Icelandic bank Kaupthing Edge has announced it will leave its savings rate untouched at 6.5% following the Bank of England base rate cut. This is the second time it has decided to keep its top rate on hold despite base rate reductions. Icesave, the UK savings arm of Landsbanki bank, followed in the wake of its Icelandic peer and also announced that it would retain the 6.05% rate on its easy access account. Kaupthing stormed onto the UK savings market this year, but has since endured a tirade of unfavorable press after Morgan Stanley revealed its borrowing costs have increased 400% over the past year and analysts concluded it is 7.5 times more likely to default than any other European bank. However, UK savers can take solace in the fact that their savings are covered up to £35,000, as well as the impressive guarantee on the Kaupthing account of 0.3% above base rate until 2012.
Posts Tagged ‘savings rate’
Kaupthing remains top of savings best-buy
Friday, April 11th, 2008Egg slashes savings rate by 0.5%
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Following last week’s rate cut by the Bank of England, Egg has slashed the rate on its internet savings account by 0.5% - double the cut in the base rate. Until the end of last year Egg’s Internet Account came with a promise that its before-tax rate would at least match base rate – 5.25% from last week. But now that the guarantee has run out, the bank has taken a heavy hand to the account. Its loyal savers now earn 4% after savings tax (5% before tax) down from 4.4% (5.5%). Customers looking for a higher rate may want to switch to newcomer Kaupthing Edge which has said it will not be reducing the 6.50% it pays to online savers, despite the change to the base rate.
