Take the hassle out of switching

SAVERS can earn more interest and make switching accounts more straightforward by signing up to a slick new service.

So- called savings platforms are gaining popularity with people fed up with rockbottom rates from the big banks and the tedious process of changing providers.

Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings has pulled in £100 million in just five weeks following its launch last month. It comes hot on the heels of Raisin UK, which has attracted 15,000 customers since arriving in the UK in May.

Others including Octopus, Insignis Cash Solutions and Flagstone are also popular.

You sign up to an online platform and get a choice of fixed-rate bonds at top interest rates from smaller banks and building societies. Your money is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme — up to £85,000 with each bank you choose.

The big plus is that there is no paperwork when you switch to a new bond or easy-access account within the platform. You fill in your details just once on first signing up.

You can spread your money across providers, see all your accounts in one place and move cash in and out of your current account.

The firm should also alert you when your fixed-rate deal is ending, so you remember to swap to another top account.

Experts say switching accounts the oldfashioned way has proved a big turn-off, due to time-consuming form-filling and digging around for the right documents each time.

Nearly half of savers (45 out of 100) in taxable easy-access accounts don’t bother and instead stay in old, poor-paying accounts for five years or more, found City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority.

What platforms offer is down to which banks and building societies have signed up to it.

Hargreaves Lansdown, Raisin UK and Octopus, with which you must have at least £1,000 to invest, offer access to a limited number of providers and plan to add more. Hargreaves offers bonds from Charter Savings Bank, Close Brothers and ICICI Bank.

Last week, it had top-paying Metro Bank and Coventry BS bonds. It will add easyaccess accounts and cash Isas next year.

Raisin UK has bonds from Gatehouse, ICICI and B&C banks, and pays a bonus to savers putting in more than £10,000 that adds 0.2 pc to your rate. It also plans to add easy-access accounts to its range.

Octopus has bonds with OakNorth, Aldermore, Metro and Cambridge & Counties banks. Insignis, which launched in September 2016 and which has attracted £225 million of savers’ money, has a much wider range, from 20 different banks, with both fixed-rate bonds and easy-access accounts. But you need a minimum £50,000 to sign up.

Flagstone has 26 different banks, but there is a huge minimum entry of £250,000. This will fall to £50,000 next year.