First Direct, linked to their current account. Fortunately, they had found a novel way to move over their current account while keeping the regular saver. Mr Lewis said these regular savers are an incentive that bank providers will often offer to try and entice customers.
He said: “One of the sweeties that many banks offer you for getting their current account is a linked regular saver where you can put a small amount of money away each month and get a very high interest rate on it.”
Top rates on offer
If you are looking around for a better bank account, the top regular saver rates you can currently get are up to 8 per cent. You can get an account with Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland, each paying 8 per cent.
Santander also has a regular saver paying 8 per cent. Zopa will pay you 7.1 per cent with their regular saver while First Direct pays 7 per cent. You can also get a rate of 7 per cent with the Co-Operative Bank, or 6.5 per cent with Nationwide Building Society.
‘Extremely helpful’
In the case of the man who called into the show, he was able to keep his regular saver and still make the switch from First Direct to Barclays. He explained how he called up the customer service line and the woman who served him was “was extremely helpful” and was able to set up a second current account, to attach the regular saver to.
As such, he could move his primary current account over to Barclays and claim the switching bonus. Mr Lewis told the listener it was “really impressive” that he managed to do this.
The consumer advocate said he didn’t know this was a possibility. He explained: “Thank you so much for getting that really interesting feedback about First Direct regular saver, I’ve not heard of that happening before.”
Mr Lewis told listeners this happy story points to a key principle everyone should know. He said: “It just shows it’s the golden rule of finance. So many people ask me questions, ‘You know, what would happen if…?’
“And my answer is, ‘Well, ask them. Just call them up and ask.’ And you did it, and it shows the result of that, brilliant.”
