What is an ok or good rate of interest on a savings account right now?

[nopainnogain]

I heard that in the current economic climate you should be careful not to let any savings lose their value. I currently only get nearly 3% interest - seems pretty paltry to me. Is it?

Thanks.

ING and Bradford & Bingley both pay 6.5% on instant access online accounts at the moment.

Remember not to put more than £35k away with each bank though, that's the max. that you can be compensated for if the bank goes belly up.

Yes, especially if that is 3% after tax! Can get much better at the moment, see here for best deals:- www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/

I see.. thanks for that... The best interest my bank offers is 4.20% .. Another problem is that the momey is in a euro account and I will probably need access to it in the eurozone. WHy do UK accounts always seem to pay more interest? Do you know any good euro options? It is for a fairly sizable sum. Thanks, I am completely and utterly helpless with this type of thing

Ice save
First Save
Kaupthing-Edge
Birmingham midshires

All give 7 - 8 percent (pre-tax)

OMG, horrified at how much money I am losing. I´ve done nothing to ivest my savings for years and am just beginning to realise how the real value has plummeted. Can you recommend any dummies style book I could read about this sort of thing?

Thanks, will peruse... And yes, can get 4.25% in my bank. Is this enough though?!

I personally wouldn't be happy with anything under 5.5% at the moment. Remember that inflation is now at 4.8% (or something like that), so if you get less than that then you're actually losing money. Do you pay tax on your savings? Obviously it's a good idea to maximise the amount that you can in cash ISAs, but if you're not earning an income at the moment (don't know if you're a SAHM) then you can get the interest paid without tax - ask the bank, it makes a big difference. Plus if you paid tax on your savings interest in previous years, you can claim it back from the government - VERY satisfying.
I like the money saving expert website as an unbiased source of info and savings rates.

Going back to the mention of the coop/smile tie up, what other tie ups are there we should know about??

My husband mentioned RBS/NatWest.

Any others?

milou - the money saving expert website that I linked to has a page called "are my savings safe?" which has a table with all the linked banks on it.

(whoops - I see that Helennn beat me to it, great minds, eh? )

I would also be careful of investing my money offshore/in foreign banks - the rate may be more but I don't think you have the safety of the £35K guarantee..