Interest rates are on the their way down it seems. Good news for the borrowers and bad news for the savers. Well if the banks get their way it will be good news for nobody but the banks. Banks are being accused of ripping off their customers by playing the rate change game. In practice this means that if you're a saver the banks have cut savings rates straight away. Some banks predicting the cut cut their savings rates six weeks in advance of the actual rate cut. This has meant that savers have lost millions of pounds as the banks have made sure the cut has not only been passed on straight away but in some cases well before. With a further rate cut in February likely the banks are poised to cut savings rates yet again to make even more money.

Further losers are people with mortgages that track the lenders Standard Variable Rates or even worse lender with mortgages linked to LIBOR. When the bank of England made its quarter of a percent cut, the first since August 2005 Britain largest mortgage lender the Halifax announced it would also cut its Standard variable rate a quarter of a percent. Sounds good doesn't it but the Halifax said that the cut would not be made until January, nearly a month after the actual rate cut. However savings rates with the bank have been cut straight away and the bank may be looking at reducing this further. But the Halifax are by no means the worst, many lenders are not passing the rate cut on to their customers who are linked to their Standard Variable Rate.

More worrying is the fact that many Banks are offering great rates for new deposits. As the credit crunch continues the banks are desperate to attract new savers to them. It means to new customers that they will get some really good rates. However the banks are not offering these rate to existing customers. The best rate at the moment seems to be the Abbey who are offering an interest rate of seven percent on a one year bond. Yet this is being offered to new customers only.

Mortgage brokers are also warning that the banks will be looking for bigger margins on their mortgages next year. With 1.4 million people in this country due to come out of fixed rate mortgages at this time then they might find the mortgage products waiting for them as a shock. Mortgages were typically at base or below before the credit crunch now they are well above bank base. The banks have also got more strict on the people they will lend to. Big loans and sub prime loans have been toughened up. We could see some people unable to remortgage and as a result have to stay on the lenders standard variable rates. With Standard variable rates being so high and the lenders stubbornly refusing to bring them down then many homeowners may face financial uncertainty. With lots of borrows unable to remortgage and sat on the Standard Variable Rates the banks stand to make even more money.

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