Banks under fire over savings notice

THE majority of banks are failing to inform customers about changes to the interest they are earning on their cash, a consumer group has warned.

Which? Money found that only four of the 12 banks and building societies it investigated guaranteed that they would personally inform customers about savings rate changes. The other groups relied largely on people seeing newspaper adverts or visiting branches to find out about interest rate cuts or rises.

But Which? Money said that with the Bank of England base rate at a record low of 0.5 per cent, this policy could lead to customers not being notified about rate cuts that were "proportionately very large".

Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith said: "Outdated and inconvenient methods of notice on interest rate changes are keeping savers in the dark for longer at a time when they need greater disclosure than ever before."