Leaving your cash in one of the most popular easy-access accounts was a bad idea – but it’s about to get a lot worse.
The big banks are cutting rates on their already-pitiful easy-access savings accounts – to 1 per cent in some cases.
Savers with one of these need to move their cash before they get even less interest. With one phone call or an online form you could be earning around four times as much.
To spell out how bad they are:
- Barclays Everyday Saver pays 1.16 per cent but the rate is dropping to 1.11 per cent on August 4
- Halifax Everyday Saver and Lloyds Easy Saver pay 1.05 per cent on up to £25,000
- HSBC Flexible Saver pays 1.35 per cent but 1.3 per cent from July 21
- NatWest Flexible Saver pays 1.15 per cent on up to £25,000
- Santander Easy Access Saver has 1.2 per cent
- TSB Easy Saver pays 1 per cent – or 1.1 per cent if you’ve had it less than a year.
The rates on tax-free cash Isa accounts are about the same, bar HSBC’s slightly better one – but even that only pays up to 2.5 per cent on its Loyalty Cash Isa.
If you’re looking for another account with few strings attached, look at Easy Access 82 from Kent Reliance (4.46 per cent). Others are Close Brothers Easy Access Issue 6 (with a high minimum of £10,000), Secure Trust (4.45 per cent) or Ford Money Flexible Saver (4.35 per cent).
On cash Isas, app-based Tembo pays 4.64 per cent or Vida Savings Issue 1 pays 4.55 per cent. Others are Kent Reliance Easy Access Isa Issue 58 (4.46 per cent), Charter Savings Bank Easy Access Easy Isa 60 (4.26 per cent), Ford Money Flexible Isa (4.35 per cent) and Family BS Market Tracker (4.37 but falling to 4.3 per cent on July 1).
There are higher-paying accounts – but read the small print. The top easy-access rate is 4.75 per cent at Atom Instant Saver Reward – but that drops to 2.5 per cent in any month you make a withdrawal.
On cash Isas, app-based CMC Invest gets you 5.44 per cent but this includes a three-month bonus, after which it is 4.59 per cent.
CMC deposits your money with an actual bank protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000.
But it can put some into very low-risk short-term bonds.
It’s still protected but under the Financial Conduct Authority‘s Client Assets Sourcebook scheme in the unlikely event of CMC running into trouble.
You will get your money back but it could take longer than with the FSCS. And there is a slim chance that if the bond provider becomes insolvent you might not have any cover.
