Banks must be laughing

WHEN and why did saving become so complicated? We now have hundreds of different basic accounts from which to choose, but very few possibilities when it comes to rewards.

So today we reveal our Stop Short-Changing Savers campaign manifesto. We want banks to be forced to pay a basic minimum interest rate to the savers they have neglected for so long.

We also want to see an end to the penalising of customers’ loyalty, which has poisoned the once simple world of savings.

And we must find an easy way for savers to switch accounts when they find a better offer.

All of these steps are needed to make savings a competitive market again.

For we are now in a backwards world in which the longer you keep your money with a bank, the less you get in return. Bankers must be laughing at savers.

As our report starting on Page 37 reveals, you have to be clued-up to navigate the savings maze and get even close to a rate that will protect your nest egg from erosion by inflation.

One could be forgiven for thinking banks had made it this hard to

deter us from saving. Their failure to play fair is no more evident than in the industry’s decision to pay little notice to the Bank of England base rate rise last year. Instead, the banks have all kept their rates stubbornly low. It’s almost as if they have formed a cartel.

Baroness Ros Altmann today calls on the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to investigate exactly what is going on. Only an inquiry can shake the tree and give savers some reassurance.

The need for this new Money Mail campaign was summed up perfectly in a reader’s letter sent to us this week.

She wrote: ‘I have to trawl the internet and newspapers to find miserly interest rates . . . I have my money split between six or seven saving accounts just to get these miserly offerings.

‘We finally got to a stage in our lives when we actually had money to spare and we can’t even get a decent return on it.’

This savings scandal is hitting the elderly the hardest. Those who once relied on an honest interest rate reward to bolster their retirement income are now being cheated. This must stop.

Fund fiasco

IT IS now 100 days since Neil Woodford’s Equity Income Fund was frozen and thousands of investors were locked out of their nest eggs.

And all the while, Mr Woodford has continued to collect millions of pounds in fees from the customers he has so badly let down.

If you are now struggling because you have money trapped in Woodford’s fund, please do let us know so we can continue to expose the human cost of this mismanagement.

The whole fiasco will have no doubt put DIY investors off the world of stocks and shares — particularly those handled by superstar fund managers.

It’s a huge shame as we must have confidence in where we put our money. But with savings rates paying a pittance, we are running out of options.

Hunt for rewards

AS WE report on Page 50, a savvy shopper can quickly gather enough reward points to fly business class to Dubai or New York almost for free.

Summer may be over, but if you get organised now and make some small changes to your spending habits, you can make some major savings next year.

The points will soon stack up without you even noticing.

We would love to hear about the freebies and discounts you have managed to secure simply by thinking outside the box when it comes to everyday spending, so please send in your best tips and tricks. You can contact us by email at

moneymail@dailymail.co.uk or post a letter to Money Mail, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT.