Homeowners £500bn better off thanks to 0.5pc Bank Rate The average rate on an instant access Isa in the period before the credit crisis was 4.85pc, according to Defaqto, the data company, compared with only 1.52pc over the past three years. Borrowers have seen even more extreme effects on their fortunes, even though their aggregate savings more or less equal savers' losses. This is because savers vastly outnumber borrowers. Ros Altmann, the director general of Saga, said: "Official policy is to take money from people who have it and give it to those who borrowed too much. As savers tend to be older people, this amounts to a huge intergenerational transfer of wealth. We should be very worried about the message this is sending. We are saying you are a mug if you save, but if you have overborrowed we will bail you out.