After being on the market for a scant four days, all of Skipton’s one-year fixed-rate bonds have been completely sold out.
Offering an interest rate of 3.3 per cent, the bond was withdrawn just four days after its Monday launch due to a frenzy of saver interest.
Skipton will be replacing it with a new savings account instead. The new bond boasts a 3.15 per cent rate of return (2.52 per cent after the deduction of the basic tax rate).
While the interest rate on the new bond still tops the best buy tables, savers frustrated over their inability to sign up for the 3.3 per cent Skipton bond are unlikely to be appeased.
One spokesperson for the building society stated that there are no guarantees that this new bond will last much longer than its predecessor, however.
Stating that while the goal was to make the new offer as available to as many savers as they could, the spokesperson was quick to say that the bond is only being offered as a “limited edition” that could result in its being taken off the market very soon.
Skipton did confirm that the specific quota of new funds it had hoped to attract from interested savers was reached quite quickly.
Legions of savers facing maturation of their current fixed-rate bonds are undoubtedly disappointed by missing out on an extra 0.15 per cent. This past October, approximately £11 billion worth of bonds expired.
The average one-year rate of return on a fixed-rate bond stands at 2.62 per cent, mostly due to the historically low 0.5 per cent base rate set by the Bank of England over 20 consecutive months ago. Previous average rates were as high as 6.28 per cent as of September of 2008.