Each month, James writes in Essex lifestyle magazine, BeauLieu.  This is a reproduction of his March 2020 column.

On Monday, National Savings & Investments (NS&I) announced sweeping rate reductions across a large number of its savings products, including Premium Bonds, which will come in with effect from 1^st May 2020.

As well as seeming to be the longest month in history, January saw huge changes in the savings market with falls in interest rates in every major category that we cover on the website.

The start of a new decade will inevitably see many of us committing to New Year’s resolutions as we enter 2020. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of surveys on people’s resolutions have very similar feels to them in terms of our favourite ones.

Marcus, the savings division of banking giant Goldman Sachs, has pulled the bonus rate on its popular easy access account, losing its position at the top of the Savings Guru best buy tables.

November was another volatile month for savings rates with a number of changes in our best buy tables.

Having witnessed a few months of falling interest rates on savings, we’ve seen a little stabilisation in the past month thankfully.

An innocuous looking email dropped in to Savings Guru HQ a few days ago from Marcus, changing the terms and conditions on their Online Savings Account.  However, the contents are potentially very significant. 

At the start of September, the best 1 Year Fixed rate from a non-Sharia provider, who typically dominate the best buy tables, was the 1.95% payed by SmartSave. This month, the best rate is 1.80% from Zenith Bank or 1.76% from Ikano Bank.

Marcus by Goldman Sachs, the UK savings provider, has cut the bonus rate paid on its market leading easy access savings account, losing its place at the top of our best buy tables.

I wrote in last month’s column about falling interest rates and August was another month where we witnessed a number of providers cutting their interest rates on savings.

Each month, James writes a column for Around Town and BeauLieu Magazines, which go out to around 60,000 homes and businesses in Essex.  This is his August column.