Mind the gap

Unfortunately the same cannot always be said for their savings customers and Moneyfacts.co.uk reveals that a number of providers have cut savings rates ahead of applying reductions to mortgages

Moneyfacts.co.uk has reviewed the changes made to both savings, and mortgage products across the whole of market following last months base rate movement.

Jane Dawson, Head of Press & PR at Moneyfacts.co.uk says: "Unfortunately some providers have employed unfair tactics by cutting their savings rates before reducing their existing customers’ variable rate mortgages."

In some cases the gap is just a few days but in others it’s almost a month. This ‘gapping’ or ‘lagging’ clearly saves providers a great deal of money.

Jane Dawson says: "At the moment it’s a small proportion of providers doing this, but there is a danger that others will follow suit in an effort to create a level playing field.

"We understand that providers may not be able to implement reductions to existing mortgages straightaway. They need some time to advise customers of changes to direct debits and actually put the changes in place, but that being the case, they should play fair and hold back on savings cuts too."