Lenders fail to notify savers of rate changes

Most banks fail to tell savers about changes to the interest they are earning on their cash, it was claimed yesterday.

An investigation carried out for Which? Money magazine found that only four out of 12 banks and building societies guaranteed that they would personally inform their customers about savings rate changes.

The other lenders relied largely on people seeing adverts in newspapers or visiting their branches to find about about interest rate cuts or rises.

The four providers that promised to inform their customers of any interest rate cuts by letter or email were First Direct, Cheltenham & Gloucester, the Co-operative Bank and ING Direct.

Other banks said they would personally notify customers only if the rate that they were receiving was reduced by more than 0.25 per cent.