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However while personal finance journalists are bombarded with press releases from lenders announcing mortgage rate reductions cuts to savings rates never receive

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However, while personal finance journalists are bombarded with press releases from lenders announcing mortgage rate reductions, cuts to savings rates never receive the same fanfare. This is not surprising: a reduction in interest rates means that savers will be worse off.It might be a great time for borrowers, but it's a dismal one for savers. Before you get too depressed, though, there are things you can do to minimise the impact.While savings rates have come down, you can still get above-base-rate returns if you shop around, and if you've not used your individual savings account (ISA) allowance yet, you can enjoy these tax free. Smile has an interest rate of 5.75 per cent on its mini cash ISAs.And all is not lost if you have already used up your ISA allowance: there are some decent rates available on easy-access savings accounts.

Cahoot's current account, for example, pays a very respectable 5.8 per cent if you opt not to have a cheque book.So, if you're one of the millions who have had the same savings account for years, the chances are you can find a better deal even in times of rate cuts.. Last Friday, Citibank became the first provider of account aggregation in the UK, with the launch of its new service, and it seems certain other companies will follow. MoneynetsavingssearchLast Friday, Citibank became the first provider of account aggregation in the UK, with the launch of its new service, and it seems certain other companies will follow. However, while advocates of aggregation believe its impact will be huge, others are firmly opposed to the concept and don't expect it to take off. Data aggregation enables people to view all their accounts – including utility bills, bank accounts, credit cards and investments – on one web page using a single password. "It's difficult to convey how easy it is," says Jonathan Mindell, sales and marketing director at Citibank.

"You can access everything almost instantaneously, and details are automatically refreshed daily. It's a fast track to all your online finances."Account aggregation was launched in the US last year and has already attracted two million people. The management and technology consultancy Booz Allen predicts that 22 million people in the US will be using the service by 2003. But it remains to be seen if it will prove as popular in the UK."I think it's going to take off in a huge way – it's just a case of when," says Simon Nixon, chief executive of moneysupermarket , which plans to launch an account aggregation service by the end of the year.

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