In these historically low interest rate times, looking for a better interest rate is hard. Also when credit is constrained, and banks are unwilling to lend, their is new source of credit. That is Peer to Peer lenders.
A new innovation is Peer to Peer lending, where people pool deposit money together with effectively a broker, who then credit assesses potentials lenders, and then lends the money out for a small management fee.
In the UK, Zopa and The Funding Circle are making great inroads into this market place.
What is now interesting, that this ability to create a new pool of lenders from new creditors, is a force that is actually being seen as a force for change in the banking world.
Andrew Haldane at the Bank of England, is quoted as saying “innovations in commercial peer-to-peer lending, again using the web as a conduit, could make some bank functions surplus to requirements”
A good article from the Bank of England:-
[http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2012/029.aspx]
and a paper:-
[http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2012/speech552.pdf]
In the low interest climate, a peer to peer lender can get 5%.