Nuts not to watch your pennies in year of the squirrel

It may be the year of the ox, but for most of us financially it is the year of the squirrel, and I have made an urgent start to my personal finance surfing year. I have switched some savings, changed my gas supplier, and saved a bundle on train tickets.

Now Nationwide is to be applauded for its commitment to protect savers, and for its promise to offer "accounts which are simple, straightforward and easy to understand".

But while as a customer I have recently received mailshots from Nationwide inviting me to apply for a new gold credit card, and take out home insurance, I have been kept in the dark about important changes made to Nationwide's highly popular e-saver account. Linked to the Flexaccount, enabling instant online transfer between current and savings accounts, it was paying 4.55% until December 1, and on January 1 the rate was slashed from 3.05% to a horrible 1.95%. The society, however, a month ago launched an "e-save plus" account which is still paying 2.75%. The catch is that only three withdrawals a year can be made, putting paid to that previous flexibility.

I stumbled on all this by chance, and decided to look at what the always competitive Yorkshire society is currently offering: its internet saver rate was set on December 28 at 3.75% - with unlimited instant access. You can pay cash in by debit card (and it earns interest within two days) and withdraw it by bank transfer. So wherever you bank and save, before you are dazzled by the headline rate, be sure the ever more clever conditions really suit you.

This week I also switched gas suppliers. The comparison and switching websites had all signalled that I was paying £300 a year too much, and I had also signed up last autumn for a big price freeze - introduced just as wholesale prices started to sink. I decided there was little to lose and plenty to gain, not least because I have a £360 credit on my bill which I will now get back in my bank account this month.

Train fares have gone up, availability of cheap tickets has gone down, and the trick of grabbing advance tickets online has become a black art. Several times last year I ended up travelling at different times, on different days or by different routes than those I had intended because the price differentials were so enormous. But sometimes you don't need a different train, just different tickets. Try and book from Edinburgh to Oxford, for instance, one or two months ahead on most days, and you will be asked to pay £101. But I discovered this week that you can now book from Edinburgh to Birmingham for £15.50 (then Birmingham to Oxford for £12) - and even stay on the day's only fast train.

Finally, I advised my daughter to watch her "free" Bank of Scotland student overdraft carefully, after a near-fatal slip last month when a London tube ticket machine would not accept a Scottish banknote, and her bank card was unexpectedly called into end-of-term service. The £4 ticket took her overdraft to £1003, her limit is £1000 (you have to ask very nicely for the bank's much-advertised limit of £3000), and swift to arrive was a letter from the bank. "As a result we will take a fee from your account," it said. That was £20. "You will also have to pay an unauthorised overdraft fee of £28." That was £48. "The unauthorised interest rate will apply to the amount above your agreed overdraft limit." Add a bit more. A Bank of Scotland spokesman agreed the penalty was draconian, and said that if a student account had been properly managed in the past, and depending on the circumstances, the bank might reverse it, and they did. But it won't wash again.

So take care of your pennies - nobody else will.