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Customer exodus from ING accounts
| (17-08-07) - Dutch bank ING has announced that customers have withdrawn more that £5 billion from its savings accounts over the past year since it failed to reflect interest rate increases. | 
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The Bank of England has raised rates five times since August last year, bringing them to a six year high of 5.75 per cent, but ING customers have failed to see this reflected in their accounts - with the Web Saver account rate actually dropping in April from 5.6 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
Banks often advertise attractive rates to entice new customers and ING was a regular feature in best buy tables until the end of 2005 by which time it had a considerable customer base of more than one million savings accounts in the UK. However, it had not reckoned on customers taking the initiative to move their money to more lucrative accounts.
Customers have lost £150 million in interest because of ING’s margin-increasing strategy.
Chris Eagle, CreditChoices.co.uk commercial manager, said: “ING customers are voting with their feet and any still holding their money in an ING savings account should switch to an account that accurately reflects the base rate increases we’ve seen over the past year.
“They should consider the Icesave account which not only pays 6.2 per cent on balances over £250, it also offers a guarantee to maintain rates at least a quarter point above the base rate until 2009, and then equal the Bank of England’s rate until 2011,” he advised.
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