Charter Savings – the challenger bank – has increased interest rates on five of its fixed-rate bonds, increasing competition in the savings marketplace.
Since launching in March, Charter has ensured that all of its fixed-bonds have soared to the top of the fixed-bond marketplace in independent financial reports.
The bank has boosted the rates on its fixed products where savers have to leave their money for either one, two, three, four or five years, and all of them can be opened with a minimum of £1,000 online.
While the funds cannot be accessed for the duration of the product chosen, the one-year bond pays 2.06 per cent (up from 2 per cent), the two-year bond pays 2.25 per cent (up from 2.16 per cent), the three-year bond pays 2.65 per cent (up from 2.25 per cent), the four-year bond pays 2.75 per cent (up from 2.35 per cent) and the five-year bond pays 3.05 per cent (up from 2.5 per cent).
The two-year bond offered by the bank is the least competitive product, and provides a lower rate of interest than the Punjab National Bank (paying 2.3 per cent) and Vanquis Bank (paying 2.26 per cent).
Charter Savings’s one-year bond gives even higher returns than United Trust Bank’s account paying 2.05 per cent, which was the first one-year fixed-rate product to go above the 2 per cent interest rate for almost 12 months.
The rise in interest given on all the bank’s fixed-rate products is good for all savers, as it means that more competition is likely to see rates soar across the marketplace.