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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Sophie Buchan

Martin Lewis issues bank account warning urging people to switch as 'millions could be underpaid'

Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to people when it comes to their bank accounts.

In his latest round up for Money Saving Expert (MSE), the website founder stressed that people need to be switching if they don't get much out of the bank they are with currently. The financial guru has said that "millions of cash ISA savers" could be being underpaid - and it's worth checking to make sure you are not one of them.

In his post, he explained that "top cash ISA rates have more than trebled in the last year. Even before that, millions with cash ISAs were underpaid. Now the gap is even bigger."

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And to address this, he is advising people to do his cash ISA check-up to see if you can gain £100s more interest to reduce the bite of inflation.

People should now be checking what the percentage stands at when it comes to interest as many are receiving under one per cent.

He warned: "If you do have an easy-access cash ISA, beware, many are paying diddly-squat, often under 1 per cent, so check yours.

"If it's pants, simply open a new top-paying cash ISA, and usually in the application form you can ask the new provider to transfer your existing cash ISA(s) to it. Don't just withdraw the money though, as then you lose the ISA status."

If you have a fixed-term ISA however, there is a an ISAs calculator that Martin Lewis says people should be using, which is ran by MSE themselves, to see if you should ditch and switch with the likely scenario being that you should.

He adds: "If you took a savings fix over the last few years, rates were poor. Yet unlike normal fixes where you're locked in, fixed cash ISA rules mean you must be allowed to withdraw early - usually for an interest penalty.

"As rates are now much higher than they were, many would be better off accepting the penalty then transferring to a new higher-rate cash ISA."

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