Martin Lewis issues urgent warning to people with a savings account after Bank of England announcement

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to people with savings accounts after the Bank of England announced that interest rates will remain unchanged for the first time in almost two years.

The Monetary Policy Committee opted to keep the base rate, which influences how much families need to pay to borrow money, at 5.25%.However, while that’s good for mortgage holders, the consumer champion took to social media shortly after the announcement on Thursday to warn savers they need to act fast if they want to “lock in” one of the current top interest rates as these offers could start to shrink or disappear by the end of today.Posting on his official X account (formerly Twitter), Martin told his 2.3 million followers: “URGENT SAVERS WARNING (pls share).

The Bank of England minutes ago voted to maintain interest rates at 5.25% - not increase as many predicted. It's therefore possible fixed rate savings may shave down their rates at speed (as they're based on longer term predictions of interest rates).”He continued: “If so, and you were looking to lock-in a fix, you'll want to open a top fix this minute as the rates could drop even by later today, certainly if it does happen by later this week.”The founder of MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE.com) explained that the best action to take right now is to open a fix today, but don’t add any money.

Martin said: “Tactic to play it both ways: Open the fix today, but don't fund it (you've usually 7 to 14 days to do that). Just hold it so you've got it available, and you can wait and see what happens to rates.