The Bank of England is beginning its two day meeting to decide whether interest rates need to be changed.

Most economists say rates will stay the same, while others say we're due for another cut soon.

So it's time for savers to look at how much they're making on their money, if anything at all.

Complaining

A number of Working Lunch viewers have been complaining that banks and building societies have been slowly whittling down their interest rates for savers, in spite of the fact that the Bank of England's base rate hasn't changed for ages.

"As far as I can see it's not a good time for the economy so they're shaving rates to take money away from their savers and into the pockets of their shareholders," says Peter Coles of London.

But what you may not be aware of is that some of you are actually losing money by keeping it in a bank savings account!

Loss

One leading firm of financial advisers has calculated that more than a third of savings accounts leave you with a loss once you've taken off the effects of inflation and tax.

Bates Investment Services says that on the basis of the latest inflation figure of 2% a year - that's the retail prices index excluding shifts in mortgage payments - basic rate taxpayers would need to be making at least 2.5% on their savings to be breaking even.

Meanwhile higher rate taxpayers need to be earning interest of 3.33%, and nearly two thirds of savings accounts would fail to do that job for them.

Bates calculated that if you had �10,000 in HSBC's high-interest savings account, a basic-rate taxpayer would make just �4 after a year, while a higher-rate taxpayer would suffer a loss of �47 after factoring in effects of tax and inflation!

Shop around

"The best thing to do is to shop around," says Kerry Nelson of Bates Investment Services.

But the problem is that people rely on their banks to tell them what's on offer, and they aren't very active in this."

Equities - the stockmarket - represent an alternative to simple savings accounts.

Guarantee and risk

One option is 'guaranteed equity bonds' or GEBs, which combine the confidence of a guarantee that you'll get your original money back, with the excitiement of gaining from any upturn in shares.

For instance, the Nationwide Building Society's GEB asks for a minimun of �5000 over six years, and invests in stocks all over the world.

Newcastle Building Society's '5 star bond' on the other hand requires a deposit of �1000 over five years, and its returns are liked to five top-rated equity funds.

Look out

But you need to take care with this sort of investment.

"Look out for the terms of these products," says Kerry Nelson.

"You should look for five-year long terms, and examine which funds or markets they invest in."

Remember that there is always an element of risk in a stockmarket-linked investment.

If you'd rather stick to the relative security of normal savings accounts, with rates as low as they are, you need to concentrate on searching out the best deals on offer.