'They dangle the bait, hook you in, and then leave you high and dry'

'They dangle the bait, hook you in, and then leave you high and dry'

Ten days ago, Bradford & Bingley launched a "market-leading" account called Internet Saver Notice, which pays up to 6.3% gross interest. It's an attractive rate, and the account went straight into the Moneyfacts best-buy tables. But is there a danger that after tempting savers in, B&B will shut the account to new customers, cut the interest rate and launch an almost identical better-paying account?

It could be argued that Bradford & Bingley has some "form" in this area. Some Guardian Money readers have been left less than impressed by the former building society's decision earlier this year to cut the interest rate on its Internet Saver account, at around the same time as it launched a product called Internet Saver 2, paying the original rate.

Internet Saver 2 is still available to savers and pays 6% interest, while Internet Saver (mark one) is closed to new customers and pays 5.65%

One reader, Melody Kozlowski, of Falmouth, Cornwall, has just closed her Internet Saver account because she feels she has been treated badly. She only recently discovered that her account was the closed-to-new-customers version because "you can't tell which account you have. It's only by looking at their interest rates that you realise there are lots of different issues".

You'd be forgiven for getting confused; B&B's website lists a staggering 57 different savings accounts, of which 23 are open to new customers. The remaining 34 are no longer available.

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Saver (mark one) was launched in September last year. With an impressive rate of 6.4% gross, it shot straight to the top of the internet savings best-buy table. Then, in January, B&B emailed its customers to say the rate was being reduced to 6.15% as a result of the Bank of England's cut in the base rate. That same month, the bank brought out Internet Saver 2 paying 6.4%.

Kozlowski opened her Internet Saver in September, but it was only recently that she discovered she had the first incarnation of the account with the lower rate. "When I opened the account it was 6.4%. It was only when I asked a few weeks ago that they told me my account paid 5.9% [since reduced to 5.65%]. And it was only when I complained that they told me I could open the new account and move my money across."

She says the original bumf from B&B states that she has an "eSavings" account. Even the emails the bank sends out to notify customers of rate changes do not tell you which account you have, she adds. "They just offer the rate to hook you in, and then hope you don't notice when all the benefits fizzle out," claims Kozlowski, an office manager for a training company.

A spokeswoman for B&B says that with "limited edition" accounts, "a tranche of funds is purchased for that particular product, and once that tranche of money has run out due to customers taking out the product, we close it and open another product". She adds that there is nothing stopping existing customers holding the first version of the account from opening one of the new accounts and transferring their cash into it.