Brits urged to check savings accounts within next 15 days or risk losing hundreds
A lot of money is sitting in the bank accounts of people who will soon have a decision to make on what to do with it, and if they do nothing they could end up missing out on extra money.
According to research from Skipton Building Society there's about £119.6 billion held in fixed-rate savings accounts where the rate is due to mature between this month and the end of 2026, and about £35.7 billion of that is in accounts where the rate is up by the end of the month.
This is 'maturity season', the time of year when many of these accounts reach the end of their term and it's up to the saver to decide what to do with their money now.
In this case the cost of doing nothing could result in missing out on hundreds of pounds, as there's a reason people are on that fixed rate in the first place and once it expires the money may not be on such a good deal any longer.
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That's why if your time is coming it's worth looking at your options and understanding what's going to happen to your money, as well as what you might be missing out on.
Losing money when your term is over
Once your fixed rate has expired the next step depends on the bank you have the account with, and many of them will pay you out your interest and then roll the rest of your money into an account on a lower rate if you do nothing.
Take the one-year account from MBNA, for example, as Money Saving Expert says its Fixed Saver rate of 4.85 percent for one year is one of the best from a bigger name in the banking world, since they're part of Lloyds.
If you opened a Fixed Saver account with them and put £20,000 in then once it matures a year later you'd have another £970 once those 365 days were done and dusted.
However, as is the case with many fixed account customers if you do nothing then your money gets transferred to their Easy Access Saver where the interest rate drops to 0.75 percent.
If you don't tell your bank what to do with that money then the annual interest on the new account is going to be just £157.27.
MSE suggests that a good two year fixed-rate account from a big name is Tesco Bank, which offers 4.85 percent so again that £20,000 is going to put you at £20,970 after one year, but since you can't touch the cash until the term expires you'll end up with £21,987 after two years.
No prizes for guessing how much you've earned in interest there.
However, once your fixed term expires if you don't do anything then you'll get paid out the interest and the rest of the money continues on their standard variable rate of 1.05 percent.
You'd be earning £210 in the first year and £212.05 in your second year, meaning you'd be going from making £1,987 in interest to £422.05 just because you didn't do anything about your money.
What to do when your fixed rate expires
Fortunately, your bank will tell you about a couple of weeks before the expiration date that it's time for you to make a decision, so you'd need to ignore their attempts to get in touch with you to fall into this.
Generally they'll want to keep your custom so they're likely to offer you a range of options including going onto another fixed rate deal.
You can also take this opportunity to do some shopping around to find a better deal if you like, though if you've picked a good one that might be tricky.
Fixed rate deals typically offer better rates the longer you lock in your money, but at the moment a lot of them are roughly the same in an indication that the banks don't expect the UK interest rates to change all that much in the near future.
With a bit of attention you can make sure that your money makes money while you're busy with other things, just make sure you know when your rate expires and pay attention to your bank getting in touch.
Joe Harker