Luckiest of all are people who want to keep up the regular savings habit after their SSIAs have matured. They can now earn more than 6% on their money, almost twice the base rate of interest set by the European Central Bank, as banks engage in a tit-for-tat battle for monthly savings.

AIB stole an early lead with its Regular Saver account which promises to pay at least 2.5% above ECB until the end of 2007. But with Anglo Irish Bank breathing down its neck, AIB has been forced to pay even more, matching the 6% rate of interest offered by the competition.

Now Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has upped the ante, raising the rate of interest on its Monthly Saver account to 6.2% from last Tuesday. AIB retaliated within hours, lifting its rate to 6.34% effective from Thursday .

As the banks jostle for top spot in the 'best buy' tables, savers are the big winners, finally getting the type of returns that used to be available only to people who were willing to risk their money on the stock market.

According to the best brains in the investment business, it is reasonable to expect average returns of about 6% a year before taxes and charges by putting your money in a managed fund or a similar investment linked to stock market performance.

Why take the risk when you can now earn the same return, with a slightly lower rate of tax and no charges, from a rock-solid bank deposit?

According to Hugh O'Keeffe, head of resources, strategy and products at AIB, today's eye-catching deposit rates are no flash in the pan.

"Some might say that rates will tail off again once our price promise expires but that's not necessarily so, " he says. "We're keen to retain as many customers as possible when their SSIAs mature and to go beyond that by attracting new customers as well. SSIAs have awakened a strong appetite for saving among the public and we're seeing it continue even as the accounts mature. That's why I think we're going to see this kind of activity into the future."

Apart from the best rate available, at least for now, AIB's big advantage is simplicity, with no penalties for customers who dip into their savings, skip a few months, change their monthly contribution or stop saving altogether.

The downside is that customers must set up a separate account at AIB, which will almost certainly be liable for transaction charges, from which to feed money into their savings account. The bank also has a 300 cap on the amount that can be saved each month. While this is higher than the government's monthly limit on SSIA savings, it is considerably less than the limits imposed on rival savings accounts. Anglo Irish Bank, for example, allows savers to put away as much as 1,000 a month.

"We're proud that we led the market by paying 6% interest and that nobody else allows customers save as much as we do, " says Derek Keogh, head of retail sales.

"The competition may have similar rates but the fact that you can only save up to 300 a month doesn't make much sense."

Anglo's other attractions include a guarantee that the rate won't drop below 4.5% for two years from the time the account is opened. This is the longest price promise on the market, although some savers might prefer if Anglo's rate was directly linked to ECB. The big downside is that savers cannot touch their money during the two-year term.

"There's got to be a tradeoff between offering a great rate of interest and allowing withdrawals, which would mean more transactions and therefore higher costs, " says Keogh. "Out of the thousands of customers who've opened a Regular Saver account since March, we haven't had one withdrawal request. That's probably because we target people who'll be able to keep up the savings habit."

Bank of Scotland occupies the middle ground, paying more interest than Anglo but with a lower cap on savings of 750 a month. It is less restrictive than Anglo, allowing two emergency withdrawals a year, but not nearly as flexible as AIB.

Bank of Scotland's price promise is also a halfway house, guaranteeing ECB plus at least 1.5% until January 2008. That leaves more wiggle room than AIB but, because it is linked to ECB, the guarantee is probably more valuable than Anglo's price promise.

The big disappointment is that Bank of Scotland no longer allows new customers to kick-start their savings by depositing a lump sum up front. This was the unique selling point of its original Monthly Saver account, which allowed people to combine ongoing saving with their matured SSIAs under one roof.

According to Chrissy Quinn, head of retail at Bank of Scotland, it just does not make economic sense to pay a top rate of interest on lump sums as well as regular savings.

"The original version of the account allowed customers to deposit up to 10,000 and then save up to 750 a month.

Existing customers can retain this account and we'll pay them 4.75% interest as well as honouring all of the terms and conditions, " she says. "By not accepting lump sums, the new product allows us to offer a higher rate of interest that will attract more customers."