Interest rate

Three of the country's best-paying current accounts will dramatically cut the interest and rewards they pay millions of customers early next year, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal, as banks continue to slash headline rates on their top accounts.

The three market-leading regular savings accounts are cutting their interest rates from 6% to 5% for new account-holders - but if you've a current account with HSBC or First Direct, open a regular saver TODAY and you can still lock in 6% for a year.

The Bank of England cut the base rate - which underpins savings and many borrowing rates - from 0.5% to 0.25% last week, after seven years of no change. It also hinted the rate may fall again this year and cut its growth forecast for the UK economy.

Interest rates on two different Santander products have been cut this week as customers continue to wonder whether the bank is preparing to reduce the headline rate on its flagship 123 current account from 3% to 2%.

The prospect of banks charging personal customers for holding their savings remains unlikely, despite a warning by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest to business and commercial customers that negative interest rates could become reality.

The Bank of England today kept the base rate at 0.5% – despite widespread predictions that it would cut the rate for the first time in more than seven years.

The mortgage market is "sitting on a ticking time bomb" because the EU and the UK regulator have failed to sort out "bonkers" new rules which mean homeowners are told they can't afford to get a cheaper mortgage deal, MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis has warned.

Over 10 million Barclaycard credit card customers will have their interest rates linked to the Bank of England base rate from February next year, while the same is also happening for some Lloyds Banking Group customers.

Around 125,000 mortgage and loan customers of Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) – the state-owned remnant of failed lender Northern Rock – will be transferred to US private investment firm Cerberus or to TSB Bank next year.