Martin Lewis, the founder of Money Saving Expert, has issued an Urgent warning to savers following the Bank of England's announcement that it would leave interest rates unchanged for the first time in nearly two years. The Monetary Policy Committee's decision to maintain the base rate at 5.25 percent instead of raising it, given the unexpected dip in August's inflation rate. Despite the benefits this has brought to mortgage holders, the financial journalist warned his 2.3 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, that they should act quickly to secure the top savings deals on offer today before providers'shave down' their rates. '' Mr Lewis wrote on X : ''. minutes ago the Bank of England voted to maintain interest rates at 5.25% - not increase as many predicted. Therefore, fixed rate savings can be shaved down at speed. He added that he will want to open a top fix at this moment as the rates could drop even by late today, certainly if it happens by later this week.
The founder of MoneySavingExpert.com said that the best action to take now is to open a fix today, but don't add any money. He said : t fund it. You can just hold it so you have it available and wait and see what happens to rates. If they go the other way, just don't fund the facility you've opened now - that's not a problem. Nationwide Building Society has launched a new Flex Regular saver account for current account customers this week, offering an eight percent AER for 12 months.
The account will transition to an instant access account after the end of the year, although Nationwide hasn't revealed the interest rate for the instant access account yet. If customers make four or more withdrawals from the Flex RegularSaver within 12 months of opening the account, the interest rate will drop to 2.15 percent AER. Moneyfacts said the last time a cash regular savings account was offering a rate of eight percent in 2013 was a decade ago. The fixed-term regular saver was offered by first direct with a rate of eight percent.