I’ve tracked rates for decades… This is the one thing all savers should do every week, says SYLVIA MORRIS, our new Savings Guru who will help boost your nest egg

When it comes to drinks, especially at this time of year, I’m never short of friends on my arm with a money question on the tip of their tongue. Beautiful, I think, put them on.

I have been writing about money and saving for 30 years and am convinced that you can easily get the most out of your money.

I spend hours every week following what banks and building societies are doing with our money.

Cut a rate on your bill to try to get away with paying a pittance? I will call out the banks and report a new haven for your hard-earned savings.

All savings accounts come with a slew of terms and conditions, some with as much as 50 pages of fine print.

It’s just a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff – which I’m happy to do on your behalf.

My elbows were sharpened in the City before I moved on to writing about the savings of the boom years – when prime rates peaked in double figures, until the 2008 financial crisis led to plummeting rates.

Yet friends tell me they are still getting meager interest rates from their banks – even though interest rates are now at their highest level since 2008.

So my best advice is to see how the pennies stack up, stay alert, and move your money between providers regularly to get the best bill.

One of my non-negotiables is that you should absolutely compare your savings rate with the best on the market at least once a week to ensure you’re getting the best rate.

You just can’t afford not to check this these days. It’s what I tell my friends. Hardly a day goes by without a new savings account popping up, often with a tempting top interest rate.

But wait a minute. Often you can only earn that rate if you jump through countless hoops. Put one foot wrong and you lose the course that attracted you in the first place.

My second important piece of advice is to check the Ts and Cs carefully before moving any money. Unless you check your own account regularly, you might discover that your bank or building society has secretly debited (half a percentage point at a time) your rate, so that your once-great account is now nothing of the sort.

Which brings me to my new Money Mail column launching today. Every week on this page I reveal tips and tricks to boost and protect your savings – all gathered by digging into the details of savings accounts and talking to industry insiders.

So let me know if you see anything untoward with banks, if you see deals you think readers would like to hear about, or if you just have a topic you’d like me to discuss.

***

What to make of this week’s reports that the Bank of England may have to keep interest rates at 5.25 percent until 2025?

Fixed-rate bonds are priced based on what money market traders think will happen to interest rates in the longer term. Will the banks, who have recently scrapped their top deals, respond by generously leaving their best purchases on the table?

The short answer is: don’t count on it. Rates aren’t going any higher, so if you’re looking for a solution, act now.

Beware of cuts to NS&I deals

The premium rate for Premium Bonds currently stands at 4.65% – the highest level in almost 25 years

This was a top year for savers at National Savings & Investments.

The premium rate for Premium Bonds currently stands at 4.65 percent – ​​the highest level in almost 25 years.

And around 225,000 savers signed up for the flagship one-year bond with a fixed rate of 6.2 percent before it closed on October 5 after just five weeks.

But it’s because NS&I has been so competitive this year that I predict gloomy news on the horizon.

Sorry, but NS&I savers are in the firing line for interest rate cuts, including the 21 million of you with Premium Bonds.

Why? The latest figures show that savers have pumped a huge £9.8 billion into the government-backed savings provider in just six months.

This huge inflow between April and September is very close to the maximum target of £10.5 billion that the government has asked NS&I to raise money from savers throughout the financial year – which does not end until March 31, 2024. has just £700 million to go before it overshoots its target.

Unfortunately, unless savers withdraw their money from NS&I, NS&I will have to lower interest rates to stem the inflow.

Sy.morris@dailymail.co.uk