Expat rates: season of mists... and mature savings bonds Currently, the best easy- access no-notice account is Nationwide International's 2.5pc. This account, Bonus Access Issue 2, comes with a guarantee of 2pc for a year on balances of £25,000 plus. Or alternatively, Nationwide International also has a 95- day notice account, Bonus 95, which is currently paying 2.65pc on a minimum £25,000, including a one-year bonus of 1.8pc. That means that the gap between the Nationwide International notice account and the Co-operative Bank International one-year fixed rate is just 0.16 of a percentage point. In money terms, if you had £50,000 in the Nationwide Bonus 95 account and the interest rate did not vary over the year, then after a year you would have earned £1,325 interest. In the Co-operative's one-year fix of 2.81pc your interest on £50,000 over a year would be £1,405 - a difference between the two of just £80. Those who fixed their savings two years ago will also have to put up with lower rates if their bonds are maturing now. Two years ago, you could get 3.6pc from Alliance & Leicester International. Today, the best fixed-rate deal of this length is 3.25pc, again from Co-operative International. Alliance & Leicester International has the second- best deal at 3pc, after Permanent Bank International cut its two-year deal from 3.05pc down to 2.95pc. If you had put £50,000 into the Alliance & Leicester International rate of 3.6pc two years ago, your bond will mature now worth around £53,665. If you now put £50,000 into the Co-operative deal, in two years" time you will have around £53,303 - a difference of £362. The gap between the best two-year fixed rate and the top-paying variable account, Nationwide Bonus 95, is 0.6 of a point, which, if you have a large balance, might be enough to make opting for a fixed rate worthwhile. However, what is certainly true is that very short-term - those lasting less than a year - fixed rates don't really stack up against the best variable rate deals. The best short-term fixed rate is 2.61pc fixed for nine months from Santander Private Banking - less than you get on Bonus 95. And the top six-month fixed rate, Nationwide International's 2.57pc, isn't as good as the same provider's top variable-rate deal. Those with very short-term fixed rates who decide they don't want to take out new deals of a similar length should make sure that they tell their bank in plenty of time that they want to move their money away. Usually, when short-term fixed rates mature, banks automatically roll the savings over into a new deal of the same length. If you don't want this to happen, tell the bank you want your money moved into a different account. What happens to longer- term bonds when they mature depends on the policy of the bank. They will usually offer the option of sending you the matured funds, moving it into an account of your choice, or rolling it over into a fixed-rate bond of the same length, at whatever the current rate is.