16 The Sunday Times October 27, 2019

MONEY

Table shows the cheapest tariff from the 3 cheapest suppliers.Excludes fixed tariffs of less than 12 months’ duration. Excludes tariffs that do not have national coverage. Excludes tariffs where payments are taken in advance of the customer coming on supply. F=Fixed rates V=Variable rates

ENERGY DEALSTable shows the cheapest tariff from the three cheapest suppliers. Excludes fixed tariffs of less than 12 months’ duration, tariffs that do not have national coverage and tariffs where payments are taken in advance of the customer coming on supply.

Supplier Average annual bill Rate ContactUtility Point £819 Fixed 0345 557 7878Green Energy £867 Variable 0345 222 2525Nabuh Energy £900 Fixed 0330 041 4902Source: TheEnergyShop.com — 01259 220 270

CREDIT CARDSINTRODUCTORY RATES

Provider Card type Introductory purchase APR 1 Reward ContactMBNA 0% Transfer & Purchase Mastercard 0% for 26 months 20.9% No 0345 606 2062Barclaycard Platinum All-rounder Visa 0% for 25 months 19.9% No 0800 731 0200Sainsbury’s Bank Dual Offer Mastercard 0% for 25 months 20.9% Yes 0808 540 5060

BALANCE TRANSFERS

Provider Card type Introductory purchase Transfer fee 2 APR 1 ContactMBNA Long 0% Mastercard 0% for 29 months 2.75% (no min) 20.9% 0345 606 2062Halifax 29-month Mastercard 0% for 29 months 3% (no min) 19.9% 0345 944 4555Virgin Money 29-month Mastercard 0% for 29 months 3% (no min) 21.9% 0800 389 2875

CASHBACK CARDS

Provider Card type APR 1 Cashback ContactAmerican Express Platinum Cashback 28.2% 1%-1.25%. Intro 5% for 3 months 0800 917 8047American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday 22.9% 0.5%-1%. Intro 5% for 3 months 0800 917 8047Santander All in One Mastercard 21.7% 0.5% 0800 389 99051 APR = annual percentage rate, dependent on credit rating. 2 Fee charged on the amount of each balance transfer during the introductory period.Source: Moneyfacts.co.uk

SAVINGS ACCOUNTSINSTANT ACCESS

Provider Account name Min deposit Interest rate ContactCoventry 1 Triple Access Saver £1 1.46% coventrybuildingsociety.co.ukVirgin Money 2 Double Take E-Saver (Issue 12) £1 1.45% uk.virginmoney.comMarcus 3 Online Savings £1 1.44% marcus.co.uk

NOTICE ACCOUNTSProvider Account name Notice period Min deposit Interest rate ContactInvestec Notice Plus 95 days £10,000 1.79% investec.comClose Brothers Savings 95-day Notice 95 days £10,000 1.72% closesavings.co.ukCharter Savings Bank 95-day Notice (Issue 27) 95 days £5,000 1.71% chartersavingsbank.co.uk

FIXED-RATE BONDSProvider Account name Term Min deposit Interest rate ContactIkano Bank Fixed 1-year Saver 1 year £1,000 1.76% ikano.co.ukZenith Bank UK Fixed-term Deposit 2 years £1,000 1.85% savings.zenith-bank.co.ukTandem Bank Fixed Saver 3 years £1,000 2% tandem.co.uk1 Rate includes 0.31% bonus until 31.03.21. Three easy-access withdrawals a year; 50 days’ interest charged on subsequent withdrawals. 2 Maximum of two withdrawals a year. 3 Rate includes 0.1% bonus for first 12 months.DEALS ARE LISTED ONLY IF THEY ARE COVERED BY THE UK FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPENSATION SCHEME (FSCS) OR A EUROPEAN EQUIVALENTSource: Savingschampion.co.uk — 0808 178 5354

FOREIGN CURRENCYThese are the interbank rates at 5pm on Friday, which show where themarket is trading.They are not indicative of the rate you will be able to get.

EUROGBP>EUR

1.16AMERICAGBP>USD

1.28SWITZERLANDGBP>CHF

1.28AUSTRALIAGBP>AUD

1.88

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CHILDREN’S ACCOUNTSProvider Account name Account type Min deposit Interest rate ContactHalifax Kids’ Monthly Saver Regular saver £10 4.5% halifax.co.ukSantander 1 123 Mini Current Account Current account £300 2.96% santander.co.ukCambridge 3-year Fixed-rate Bond Fixed-rate bond £1,000 2% cambridgebs.co.uk1 Interest rates are tiered: 1% on balances of £100-£199; 1.98% on £200-£299; 2.96% on £300-£2,000.

JUNIOR ISAS

Provider Account name Min deposit Interest rate Rate ContactCoventry Junior Cash Isa (1) £1 3.6% Variable coventrybuildingsociety.co.ukNS&I Junior Isa £1 3.25% Variable nsandi.comTSB Junior Cash Isa £1 3.25% Variable tsb.co.ukSource: Savingschampion.co.uk — 0808 178 5354

CASH ISASINSTANT ACCESSProvider Account name Min deposit Interest Transfers in ContactCoventry 1 Limited Access £1 1.46% Yes coventrybuildingsociety.co.ukVirgin Money 2 Double Take E-Isa (Issue 11) £1 1.45% Yes uk.virginmoney.com

FIXED RATE

Provider Account name Term Min deposit Rate Transfers in Contact

OakNorth Fixed-rate Cash Isa 1 year £1 1.51% Yes oaknorth.comCharter Savings Bank Fixed-rate Cash Isa 2 years £5,000 1.62% Yes chartersavingsbank.co.uk1 Rate includes 0.31% bonus until 31.01.21. Three easy-access withdrawals a year; 50 days’ interest charged on subsequent withdrawals.2 Maximum two withdrawals a year.Source: Savingschampion.co.uk — 0808 178 5354

MORTGAGES2-YEAR FIXED RATES

Lender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes ContactSantander 1.21% Fixed to 02.02.22 40% £999 LV 0800 100 802Barclays 1.51% Fixed to 31.01.22 15% £999 LV 0333 202 7580Leek United 2% Fixed to 28.02.22 10% £0 V 0808 169 6680

3-YEAR FIXED RATESLender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes ContactHSBC 1.44% Fixed to 31.01.23 40% £999 LV 0800 494 999HSBC 1.84% Fixed to 31.01.23 15% £999 LV 0800 494 999Barclays 2.03% Fixed to 31.01.23 10% £999 LV 0333 202 7580

LONG-TERM FIXED RATESLender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes ContactSantander 1.49% Fixed to 02.02.25 40% £999 LV 0800 100 802Coventry 1.89% Fixed to 31.12.24 15% £999 LV 0800 121 8899Virgin 2.25% Fixed to 01.03.25 10% £995 LV 0345 605 0500Barclays 1.89% Fixed to 31.01.27 40% £999 LV 0333 202 7580

TRACKERS */ DISCOUNTSLender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes ContactHSBC 1.34% Tracker +0.59% for 2 years 40% £999 ELV 0800 494 999Nationwide 2.14% Tracker +1.39% for 2 years 10% £999 ELV 0800 302 010Newbury 1.99% 2.46% discount for 5 years 25% £850 LV 0163 555 5777Coventry 2.05% Variable for term 35% £999 ELV 0800 121 8899

FIRST-TIME BUYER / LOW DEPOSITLender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes ContactHSBC 2.69% Fixed to 31.01.22 5% £0 PV 0800 494 999Monmouthshire 2.95% Fixed for 5 years 5% £0 PV 0163 384 4351Barclays 1.81% Fixed to 31.01.25 25% £749 PFV 0333 202 7580

BUY TO LETLender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes ContactIpswich 2.95% SVR -2.79% for 2 years 20% £1,149 R 0330 123 0773Post Office 1.59% Fixed to 31.01.22 25% £1,495 V 0800 077 8033Virgin 1.95% Fixed to 01.03.25 40% £995 LV 0345 605 0500 Early repayment charge applies unless otherwise stated. * Most deals track Bank of England base rate. Notes: SVR = Standard variable rate; E = No early repayment charge; F = Help to Buy or shared-equity scheme; L = Free legal work for remortgages; P = Purchases only; R = Free valuation and legal work for remortgages; V = Free valuation. Source: landc.co.uk — 0800 373 300

CURRENT ACCOUNTSCREDIT INTEREST

Provider Account name Account fee Interest rate 1 Balance ContactCo-operative Bank Current with Everyday Rewards None £4 a month – 0345 721 2212Nationwide FlexDirect None 5% 2 £0.01-£2,500 0800 302 010Halifax Reward None £2 a month – 0345 720 3040

OVERDRAFTS *

Provider Account name Account fee Interest rate 3 0% overdraft limit ContactFirst Direct 1st Account None 15.9% £250 0345 600 2424M&S Bank Current Account None 15.9% £100 0800 756 7777Starling Current Account None 15% £0 starlingbank.com1 Based on funding of £1,000 a month. 2 Introductory rate for one year, then 1%. 3 Equivalent annual rate. * Based on overdraft of £500 for 15 days a month. Some accounts require minimum funding/direct debits to open or receive rates shown.Source: Moneyfacts.co.uk

Best Buys

What it doesDiwali starts today, ushering in five days of celebrations across India — a gargantuan and growing economy. India hasn’t been a great place for investors in recent years, but this fund aims to benefit from the country’s growing middle class and the move towards urbanisation.

What it invests inThe fund has an 8% weighting towards the Indian natural resources company Hindustan Petroleum, and this has knocked returns amid a global energy downturn. However, the fund is also invested in consumer brands such as Nestlé India and Gillette India, which have performed rather better.

PerformanceJupiter India has returned 11.4% in the past year against 7.3% for its benchmark, the Investment Association Specialist index. Over five years, its total return has been 45.9%, against a 35.2% benchmark.

What the manager says“The long-term prospects for India look positive,” said Jupiter fund manager Avinash Vazirani. “We think the environment for business is changing for the better.”

What the experts sayBen Yearsley at Shore Financial Planning said: “I’m very positive on the long-term growth outlook for India, which is similar to many other emerging markets but multiplied by its sheer size. Think of it as a decade behind China in terms of development. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s re-election this year is seen as good for reform and deregulation.”Kate Palmer

FUND FOCUSJUPITER INDIA

new EU requirements for a “second factor” of identification, other than a traditional password, to be provided before any large payment can go through.

The Co-op, Santander, Lloyds, TSB and Barclays all admit to using the flawed system, while HSBC saysthat SMS is its primary verification method.

As an alternative to SMS, the Co-operative Bank gives its customers the choice of receiving codes by email; TSB offers the option of receiving them over a landline call to a home or work number; while Barclays will send customers a card reader that works with an account-holder’s bank card to generate the required security code.

Newer banks such as Monzo exclusively use encrypted passwords sent over wi-fi that cannot be obtained simply by gaining control of a mobile number.

market slides have shown, many active managers fare as badly, or worse, than index trackers, because active managers tend to “hug” the index — in effect, operating like tracker funds while charging active manager fees.

Another disadvantage of trackers is that it is impossible to beat the market — you can only ever track it.

It is possible to build a tracker portfolio without having to pay for advice. Many websites offer model portfolios for free, which is a good starting point.

As a rule of thumb, put more money into riskier trackers (ones that invest in equity markets) when you are younger, and move into safer ones (such as those that invest in bonds) as you age.

Ready-made tracker portfolios, known as the LifeStrategy range, are offered by Vanguard, bought either from the company or via an investment platform such as Charles Stanley Direct, AJ Bell or IWeb, which offer low-cost versions.

Nutmeg and Wealthify alsosell low-cost, ready-made tracker portfolios, with the price including the platform charge. Such so-calledrobo-advice firms assess how much risk you want to take and then build a portfolio based on your answers.

See model portfolios for all ages at sundaytimes.co.uk and in our digital editions

“The use of tracker fundshas been growing in popularity recently,” saidBen Seager-Scott, head ofmulti-asset funds at wealth manager Tilney. “People are growing disillusioned with active management.”

Another advantage of tracker funds is their transparency: you can see the constituents of an index at any time rather than having to wait for a fund manager to release their interim accounts, which may only happen twice a year.

The downside is that youare not protected if markets fall. A fund manager may be able to mitigate losses by picking stocks that do not fall along with the wider market — at least, that’s the idea.

However, as previous

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and one of the UK’s largest mobile phone networks, EE, have raised concerns about banks’ growing reliance on text messages when authorising large payments.

The calls follow the releaseof a declassified document by America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that warns about the risk of so-called Sim swapping — the process used by scammers to intercept passcodes sent by banks via a text message.

The FBI described this as a“common tactic” used to get round the security measure known as two-factor authentication. Victims of the scam have seen their bank accounts drained: the British anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe lost about £5,000 after her mobile number was hijacked and her bank account hacked this month.

The warning from acrossthe Atlantic has prompted the NFIB, the UK police unit responsible for cyber-crime, to raise its own concerns.

Phillip Keating, senior crime reviewer at the NFIB, said that he agreed with the findings of the FBI report, which highlighted text messages as a weak link in the banks’ security chain.

He said: “Banks should consider what channels they use and whether they should be using a mobile phone to

Tracker funds cut their fees as investors lose faith in stock-pickersA price war has broken out between providers of tracker funds seeking to capitalise on growing scepticism about fund managers in the wake of the Neil Woodford scandal.

Vanguard, one of the world’s largest providers of trackers, last week cut its fees for 36 funds to bring them to an average of 0.2%. The average annual charge for its exchange-traded funds — a kind of tracker that follows the performance of a market index — is now 0.15%, and its FTSE All-Share tracker costs just 0.06% a year.

By contrast, active fund managers may charge 0.75% or more — with no guarantee that they can beat the relevant index.

Someone putting £1,000 into a FTSE All-Share tracker fund in June 2014 would be sitting on £1,322 today. The Woodford Equity Income fund, which was set up in the same month, would have turned that £1,000 into £857.

In July — a month after theWoodford fund was frozen — the fund provider Xtrackers cut its fee for some trackers; in August, another provider, iShares, followed suit.

The moves add to the pressure on so-called active managers to lower their fees.

The fee difference might seem small in percentage terms, but charges eat away at returns and can have a devastating impact over time.

verify their customers.”The NFIB is investigating a

case where a victim in the UK lost £78,000 because of Sim swapping. The money was transferred to the sort of “mule” accounts commonly used for money laundering.

Banks have been keento shift the blame for this type of fraud on to phone companies, which have been accused of allowing victims’ phone numbers to be hijacked because they run too few identity checks. Money has highlighted several such cases in recent weeks.

But one of the UK’s mobilephone networks, EE, has hit back, warning that people are more vulnerable to fraud if their banks rely on verification via text message (also known as SMS).

EE said: “While SMS remains a great way for banks and other businesses to communicate with customers, we more often see bank fraud involving mobile accounts happening with banks that still rely solely on SMS verification for financial transfers.”

Banks are increasingly sending text messages to customers that containone-off, time-sensitive passcodes. The customer needs to enter that code to verify major app and online banking transactions.

Texts cost banks an average of just 1.5p to send.

However, codes over SMSare just one way of meeting

FBI turns up the heat on banks over Sim scams

It warned that Sim swapping had become “a common tactic of cyber-criminals seeking to circumvent two-factor authentication”, citing the case of an Irishman alleged to have used Sim swaps to help steal cryptocurrency worth more than $2m (£1.6m). Conor Freeman was arrested in Dublin in May.

The report said: “Considerusing additional or more complex forms of multifactor authentication for users and administrators, such as biometrics or behavioural authentication methods, though this may add inconvenience to these users.”

UK Finance, the banking trade body, said: “Two-factor authentication will add an additional layer of protection for online transactions. The industry is working hard to implement these changes in a way that balances both convenience and security, with many firms rolling out mobile app-based solutions or biometric technologies.

“We would encourage anyone concerned about their ability to verify online payments to speak with their bank or provider, to ensure their contact details are up to date and discuss what alternatives may be available.”

Kenza Bryan Kate Palmer

Eric Priezkalns, chief executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG) of telecoms risk analysts, said the practice of sending such vital codes by text was “simplistic” and “bonkers”.

He said: “If Action Fraud [the UK fraud reporting service] was to give sensible advice to people, it would be saying to check if your bank has a mobile phone app that does not rely on SMS for two-factor authentication. It would be the equivalent of the police encouraging you to get a car with a decent alarm fitted.”

Representatives from BT,Three, O2’s parent company Telefonica and Tesco Mobile sit on RAG’s governing committee in the UK.

“Banks are doing the bareminimum to verify who you are before allowing a transaction to go ahead,” said Priezkalns.

The FBI document, whichwas sent to a select group of cyber-security experts, called for more complex forms of authentication.

Could robots do better than an active fund manager?