Finance Choices

If you are 21 or over and can pay in at least £1,000 per month, the Premier Plus account could be for you.

The Intelligent Finance Current Account offers a rate of 2.75% AER, one of the highest in the UK for current accounts.

Lloyds TSB offers a broad range of current accounts, as you'd expect from a major high street bank

With a Cahoot Current Account your money will be working harder for you, as you'll be earning up to 4.3% on your current balance.

First Direct were one of the pioneers of Internet banking and are backed by the HSBC group.

Simple isn't a word you'd usually associate with a bank account. But that's exactly what makes the Citibank Direct Current Account different.

Halifax are the first bank in Europe to offer you moneyback when you make purchases on your current account debit card.

The Easy Access savings account from Capital One features a competitive interest rate of 4.75% AER on investments of £2,000 to £1m.

With the HSBC Current Account you get free everyday banking.

A lot of banks bang on about being different, but chest puffing apart, few actually live up to the claim. But at smile, they really can say it with conviction.

Open an ING Direct Savings Account with just £1 and you'll be earning interest at the high rate of 5% AER however high or low your balance is.

ICICI UK Bank is the UK subsidiary of India's second-largest bank. It has been open for business in the UK since November 2003 and offers a full range of banking products.

Web Saver is now an award winning account! Moneyfacts, the UK's leading financial website, has awarded the Halifax "Best Internet only Account Provider". Now you have even more reason to open a Web Saver online now!

With a Cahoot Savings Account your money will be working harder for you, as you'll be earning up to 5.1% on all your in-credit balance.

The new Barclays Regular Saver account will offer customers a return of ten per cent gross/AER on savings of between £25 and £250 per month for a year after the account is opened.

WThe Intelligent Finance Savings Account offers a great rate of interest applied to all balances of 4.75 AER.

The Abbey National ESaver

For decades the banks have been allowed to give you shamefully low rates of interest. You put your life savings with a bank, for them to invest and make their record profits, and get interest rates in the region of 0.1% per year in return.

A recent survey by the Independent Finacial Advice Promotion (no idea who they are either but they sound important) suggested that seven out of ten UK adults cannot afford to save any more money than they currently do.

As if it isn't bad enough that the banks rake in millions of pounds in profit every day, a few years ago the major high street banks started charging you to withdraw cash from their ATM (Automatic Teller Machines).

Parents are putting their own needs on the backburner to save £250 million a month for their children's future, new figures show.

Britons in 2005 have more choice than ever before in how and where to deposit their savings, but the returns on offer are lower than the average of the last 45 years.

A major new study into the UK pensions market has found that millions of Britons not saving for a pension are held back by their attitudes and not their incomes.

HSBC is now offering its current account customers price protection insurance, meaning if one of its customers finds something they have bought cheaper elsewhere, the bank will refund the difference.

Almost a million people a year are now swapping their current accounts as competition between providers hots up.

Residents of the UK could save £400 a year - adding up to £12,000 over a working life - by switching bank account, Which? has found.

Millions of Britons are letting their bank balance rule their heart - as the cost of splitting up soars.

Britons are growing ever more confident in their use of internet banking sites, Lloyds TSB finds.

The vast majority of Britons are overrating their savings, a new report finds.

National Savings and Investments today released the results of a year's worth of research into the nation's savings habits - with some surprising results.