Savers urged to secure high fixed rate accounts as rates above 6% are ‘disappearing’ | Personal Finance | Finance

Savers have been urged to secure any fixed rate deals as they will likely soon disappear.

Analysts at investment group Hargreaves Lansdown have warned the days of six percent rates for one-year fixed accounts “are numbered”.

NS&I closed to new customers its Guaranteed Growth Bonds and Guaranteed Income Bonds paying 6.2 percent last week with savers scrambling to take advantage of the remaining high rates.

Mark Hicks, head of savings at Hargreaves Lansdown, said there may be no more six percent deals by the end of the week.

He said: “What started off as a trickle of withdrawals last week has now turned into more a trend, with multiple banks and building societies removing products from the savings market.

“This is particularly focused on fixed-term products, as a result of the withdrawal of NS&I’s fixed rate of 6.2 percent – its best-ever savings bond.

“The wall of cash that was going towards NS&I has now moved to the next best products in the market and with a lot of those names being smaller providers, they are disappearing very fast.

“Whilst the easy access market has been relatively unaffected so far, this could certainly now be the last change to fix before rates start to move lower.

“We have already seen six percent rates disappear from the longer-dated fixed term market and now could be your last chance to fix before they disappear from one-year fixed term products.”

At the time of writing, these providers currently offer rates above six percent for one-year fixed accounts, according to moneyfactscompare.co.uk:

• Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd – 6.11 percent
• Ahli United Bank (UK) plc – Raisin UK – 6.1 percent
• Habib Bank Zurich plc – 6.03 percent
• LHV Bank – Six percent
• Ziraat Bank – Six percent.

A number of building societies have withdrawn fixed rate products, including a three-year bond from Buckinghamshire and a one-year ISA from Chorley.

Sainsbury’s Bank has also removed all fixed rate ISAs from sale while Al Rayan Bank has slashed the rates on the market for its 12- and 18-month Fixed Term Deposits.

The base interest rate is currently at 5.25 percent after the Bank of England decided to keep it at this level in its latest decision.

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