The average interest rate of savings accounts in the UK has increased by 0.6 per cent over the last year, research has found.

According to cahoot, savers have benefited the most from the credit crunch as the rate offered on the average instant access account is now at 3.32 per cent on balances of £500.

The online bank's study comes twelve months after the crunch unofficially began on August 9th 2007, when the average rate was 2.72 per cent.

Managing director Matthew Timms said: "Few of us will be celebrating the anniversary of the credit crunch but it's clear that savers have been the winners with rates hitting the seven per cent mark in recent months."

In the same time the number of accounts available has more than trebled from 490 to 1,503.

Last month research by Yorkshire Building Society found that 36 per cent of Britons do not have enough savings to last 11 days in the event they become unable to work.

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