Icesave have increased the interest rates on two of its savings accounts from 25 June.

The Icelandic bank has increased the interest rate on its Icesave Easy Access Savings Account from 6.05% to 6.30% as well as increasing the AER on its Icesave Fixed Rate Savings Account from 7.01% to 7.06%.

With these two Icesave Savings Accounts, you can choose to have your interest paid monthly or yearly and, because the bank is registered with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), be safe in the knowledge that your money will be covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) even though the bank is Icelandic.

The Icesave Easy Access Savings Account gives the saver online access to their money 24 hours a day, seven days a week and guarantees to beat the Bank of England base rate until October 2011 and match it until 31st January 2013. To open the account, you need a deposit of £250 and there are no catches or penalties if you withdraw your money.

The Icesave Fixed Rate Savings Account is a term account and you will therefore not be able to make any deposits or withdrawals once the account has been opened. You can open an account with £1,000 and the interest rate of 7.06% will be fixed for the entire term of the account; a time period you can choose out of either 6 months, 1, 2, or 3 years. The account also offers 24/7 online access so you can view the progress of interest being added to your account

To open either of these accounts you must be at least 18 years of age.

Click the relevant link for more information about the Icesave Easy Access Savings Account and the Icesave Fixed Rate Savings Account.

Barclays have this week launched a new internet savings account which comes with an introductory interest bonus period.

The Barclays e-savings Reward account comes with a competitive interest rate of 5.25% AER (variable) in months when no withdrawals are made from the account. This interest rate includes the 12 month introductory bonus of 0.75% gross.

Once the 12 month introductory bonus expires, Barclays guarantee that until 1 January 2010 the higher gross interest rate (when no withdrawals are made) will not be lower that 0.5% below the Barclays Bank base rate.

In the months when withdrawals are made you will earn a lower interest rate of 3.17% AER (variable), which also includes the 0.75% introductory bonus for 12 months.

The Barclays e-savings Reward account can be opened by anyone aged 18 or over with as little as £1 and has a maximum balance limit of £2 million. There is a limit of two accounts per customer.

As this account is an online saver, the account must be managed online. However, cash withdrawals can still be made using a cash machine up to a limit of £300 per day from a Barclays ATM.

Click the link for more information about the Barclays e-savings Reward account.

Online savings account management not for you? Compare savings accounts to find the account which best suits your needs.
 

Barclays have launched a new regular savings account which aims to help savers to reach their goals.

The Barclays Monthly Savings account offers a high fixed interest rate of 7.75% AER for 12 months if you deposit between £20 and £250 per month into the account by standing order.

One of the great things about this regular saver is its flexibility because it allows you to skip a payment, change your monthly standing order and make withdrawals if you need to. Most regular savers restrict you to one or two withdrawals per year. However, there are no withdrawal restrictions with the Monthly Savings account.

If you do choose to make a withdrawal you will earn the lower interest rate of 3.03% AER for the month when the withdrawal was made.

Your interest will be paid monthly so you will be able to see how well your savings are doing when you manage your account in branch, online or by phone.

The maximum amount you are allowed to deposit in this savings account is £3,000 over the 12 month term of the account. After the 12 months, your account will automatically be switched over to one of Barclays’ instant access savings accounts.

To apply for the Barclays Monthly Savings account you must be at least 16 years old and there is a limit of one account per customer.

Click the link to apply for the Barclays Monthly Savings account.

Want to save more than £3,000 in 12 months? Compare savings accounts to get the best savings rates

In recent months our household finances have been squeezed by rising mortgage, utility, food and petrol prices.

For many, this will mean that a summer holiday this year is out of the equation because there won’t be any spare cash once all the bills are paid for.

However, as we all know, taking a break out from the stresses and strains of daily life can revitalise even the most tired soul and prepare it for another year of hard work.

So, if you have resigned yourself to the fact that you won’t be jetting off to warmer climes this summer, think again.

Here are our top tips to help you budget for a summer holiday including how to get your hands on a money-off voucher for Thomas Cook worth £150.

[More]

The news is currently full of stories about the ever-worsening credit crunch. Because of this we have come up with our at-a-glance guide to what is going on in the world of personal finance, how it will effect you and how you can reduce its effects.

Contents

1. Credit cards & loans
2. Savings
3. Mortgages
4. Tips to further reduce the effect of the credit crunch

[More]

Earlier this week, Chancellor Alistair Darling announced the 2008 Budget.

Below we bring you what we think will be the five best and worst changes for you, the consumer:

Five of the best...

1. Energy companies should spend £150m on social tariffs
2. Increase in winter fuel payment to £250 for the over-60s and to £400 for the over-80s
3. “Savings Gateway” will be launched by the government in 2010
4. New Cash ISA tax-free savings allowance confirmed to be £3600 from April 5 2008 (the increase could have been a lot higher and so a change which ordinarily would have taken position 1 gets demoted to position 4)
5. £26m to go towards making homes greener

 
Five of the worst...

1. Increase in green tax charged on flights
2. 2p increase in fuel duty (but postponed until October 2008 – so instead of being in position 1, this change is in position 2 because it isn’t as bad with the six month delay)
3. 55p on a bottle of spirits
4. 14p on a bottle of wine
5. 4p added on a pint of beer

We’d love to hear your views on how the changes announced in the 2008 Budget will affect you, so please click on ‘Add comment’ to have your say.
 

Please note that your comment will need to be moderated by our team and so will not appear immediately.

If you have recently read our article “Important ISA tip: compare, get better rates and then save” you will know that you can transfer existing ISA funds into an ISA paying better interest rates without affecting your annual tax-free allowance.

We thought we would make the process of transferring your ISA even simpler by writing this step-by-step mini-guide:

Step one – Compare ISA savings accounts

Firstly, you will need to find yourself an ISA which offers a better rate of interest. To do this, why not use our user-friendly comparison service. If you go to our compare ISA savings accounts section, you will be shown a table of ISAs with columns showing you key information about what each account offers, without having to fill in forms.

Step two – Choose an ISA

Find the account which you like the best. Don’t automatically go for the account offering the highest interest rate; this should obviously be one factor you look at, but don’t forget to bear other features of the account in mind.

It will be pointless choosing an account with a 10% interest rate if you will end up losing out in the long run if you cannot meet the other requirements of the account.

Step three – Apply for the ISA

Once you have found the ISA that best suits your needs (and has a higher interest rate than your present account), click on the ‘Apply’ button and fill in the form with details of your current provider.

Step four – Over to your providers

Your old ISA provider should now provide the full account details to the new provider within five days.

This in practice, according to industry experts, could take a couple of months.

Step five – Wait

Wait until you have received confirmation from your new provider stating that your new account is up and running.

Do not close your account before you have spoken to your new provider, otherwise you will lose your tax breaks.

Step six – Save, save, save

Try to make the most of your annual tax-free savings allowance. This currently stands at £3,000, but will increase to £3,600 on 6 April.

Related articles: 'Important ISA tip: Compare, get better rates, and then save'

At the moment, you will find loads of articles in the press about using up your tax-free savings allowance each year.

This is a good thing, because it is not often these days that you get something for nothing.

Also, like many others, you are probably aware that you are entitled to open a new Cash ISA each tax year, which is great too.

However, few people know that they are allowed to open a new ISA each year AND transfer accounts from previous years into it without having any impact on their annual tax-free allowance.

This means that if you have £20,000 in one cash ISA offering say 4.75% AER, you could transfer it into an account paying a higher interest rate and still be left with all of your yearly tax-free savings allowance.

Why not compare ISA savings accounts in our easy to use table.

Related articles: 'Transferring your ISA, step-by-step'

If you are looking for an Individual Savings Account (ISA) then you have come to the right place.

At compareandsave.com, we believe you should be given all the information you need so that you can make the right decision. That’s why we have provided you with this step-by-step guide to getting the best ISA savings account for your needs.

[More]