Skipton's market leading 3.50% 7-Year Bond goes online
The UK's fourth largest building society will boost the value it offers hard-hit savers, by launching an online version of its popular 7-year fixed rate savings bond.
Following new Bank of England Governor Mark Carney's announcement that Base Rate is likely to stay put for three years, the Society is keen to extend availability of this rewarding product - which was previously available only via its brances - to more people.
It has already committed to extending the availability of the branch-only version of this unique product to at least the end of August, after it proved extremely popular. This product was recently officially recognised by Moneyfacts as the only savings product out of the 804 on the market currently offering above-inflation returns.
Kris Brewster, Skipton's Head of Products, said: "We originally conceived this product to offer savers value and certainty in a market characterised by historically low rates.
"Wednesday's announcement by the new Bank of England Governor did a lot to bring increased certainty to the marketplace.
"However, the downside of that for savers is they now know they are unlikely to see much improvement in their returns for even longer than they might have thought.
"That's why we're doing what we can to cushion the impact on them by extending the availability of our 7-year branch bond, and now making it available to online customers too."
7-Year Fixed Rate Online Bond key product features
Annual Interest 3.50% Gross pa/AER
Monthly Interest 3.45% Gross pa/AER
Other product features
Customers can invest between £500 and £10,000;
Interest is calculated daily and paid annually or monthly;
Fixed until 11 October 2020;
Additional investments can be made into the bond until it becomes a closed issue (which can happen at any time and without notice);
No withdrawals are allowed until maturity;
The bonds will mature into a competitive easy access account available at the time.
This latest offering complements the wide variety of other good value savings accounts Skipton has available, including our innovative goal-based My Savings range, which encourages people to save up for everything from holidays to a rainy day, through badged accounts helping them to keep their objective very much in mind. Skipton also offers competitive ISAs and was among the first providers to offer the Government-backed Junior ISA.
It further reinforces Skipton's commitment to offering consistent, long term good value products which are transparent, with no catches. And the combination of simplicity, rate certainty and an attractive return means that customers can invest their money with confidence.
Anyone wishing to find out more about Skipton's 7-Year Fixed Rate Online Bond can visit the Society's savings pages on skipton.co.uk.