In this week's magazine (out on Thursday), I write about the endless efforts of our big banks to avoid having to actually compete on price. They look like they are trying to do so they keep cutting headline mortgage rates and raising headline savings rates but look at the reams of terms and conditions that come with any given product and you will see that the best buy rates are only the beginning of the deal.
Almost all savings accounts come with bonus arrangements that only last 12 months and most mortgages come with ludicrously high "arrangement" fees, all of which make attempting to compare products based on their advertised rates to be all but impossible. It's very irritating.
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