In years gone by, people tended to pick a bank and stick with it for life. Indeed, most simply chose the bank their parents used, and didn't look any further for their savings and current account needs. This made sense years ago when banking was almost always done in person at a local branch - customers were limited to what was easily accessible and convenient.

These days, of course, the internet has changed all that. We are no longer limited to our local bank branches, and can put our money wherever we want at the click of a mouse button. This means we have much more scope to make our money work harder, and this is especially true of our savings.

Even in today's difficult economy with low interest rates, you can still make your savings work hard in a savings account, without any of the risks involved in investing in the turbulent stock markets.

This is largely because some banks have lent too much money out and need to attract savings deposits to balance their businesses, but whatever the reason, you can find rates far above the ones the central banks are setting as the benchmark.

You can also easily find these deals online, by using one of the many financial comparison sites out there. These sites make it a simple matter to line up the offerings of each bank, and pick the one which will make the most of your money. Before you do this, though, there are two important points to bear in mind.

Firstly, some of the accounts with the best rates limit how much you can deposit into them to a certain amount per month. This means that although the interest rate may be high, you will actually be limited in how much you can earn. These accounts are good if you have a little extra cash each month and want to put it in an account and earn interest on it, but less appropriate if you have a lump sum you want to invest.

Secondly, many accounts achieve their high places in the comparisons by featuring an introductory bonus rate. Once this ends, the underlying rate may be much less attractive, so make sure you know what the long term rate will be unless you want to be opening new accounts every few months to ensure you always enjoy a competitive rate.