In the UK you have an amazing number of choices on where you can put your savings. At the moment over 1,500 accounts are trying to grab your attention. Virtually each savings account will have its own slightly different point which makes it attractive to you when you take the account out. The most important thing to keep firmly in mind is that the old saying of there's no such thing as a free lunch applies just as much to savings accounts as it does to anything else.

To be attractive the bank might offer you a great headline rate. This is where you've got to be alert and keep alert. Have a good look at how the headline rate is made up. There might be a bonus for keeping your money with the bank, which will usually be paid after a year. Nothing wrong with that, of course.  It's nice to get a reward for being loyal. Which is true up to a point.

It's what happens next that might cost you over the longer term. Once the bank has paid you your bonus the rate of interest it pays you will almost certainly fall away to a much lower level. This is where you might start paying for that "free lunch".  Bank's aren't really giving away money when they offer you a bonus. What the bank is counting on is that you either don't notice the interest you're getting has plummeted or you forget to move your money around. Basically if this happens the bank's given away a bit up front, only to set itself up with a chance to claw back what it's given away with a low interest rate in year two onwards. And, whilst they pay you a low level of interest, they lend the money you've deposited to somebody else. The bigger the difference between the two the more profit they make. A bank also saves a bit on its operational costs too, because the longer it keeps you as a customer the less it has to spend on you - it costs a lot to market their products to you in the first place.

We think there are a couple of easy things you can do to keep getting a good for your savings. Once you know exactly what bonus rate your getting and how long it lasts make sure that you diary ahead to the point that the bonus is paid and check what's on the market then. There's a good chance that your bank will have another good account a year from now.

To make life easier then, why not use a price comparison site to help you search for your next savings account?