Abbey National was once a building society, like Nationwide, owned by its members. After it demutualised in July 1989, its shares came to be fair game for anyone, and it is now owned by Grupo Santander, the third largest bank in Europe. The same group also owns ABN AMRO, which in turn owns Ethel Austin, a clothes shop further down the High Street.

I presume some people like being customers of Abbey, though I do see that our local branch does have, on any given day, a lot of frustrated people queuing or trying to phone call centres from inside the building to get their business done.

A glance at moneysupermarket does indicate that Abbey offer some apparently good headline rates for savers such as the Abbey eSaver Direct paying 6.25%. However, an examination of the small print indicates that a reduced rate of 2.85% will be paid on the full balance in the account for a month in which a withdrawal is made. The 6.25% is also only available for the first year, after which there is a 0.5% reduction in the rate. A similar account at the Alliance and Leicester pays 6.5%(including bonus of 0.62% payable until 31 May 2009) and allows a free withdrawal in July. If you withdraw money in any other month, Alliance and Leicester, (which also have an outlet through the Post Office counters),will not pay any interest for that month.

Its a complicated time to find good rates, and it should be said that some firms offering good rates also require the opening of a current account, and if people are not prepared to do this, the headline savings rates are not available. There are often impediments to real comparisons being made and to the interplay of pure competition in the UK savings market, of which Abbey is one of the bigger players. I recommend checking a site like moneysupermarket regularly to see if a better deal can be had.

If you had £500+ to save and forget about, a fixed rate bond at the Halifax at 6.5% could be a simpler option. If saving small amounts regularly which you might wish to dip into, the much-maligned Northern Rock which has an instant access e-saving account paying 6.25% could be worth considering (but check the regime relating to the bonus), and Indian bank ICICI is trying to develop its market presence in the UK by paying 6.16% interest without bonus for an easy access account.

Abbey is to be found between Specsavers and Argos.

(Information correct at 18 March 2008)