AIB and An Post raise interest rates for savers

AIB and State Savings on Friday followed the lead of Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB earlier in the week, raising the interest rates they are offering savers.

Mortgage lender Avant also announced a rise in the interest rates it will charge on home loans.

AIB said its online saver account will offer return of 3 per cent on sums between €10 to €1,000 per month for 12 months, with customers able to open up to four such accounts. The change will come into effect on September 19th.

AIB is also increasing all fixed-term deposit rates for personal and business customers from September 12th, with its two-year term deposit account rising to 3 per cent. Its one-year term deposit account will increase to 2.5 per cent with a 1.5 per cent rate available on its six-month term deposit account.

PTSB most exposed Irish lender to competitive threat from Spanish move into market

---

Stella Li of Chinese car maker BYD: ‘We don’t want to engage in a price war’

---

Will consumers benefit from Aviva entering the Irish health insurance market?

---

The world’s richest countries must invest in effective, cheap technologies to tackle climate change

---

Junior and student saver rates and the EBS family savings rate are increasing to 3 per cent, with EBS’s children and teens savings rates increasing to 2.5 per cent.

AIB’s seven-day notice deposit account will now offer 0.75 per cent, with the demand deposit account at both AIB and EBS carrying a 0.25 per cent rate.

The NTMA, meanwhile, has increased the interest rates on State Savings products – prize bonds and deposit accounts offered through An Post.

The rate on offer on three-year savings bonds will jump from 1 per cent to 4 per cent, while savings certificates which lock savings in for five years will offer 9 per cent over that period, up from 5 per cent.

Six-year instalment savings will return 10 per cent, up from 5.5 per cent, while the rate on the 10-year national solidarity bond will rise to 22 per cent from 16 per cent.

The variable rate on its standard deposit account will increase from 0.05 per cent to 0.75 per cent.

State Savings’ fixed term products are tax-free. Almost 95 per cent of Irish household deposits are sitting in on-demand accounts, which are earning little or nothing by way of interest.

The NTMA also said it would treble the prize bond fund on offer to €48 million, having trebled the variable rate used to calculate it from 0.35 per cent to 1 per cent. The increased prize fund will deliver a top monthly prize of €500,000 in the last weekly draw of every calendar month, double the €250,0000 previously on offer.

Avant Money, the mortgage provider owned by Spanish banking group Bankinter, said it will increase its mortgage interest rates by up to 0.25 per cent from Monday. The lender said its three-, four-, and five-year fixed rate products will increase by between 0.15 and 0.25 per cent.

Variable rates will increase by 0.25 per cent, while longer term fixed rate products are unchanged with rates starting at 3.95 per cent.

Those who have already applied for a loan have until September 29th to draw down their mortgage at existing rates.