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Charter Savings Bank tops best buy table as it ups interest rate on notice account

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
22/07/2016

As speculation mounted interest rates would be cut last week, in a surprise move, Charter Savings Bank has increased the interest rate offering on its 95-day notice account.

Any new customers signing up to the 95 Day Notice Account (issue 10) from 5pm yesterday (Thursday 21 July) will receive 1.61% AER, up from the 1.55% AER prior to this.

The move by the challenger bank means it’s now offering a market-leading interest rate.

Here’s what you need to know

If you want to withdraw your money, you need to give the provider 95 days’ notice – it’s a binding notice period so you won’t be able to access the cash any earlier. You can pay in between £1,000 and £250,000. If your balance falls below the minimum £1,000, you’ll receive interest at a fixed rate of 0.10% AER.

Once you open the account, you need to deposit money within 14 days. You can choose to have interest paid monthly or annually into your nominated account or your Charter Savings Bank account which you can access online.

It’s only available to new customers and this is a limited offer so while no end date has been given, if this is of interest, you may need to move quickly.

The 95 day notice account more attractive than its one-year fix

Andrew Hagger of MoneyComms said it’s interesting Charter Savings Bank has increased the rate on its 95 day notice account as it’s cut the rate offered on its one-year fixed rate bond from 1.79% to 1.66%.

“This makes the 95 day deal more attractive than the one-year fix now as, in effect, it is just a three-month fix for only 0.05% less than locking your cash away for 12 months.

“Charter uses its money to lend via a specialist lender called Precise Mortgages – its lending rates tend to be slightly higher than standard mortgage products – hence it can afford to pay a little more to its savings customers.”

Hagger added that he doesn’t think it will lead other providers to increase their rates as the 95/120 day notice account market “has never been overly competitive”.