The SSIA accounts of 538,000 who have been saving solidly for the past five years will mature today. Collectively, this will give them access to €7.5 billion in funds.
The Financial Regulator has published a new survey designed to show savers where they can get the best rates of return for lump sum deposits.
It details a wide range of interest rates available from 17 major institutions, with the highest rate being 50 times higher than the lowest.
The rates range from as low as 0.1% for demand deposits from An Post, to a high of 5% from RaboDirect, the internet based bank.
The survey also shows rates for money locked on deposit for a period of 12 months. These range from as low as 2.03% from IIB Bank to a high of 4.5% from Northern Rock. AIB comes close to that high with 4.31% while Bank of Ireland falls well short with a rate of 2.5%.
Irish people currently have as much as €70 billion on deposit with financial institutions and half of this money is earning less than 1%. Today's survey will make it far easier for most to see where they can get a better deal.
It can be downloaded from the Financial Regulator's website www.itsyourmoney.ie .
Meanwhile, An Post's joint venture with Belgian bank Fortis is ot offer a demand deposit account from tomorrow. Postbank will initially operate out of 250 post offices nationally, rising to 1,000 over the next year.
Postbank said today its 'solid saver' account will allow customers to deposit or withdraw their money with no limits or fixed savings obligations. The account is not subject to regular bank charges and all customers will earn the same 3.3% rate of interest, regardless of the balance on the account, it said.
And AIB announced today that savers who have between €6,000 and €50,000 and would like to save a lump sum for 18 months, can earn a fixed rate of 6.5% on fixed term deposit accounts opened from 30th April to 7th June.
