Savers miss out on £7bn in interest by failing to switch

A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) for cash deposit platform Flagstone, has revealed that the Big Five lenders - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander - hold £827 bn of the £1.3 trillion in UK household deposits, equivalent to a 63% market share.

Their dominance on the market comes despite significantly lower rates of interest paid on deposits by the five major players, with “widespread inertia” among savers reluctant to shop around for the best deal.

The Big Five players are offering a maximum of £3.4bn in interest on current instant access and fixed-term deposit accounts over the next 12 months, the study shows.

But it revealed if savers switched to the best rates paid by the smaller competitors, they could earn up to £7bn more over the same period.

This is because the rates of interest can be far higher with the challengers.

For example, the research shows the best deal on an instant saver with the Big Five banks pays 0.4%, while Virgin Money offers 1.5% on its e-saver easy access account.

A survey of 4,207 people by YouGov to accompany the report discovered that more than four in 10 savers said they would be tempted to switch accounts if offered an extra one percentage point on their savings.