More pain for savers

Banks and building societies are withdrawing special bonus rates for savers, leaving them struggling to find a decent return for their money.

Savings accounts often come with a first year bonus of around 1%, to add to the normal interest rate, to attract new customers.

But the number of easy access accounts offering bonuses has fallen from 73 to 46 since August last year. The number of notice accounts with bonus rates has more than halved: only 11 remain.

The financial information firm, Moneyfacts, blames the government's new Funding for Lending scheme, which is channelling cheap money to banks to encourage them to lend.

There's already been a drop in the underlying rates of interest on offer to savers.