Lloyds TSB banking customers have been told they can qualify for a discount on their mortgages.

Anyone with a Lloyds TSB mortgage that is willing to open a Lloyd TSB current account will now be offered a reduction on their mortgage rates, it has been revealed.

This new offer is available to anyone that banks with Lloyds and holds a Lloyds TSB mortgage, on the condition that they deposit £1,000 or more into their account each month.

The reduction of 0.2% is offered to eligible customers, meaning a 3.99% fixed-rate mortgage will be reduced to 3.79%.

Stephen Noakes, Head of Mortgages at the firm, said: “Rewarding our current account customers by helping to reduce the costs of their mortgage payments is just one of the ways Lloyds TSB will continue to deliver the best value mortgages.”

He recognised that consumers seek flexibility from their financial products, which Lloyds TSB is striving to provide.

The company released its business barometer this month, which indicated that firms remain cautious, but UK confidence is on the up on the whole.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), mortgage lending hiked to £11.5bn last month, a 24% rise from February.

The figure also reflected a 3% rise compared to March 2009, when the market reached its nadir in the wake of the credit crunch.

The CML said that despite this rise in activity, the property market was still relatively subdued, pointing out that total mortgage lending in the first quarter of 2010 was still significantly lower than in the last quarter of 2009.

“Despite the increase in activity late last year and a subsequent fall early this year – due to the end of the stamp duty holiday – the underlying position looks to have barely changed,” said CML economist Paul Samter.

“But with the gradually improving economic backdrop and interest rates still low, we continue to expect a gentle improvement in market conditions later in the year,” he added.

The CML added that from next year, lenders would need to find around £300bn in order to repay money borrowed from the government through emergency support schemes.

As a result, it said, the mortgage market would continue to be restricted.

In the last couple of years, savers have been given a wake-up call warning them that even though their money is in the bank, it doesn’t necessarily meant it’s safe. Now i’m not talking about the risk of your money being stolen in a bank robbery…something far less obvious – banks failing.

The scare surfaced after Lehman Brothers – a global financial services firm, declared itself bankrupt in 2008 marking the largest bankruptcy in U.S. History.

Concerns were again raised after Icesave – an online savings brand owned and operated by Landsbanki, collapsed affecting hundreds of thousands of customers and businesses. In the UK, Icesave’s marketing slogan was “clear difference”, offering its customers three types of savings accounts: an instant access savings account, a cash ISA, and a range of fixed rate bonds, paying interest rates of more than 6%. This was enough to attract over 300,000 accounts in the UK alone. (more…)