bankguide

In years gone by, people tended to select a bank and stayed with it for good. Indeed, most just selected the bank their parents were customers of, and didn't spread their nets any wider for their savings and day to day anking account requirements. This made sense years ago when banking was largely conducted in person at a local bank – customers were confined to what was easily handy and convenient.

Nowadays, of course, the internet has changed all that. We are no more restricted to our local banks, and can deposit our funds wherever we want at the click of a button. The outcome is we have much more scope to make our money work harder, and this is particularly applicable to our savings.

Even in today's challenging financial situation with historically low interest rates, you can still make your savings work hard in a deposit account, without any of the dangers present in investing in the tumultuous securities markets.

This is largely because some financial institutions have lent too much money out and have to bring in savings deposits to balance their businesses, but whatever the cause, you can find interest rates far above the ones the reserve banks are placing as the base.

You can also easily find these offers online, by using one of the numerous financial comparison web sites out there. These sites make it a simple matter to line up the offerings of each bank, and select the one which will make the most of your money. Before you do this, though, there are two important details to keep in mind.

First, some of the accounts with the highest rates restrict how much you can bank into them to a specific sum each month. This means that even though the interest rate may be attractive, you will in reality be limited in how much you can earn. These accounts are superb if you have a small amount of extra cash each month and want to put it away and earn interest on it, but less attractive if you have a lump amount you wish to deposit.

Second, many accounts reach their high places in the best buy tables by boasting an introductory bonus deal. Once this finishes, the underlying rate may be much less appealing, so ensure you know what the long term rate will be unless you want to be opening new accounts again and again to guarantee you always enjoy a beneficial rate.