HIGH-STREET banks have been slammed for offering its highest interest rates and best deals on current accounts for richer customers.

A current account can be a great way to earn extra bucks as they sometimes offer inflation-beating interest rates, but some of the best deals are reserved for those on salaries of at least £21,500 a year.

In fact, providers are setting minimum monthly deposits requirements as high as £1,500 in order to unlock benefits like interest and cashback, consumer champion Which? has found.

If you earn less than this per month, you can still pick up beneficial deals, but they're often not as good.

Gareth Shaw, Which? money expert, told The Sun: "Many banks offer eye-catching perks on their current accounts such as cashback and interest, but often these can only be unlocked by those who earn above a certain threshold.

"It's important to pay close attention to the small print on the top accounts to ensure your monthly income is enough to allow you to take advantage of the full range of benefits on offer."

The Sun has also asked a few experts whether they think paying higher interest rates to people with a better income is fair, and a majority of them said it isn't.

Virraj Jatania, CEO and founder of Pockit, a challenger bank for the UK’s financially underserved, told The Sun: "High-street banks often save their best rewards for richer customers, meaning that everyone else misses out – even though they’re just as loyal, and work just as hard for their savings."

Meanwhile, James Daley, managing director of consumer champions Fairer Finance, told us: "It’s definitely not particularly fair, given that the average household has savings of around £2,500 and that the best rates are reserved for people on tens of hundreds.

"In pounds and pence, it wouldn’t cost them a lot to offer these kind of rates to value savers.

"And from a fairness perspective, it feels like the right thing to do.

"In this ultra-low interest rate environment where savers have suffered from just one per cent interest rates on their savings accounts in the last decade, it seems to be a bit of an insult that to get a better rate you’ll need to have hundreds of thousands of pounds, which most of us will never have."

Rachel Springall of Moneyfacts told us: "Clearly those customers with a guaranteed income tend to be offered more perks, which will be disappointing news for consumers with a small income, for example those who are a full-time parent and want their own account."

"It would be great to see the market adapt and open up current accounts with perks to more people."

But Andrew Hagger of Moneycomms is of a different opinion - he told us: "I don't think they offer better accounts to richer customers - there is just more choice if you earn more.

"It's no different to buying a car, a holiday etc - the more you earn the more choice you get."

But even if find yourself excluded from the most attractive deals - there are still current accounts for all salary ranges.

Some accounts offer cashback if you pay in the minimum amount – on the Halifax Reward account, for example, you’ll earn £2 a month regardless of whether you pay in £750 or £1500.

In these cases, you should think carefully about whether you’re benefiting from paying in more than the minimum, or whether you may be able to get a better return on the extra money in another account.

In the beginning of this month, the best and worst banks were crowned - and the result might surprise you.

Earlier, we also revealed the banks that most people are switching to.

Meanwhile, Citizens Advice claims millions are overcharged by banks, insurers and broadband firms by nearly £1,000 a year due to loyalty.