UK Savers Offered Higher Introductory Bonuses

In an attempt to attract new and lock in existing savers, more and more British banks and building societies start to offer introductory bonuses to savers, says the research carried out an online financial comparison source, MoneyExpert.
The research showed that an average introductory bonus now reaches 0.9%, which is 0.2% higher than an average instant access rate. The number of banks and building societies offering introductory bonuses has risen from 16% a year ago to 21% these days; savings accounts’ providers have increased the size of introductory bonuses by 0.2% in the past year, while they have cut instant access savings rate by as much as 2%.
In the opinion of Mr. Pierre Williams, MoneyExpert’s head of research, UK savers are just like beggars because of the extremely low savings rates that banks and building societies offer, and that is the reason why they cannot be choosers. Savers are best off going with what savings providers offer, and this time these are introductory bonuses.  He added that those who wish to get to the top of savings rates have to work hard on it. Mr. Williams, however, did not specify how to work, but made it clear that jumping from one product to another is not an option. He said that at the moment such situation can be observed on the market of credit cards, where customers are constantly changing products trying to chase the best rate.
One of the ways of working on the top rate is, probably, strict adherence to provider’s rules. For instance, banks and building societies are doing all they can to inhibit savers’ flexibility not only by increasing the minimum deposit size by as much as 28% (from £986  in 2008 to £1,263 in 2009), but also by cutting down the number of withdrawals.