Ethel - from reading previous posts of yours when you have offered excellent financial advice to others, you're obviously financially competent, and I share your puzzlement that a Building Society current account should offer the highest interest rate when it has all kinds of admin expenses attached to it. I think the only thing all of us can do, if we have the time to do the research, is become "interest rate tarts" and hunt around on the internet for the best rates available. In the past I've often had a sense of loyalty to the organisations I've invested money in, but now I'm retired and on a pension, I've decided to become ruthless about getting the best savings rate available. (And already I've today e-mailed all the organisations I've got my modest savings invested in, asking them when they're going to increase their interest rates as a result of the Bank of England interest rate rise). I think we consumers have more power than we realise if only we collectively exerted it.