Good news for savers with Sainsbury’s

Those with Internet savings accounts with Sainsbury’s are in for some good news, as the supermarket giant and bank has now raised the interest rate on its Internet savings account to 6%, a rise of 0.25% from its previous interest rate of 5.75%.

According to This is Money this makes the Internet savings account from Sainsbury’s one of the best savings accounts to have. Prior to the interest rate rise the top savings account according to This is Money was with Icesave, which offered a rate of almost 6 percent.

Last week the Bank of England opted to leave the interest rates stable at 5.5 percent. Interest rate rises have taken place four times within the last year, rising each time by 0.25 percent.

However, in many cases savings accounts operators have been very slow to apply any interest rate rise to savings accounts, and in some cases have failed to pass on all or any of the rises to savers.

One the other hand they have been quick to apply to interest rate rise on borrowing, which means that those that have borrowed money have to repay more and those that are saving money get lower returns.

Sainsbury’s, on the other hand, has decided to raise the interest rate on the Internet savings account by 0.25 percent, even though there was no interest rate applied by the Bank of England last week.

The account does no require any notice and does not have any penalties attached to making any withdrawals. There is also no minimum deposit with the Internet savings account.

One spokesperson from Sainsbury’s stated: ‘With so many accounts in the market, savers need to think about which savings account best suits their needs, whether that’s benefiting from a short term bonus or being able to access their funds without any penalties. Our Internet Saver is ideal for those savers who want to receive a great rate but also want to have regular access to their cash without any restrictions.’

Tom Smith
5th July 2007

Tags: saver, rise, england, accounts, rate, internet