Big Banks taking loyalty for granted: New Which? analysis reveals the household names offering scant returns for savings customers
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Building societies and digital banks are the best bet for savers,
finds Which?, as some of the UK's biggest name banks - including
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Metro Bank, and Santander - fall behind on
interest rates. Over the course of the year, the Bank of England
has gradually cut the base rate from 4.75% to 4%, and in
response, many savings account providers have slashed their offers
- with the worst-performing account now offering less than 1%. This
means savers need...Request free trial
Building societies and digital banks are the best bet for savers, finds Which?, as some of the UK's biggest name banks - including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Metro Bank, and Santander - fall behind on interest rates. Over the course of the year, the Bank of England has gradually cut the base rate from 4.75% to 4%, and in response, many savings account providers have slashed their offers - with the worst-performing account now offering less than 1%. This means savers need to be proactive to ensure their savings products are still working for them. To establish the best overall savings providers, Which? analysed 12 weeks of interest rate data to find the providers offering the most competitive savings rates, and also carried out a nationally representative survey of over 6,000 people who hold a personal savings account to establish customer satisfaction. Only those providers that excelled in both areas met the criteria to earn a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) badge.
To establish an interest rate score, researchers analysed 12
weeks of Moneyfacts data across four product categories: 1-Year
Fixed savings, 1-Year Cash ISA, Instant Access Savings and
Instant Access Cash ISA. A score was calculated for each week by
comparing each provider's best rate against the market leader in
each category. An overall interest rate score was then calculated
based on an average of the scores across the categories the
provider offers. Metro Bank offered the least competitive interest rates across the 12 weeks Which? examined, scoring just 18 per cent in the interest rate analysis, followed by HSBC (27%), Lloyds (43%), Bank of Scotland (43%), Barclays Bank (50%), Santander (51%) and Halifax (55%). Metro Bank's Instant Access Savings Account offered the poorest return on the market during Which?'s analysis, with an interest rate of just 0.9% AER - a rate it's still offering at the time of writing (30 October).
HSBC** was offering a Flexible Saver with 1.33% in the summer,
which it has since cut to 1.15%. Bank of Scotland, Halifax and
Lloyds were offering instant access accounts with just a 1.2%
return during the summer, which now pay even less at 1.1%.
Barclays had an instant access savings account offering 1.16% and
an instant access ISA paying 1.11% during the period of analysis
- both accounts now pay 1.06%. Virgin Money had the lowest customer score of 60 per cent, while Santander and Halifax followed closely with tied customer scores of 63 per cent. The likes of Royal Bank of Scotland (64%), NatWest (64%), Metro Bank (67%), Bank of Scotland (67%) Lloyds (67%) and HSBC (67%) also landed in the bottom half. Virgin Money received just 2 stars for overall customer service, ease of contacting customer services by phone or chat session, and service in the branch. It received three stars in the remaining categories, including for online, mobile and telephone banking. One respondent complained that while they had a good introductory rate, it was “dropped soon after”, while another said “It's hard to speak to someone other than a bot.” Just eight providers - many of which are lesser-known names - met the high standards required to achieve Which? Recommend Provider status. These are Aldermore, Charter Savings Bank, Kent Reliance, Leeds Building Society, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Skipton Building Society, Yorkshire Building Society and Zopa. Charter Savings Bank received the highest overall customer score of 82 per cent, achieving 5 stars for customer service and online banking. Founded in 2015, it does not have a presence on the high-street but operates its accounts online. It received one of the best interest rate scores, achieving a score of 90 per cent in this category. One respondent noted, “It has consistently offered one of the best rates on the market over the last few years, and is still above most high street banks. The online banking is excellent and the service is always available with no problems.” Conversely, Trading 212 received the highest overall interest rate score of 93 per cent, but missed out on WRP status as it received just two stars for ease of contacting customer services. The app-based platform is best known for its investment services, but has offered savings accounts since last year. Many other banks impressed on customer service but failed to measure up on interest rates, meaning high scorers including Bank of Ireland (81%), AA (78%), Starling Bank (78%), Coventry Building Society (77%) and Nationwide (77%) failed to meet the threshold for WRP status. Reena Sewraz, Which? Retail and Money Editor, said:
“Many savers in our survey had been with the same bank for
decades, but our latest analysis shows that in many cases, that
loyalty is being taken for granted by some of the biggest names
in the business. “Savers don't need to be worried about making the switch though - every provider listed in our analysis is backed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which protects customers' money should authorised firms fail. This means they have the same protection offered by the household names, but often with better customer service and returns.” -ENDS- Notes to editors
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