If there is not a penalty clause involved in withdrawing funds from the first provider (a thing we ought to have already investigated prior to committing in the first place) it may make sense to pull them and to invest them with a different provider which is offering a similarly attractive opening deal.

What’s more it isn’t just other banks that may be able to offer us a more attractive alternative to our current contract. How many times do we receive mailshots from a broadband provider offering us an incentive to switch to them which is far more generous than the deal we, loyal customers, already have with the same company? In much the same way our own banks may be touting for new customers secure in the belief that their existing clientele are already “in the bag”, and offering sweeteners that we ourselves may feel inclined to ask for in order to continue giving them our business. You will never know until you’ve tried it.

It sounds far fetched, but in fact many credit card customers manage to spend on credit all the year round without paying a penny in interest charges because they switch from one card to another whilst taking advantage of short-term 0% interest deals. It is not unreasonable that a similar principle should be applied to savings accounts.

It pays to take advantage of an established savings comparison site to compare savings accounts and thereby to maximise returns.