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Your Money > Savings Articles > Get 6% on your savings
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By John Fitzsimons
If you want to get 6% on both your current account AND regular savings account, you'd better hurry up - this deal is about to disappear! Back in July, Santander (the parent company of Alliance & Leicester and Abbey) launched a quite brilliant savings initiative, which we wrote about in A cunning way to get 6% on your savings. If you moved your current account to Abbey's Reward Account or Preferred in Credit Rate account, paying 6%, then you would get exclusive access to its Super Fixed Rate Monthly Saver, also paying 6%. Similarly if you moved your current account to Alliance & Leicester's Premier Direct or Premier 50 accounts, which again pays 6%, then you would be able to take advantage of its Premier Regular Saver - which pays (you've guessed it) 6%. As you can see, it's all about the sixes. So perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised to learn the deal is set to be withdrawn this week, on the 6th September (Sunday). But is this deal really as good as it seems? Is it worth hurrying down to a local branch to sign up before the weekend? Or is there a sneaky catch? The biggest pro of this deal is the mammoth rates of interest on offer. It's extremely difficult to get 6% on the money in your savings account, never mind 6% on the money you pay into a current account. With this deal, you get both. I've put together a table which demonstrates just how attractive these deals are compared to the next best non-Santander current accounts.
What's clear is that, unless you are going to have huge sums in your current account each month, the Santander deals are easily the best around. You just won't get such a great rate anywhere else. What about the regular savings accounts - are they similarly attractive?
Ok, so the regular saver accounts are not the market leaders - in fact they are a whole 2% below the best products available. But they are still very competitive, and represent a pretty good bet in my view. Inevitably, the deal isn't perfect. For a start, if you already bank with Alliance % Leicester or Abbey (or even the internet bank Cahoot) then you won't be able to take advantage of the offer. There's also an unfortunate cap of £2,500 on which you can earn 6% interest in your current account. Go above that figure, and you get the derisory return of 0.1%. Plus, that juicy 6% rate only lasts a year. After that, it drops to 1%. And inevitably when discussing Abbey, the standard of service you receive always deserves a mention. In July, lovemoney.com readers crowned Abbey Britain's worst bank, with less than a quarter rating its service at excellent or good. Indeed, nearly 60% rated its service as poor or terrible! Things are better though with Alliance & Leicester though, which had 57% of its customers rating its service as good or excellent. Despite the cons, this is, in my opinion, the best all-round savings package available in the market currently. You get a brilliant return on your current account, as well as an excellent regular saver, and all within the same bank. This deal not only gives you a great return on your money, but it's convenient as well. Just remember that, according to Santander, this promotion will end on 6 September, so you had better get your skates on if you want to take advantage of it!
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