In recent months the Bank of England has been slashing its base rate in an effort to lower mortgage repayments, thus giving people more money to encourage spending which it is hoped will help to kick-start the economy.
This shift in rates has had a bad effect on
savings accounts, with each cut eventually resulting in cuts to saving products.
However,
ICICI has today increased the rates on its 2 and 3 year
fixed rate bonds, fixing customers in on a higher rate that any other savings product in our tables. The changes are as follows:
ICICI are one of a very small number of banks to increase its rates on its savings accounts in these turbulent times.
Some economists believe that rates will continue to follow recent trends and could even reach 0%. If this were to happen, savers would not earn any interest on their savings and would effectively lose money, as inflation would erode its value. If you fix your rate at 4.10% for 2 years, you will not be effected by future cuts for this period, therefore earning a higher interest rate than other savers should the rate continue to fall.
Written by Sam Gooch