At one time, people generally decided on a bank and stuck with it for good. In fact, a lot of people just opted for the bank their parents used, and didn’t look any further for their investment and current account requirements. This was fine years ago when banking was always conducted in person at a local branch – customers were bounded to what was simply available and convenient.

These days, of course, the internet has revised all that. We are not now limited to our local banks, and can deposit our funds wherever we wish at the click of a mouse. The result is we have much more opportunity to make our money work harder, and this is particularly applicable to our savings.

Even in today’s trying economy with historically low base rates, you can still make your savings work hard in a savings account, without any of the gambles present in investing in the tumultuous securities markets.

This is largely because some financial institutions have lent too much money out and need to bring in savings deposits to balance their businesses, but whatever the cause, you can find rates far above the ones the central banks are setting as the benchmark.

You can also easily find these deals online, by making use of one of the numerous financial comparison internet sites that exist. These sites make it a simple matter to line up the products offered by each bank, and choose the one which will earn you most from your investment. Before you do this, though, there are two important considerations to bear in mind.

To start with, some of the accounts with the sweetest interest rates limit how much you can pay into them to a certain sum per month. This means that even though the interest rate may be attractive, you will in reality be limited in how much you can profit. These accounts are beneficial if you have a little extra cash each month and want to invest it and earn interest on it, but less appropriate if you have a lump amount you want to deposit.

Secondly, many accounts reach their high positions in the best buy tables by offering an introductory bonus interest rate. Once this ends, the base rate may be much less appealing, so ensure you know what the long term rate will be unless you want to be opening new accounts every few months to ensure you always enjoy a decent rate.

About the author: Nicholas Hunt writes for Your Banking Guide, where you can easily compare savings accounts and apply for the one offering the best deal.