All the financial heavyweights back our major new campaign

ROS ALTMANN EX-PENSIONS MINISTER

CLEARLY, at 0.25 per cent, the Bank of England’s interest rate is way below inflation. Savers are seeing the real value of their money whittled away each month as prices rise but interest rates stay so low.

Now that banks will see higher interest on the money they deposit with the Bank of England, I would hope that at the very least they will pass all of that increase on to poor, long-suffering savers, who are so worried that their savings are buying less and less. Inflation erodes savers’ confidence and every economy needs people to be saving, especially as the economic outlook remains so uncertain. It is time for banks to help their savers enjoy the tiny bit of better news that this rate rise could represent.

STEVE WEBB

FORMER PENSIONS MINISTER

THE banks are quick to pass on an increase in the base rate to borrowers. But we need to see the banks be just as fast in providing customers with higher savings rates. Britain’s savers have faced a hostile environment for most of the past decade and it’s time they were given a break.

VINCE CABLE

FORMER BUSINESS SECRETARY

WITH inflation rising, it is essential that savers are not penalised by banks holding down interest rates when the base rate rises.

There is still insufficient competition in the marketplace for savings deposits. As a result, the banks will be tempted to revert to their old cartel way of behaving. Savers must be respected.

DENNIS REED

DIRECTOR, SILVER VOICES

THE banks have been making a mint out of savers for years.

With inflation at 5.1 per cent and rising, and the state pension only due to increase by 3.1 per cent, older people need more of a boost than the few extra pounds from savings that this rate rise will produce.

ANNA BOWES CO-FOUNDER, SAVINGS CHAMPION

WE have just celebrated our tenth anniversary at Savings Champion. Thoughout that time, savers have been getting a raw deal.

So I am delighted that at last the Bank of England has seen sense and increased interest rates.

But I fear savers are still not going to get the fair treatment they deserve. This is especially true of savers with big high street banks, many of whom wrongly assume their bank is doing its best for them.

When the interest those loyal savers are earning is as low as 0.01 per cent a year – yes, 0.01 per cent – my view is that they are being robbed. To put this derisory rate into pounds and pence, on a deposit of £10,000, that means annual income of just £1. You can’t even buy a bad cup of coffee with that.

Even in the unlikely event that these providers were to pass on the full 0.15 percentage point increase, that same £10,000 savings pot would still earn only £16 in annual interest. While I implore banks to do the right thing and react positively to The Mail on Sunday’s splendid ‘Give savers a rate rise campaign’, I am pretty sure they won’t – though I would love to be proved wrong.

With inflation soaring, savers now need all the help that they can get.

If you leave money sitting in an account paying 0.01 per cent annual interest with inflation at 5.1 per cent, your money will halve in real terms in just 14 years. That’s a terrifying financial fact.

So come on banks, make me a liar! Do the right thing and support your savers. Give savers a rate rise.