Zopa

This looks interesting - peer to peer banking. Instead of lending your money to a bank who lend it out to someone else while creaming off all but a miserable pittance in terms of interest, here is an organisation - Zopa - which allows you to lend pretty much directly to punters. They take a small commission to cover the costs of credit ratings for borrowers and administrative costs, but you should apparently get a much better rate of interest.

I might even give it a whirl.

H/T Jackie Danicki