Banks dish out stingy rate rise

TWO of Britain’s big banks became the latest to palm savers off with paltry rate rises yesterday.

First Direct, owned by HSBC, confirmed it would up the rate on one of its account by a pathetic 0.05%.

HSBC saw profits rocket by 448% to £3.5bn in the three months to September 30.

Meanwhile, Barclays said some accounts would go up by just 0.15%, depending on the balance.

It recently announced profits in its UK arm rose 12% to £1.3billion in the first nine months of 2017.

Both rises are less than the Bank of England’s recent 0.25% rise in its base rate. The pair join a host of banks giving stingy increases to savers.

Barclays has already said it will pass on the 0.25% rise for variable rate home loans on December 1. It will do the same for Help to Buy ISA and Helpful Start savers.

But rates on other accounts are going up by just 0.15% and 0.20%.

Meanwhile, First Direct is also increasing its Cash ISA by 0.25% to 0.75%. But rates on its Bonus Savings account will increase by 0.10% to 0.50% on balances of less than £100,000. Those with more than £100,000 will see the rate edge up 0.05% to 0.2%, including a bonus. First Direct said what it paid savers was “not directly linked to the base rate.”

But Tom Adams, head of research at Savingschampion. co.uk, said: “Savers will be frustrated, particularly if they are seeing the full 0.25% rise passed on to mortgage borrowers.” A Barclays spokesman said: “All Barclays customers with variable rate savings products will see an increase in their interest rate from 1 December.”