Savings rates on a handful of accounts have risen despite the Bank of England cutting its base rate to 3.75 per cent last month.
Marcus, which is owned by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, has put up the rate on its one-year savings account from 4 per cent to 4.55 per cent. You can open an account with £1 and have up to 14 days to deposit up to £250,000.
OakNorth is offering a 4.35 per cent rate fixed for a year on up to £500,000, available through the new platform Meteor Savings, but you need to pay in at least £1,000.
James Blower from the comparison site The Savings Guru said the Marcus rate increase was “a particularly odd move, given that it is a huge 0.2 percentage points clear of the next best rate”.
He said that Bank rate, which affects high street savings and mortgage rates, is expected to fall to 3.5 per cent this year, so 4.55 per cent was a “great” deal. “I’ll be astonished if it’s beaten in 2026,” he said.
Shawbrook Bank has put its one-year fixed rate up to 4.27 per cent and its two-year rate to 4.18 per cent — both require a minimum deposit of £1,000. Birmingham Bank also has a 4.18 per cent two-year rate on deposits over £5,000 up to £250,000.
Anna Bowes from The Private Office, a financial advice firm, said: “The Marcus rate is the highest since late October so it’s likely to be snapped up pretty fast.
“While there have been rate cuts across a couple of accounts, which is what we would expect to see given we’re expecting further cuts to Bank rate, you can see how competition can skew things and push other rates up.”
Marcus is a digital bank run by the US giant Goldman Sachs
ALAMY
Bank rate was historically low for more than a decade but went up 14 times between December 2021 and August 2023 to hit 5.25 per cent as the Bank of England tried to get a grip on soaring inflation. It has been cut six times since August 2024 and will fall further if inflation continues to drop.
The top rate on an easy-access account is 4.5 per cent from JP Morgan’s app-based bank Chase, which includes a 2 percentage point bonus for the first year. Shawbrook Bank pays 4.13 per cent, which also contains a 2.13 percentage point bonus for the first 12 months.
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Easy-access rates are expected to fall if there is another Bank rate cut, which some analysts expect as soon as next month, when the Bank’s monetary policy committee next meets. This will make locking in a fixed rate now seem even more attractive.
Savers who haven’t used up their £20,000 annual Isa allowance for the 2025-26 tax year and want to protect their savings from tax can also benefit from some good deals. The top one-year Isa rate is 4.2 per cent from the sharia-compliant Al Rayan Bank, available through the app Meteor Savings. It also has a 4.15 per cent for two years. Shawbrook has a 4.14 per cent one-year rate and a 4.17 per cent five-year Isa rate.
Basic-rate taxpayers can earn up to £1,000 a year in interest tax-free outside an Isa, thanks to the personal savings allowance. Higher-rate taxpayers can earn £500 in interest tax-free while additional rate taxpayers get no allowance.