Banking Without Borders
00:00:00 · Jonny Pease
[00:00:00] S0: Okay, welcome back to your savings rate update for November. So last week the budget included two announcements that may hit your savings. So from next April, the tax on interest outside an ISA goes up by 4%. So 24% if you're a basic rate taxpayer and 44% if you're a higher rate. And the cash ISA cut, so the one that was going to slash the limit to £12,000, well that has now been scrapped. So from April 2027, you will have the full £20,000 allotment in tax-free savings. Now this Thursday, the Bank of England will decide on the base rate, which is still 3.75%. Inflation has jumped to 3.5%, and markets and most economists, in fact, are expecting a hike to 4%. Now that would be the first rise in over three years. And it really could happen. But honestly, whatever does happen on Thursday, fixed rates and the wider savings market already assume that rates are going to go up. And for savers, this is great news because fixed accounts, including ICEs, have pushed up again. Every fixed bond from one year to five is now over 5%. At least the really compelling ones, with 5.4% leading the market. Easy Access also has a few nice new additions that I think you're going to like. And regular savers have a couple of interesting accounts, including a new market leader that doesn't require a current account, but does come with a bit of a catch. Now, as always, everything we talk about today is on depositscout.com, up to date as of today, the 2nd of November. Now, DepositScout is a free site that Jan and I built. We've got pretty much every savings account in the UK. You can filter by account type, set up rate alerts, check the rate history graphs on an account to see whether a provider holds its rate or likes to cut quickly, and you can use the savings plan tool to get accounts matched to your goals. Links in the description box, that's depositscout.com. It's free for you to use. All we ask is that if you have any feedback or a feature request, please do leave in the comments because we'd love to hear from you. So yeah and let's begin with switch offers because Santander's £240 one is back, and Barclays are now paying people to switch their ISA. But the question is, are they actually worth it?
00:02:09 · Jan Watermann
[00:02:09] S1: Santander everyday switch offer with £240 is um yeah quite outstanding in my opinion. The only catch here, it's quite restrictive as well. You need to deposit £1,500, set up two direct debits, and deposit £200 into the regular saver and that all within 60 days. Um so this might be possible for some people, it might be too much to ask for for others. Um if you can qualify for this and you want to open up an account of Santander, which comes with uh pros and cons. We don't want to get into that. Um, this could be a great option for you. Besides that, Barclays offers up to 600 pounds for a cash ISA transfer that applies to premier customers that deposit at least 100,000 pounds. If you're not a premier customer, you're getting far less. Um, 10 to 25,000 pounds, for example, you only get 50 pounds. So that's yeah, it's good if you qualify for it, but a lot of people won't. And Barclays normal bank account switch offer is also quite attractive with 300 pounds, and that's 150 pounds that you receive right away, and you're getting 30 pounds each month for five months afterwards, and your only thing you have to do is um switch your salary to Barclays, so this could be really attractive if you're looking for a new primary bank account. And if it's all yeah, if it's all not all not interesting for you, and you're just looking for an easy 200 pounds to get right away. Look at Club Lloyd. Um, you can set up a yeah, you can get up to 200 pounds with three active direct debits, and nothing else is required. Literally, the only thing is that the switch offer expires by the 9th of December. So if you want to take advantage of that, you have to do it within the next month, um, or within this month, actually. And then yeah, besides that, I think it's it's great. And again, we have all of these switch offers available on depositscount.com. You can get an easy overview of everything that's available, compare these accounts, and then figure out what's right for you to really take advantage of this and get rewarded while switching.
00:03:59 · Jonny Pease
[00:03:59] S0: So when it comes to easy access accounts, Lemfi continues to sit at the top with five percent. We talked about it every month. This has a six-month bonus and then it reverts to 3.04%. It's also provided by ClearBank, which means that you would be sharing the FSCS protection across any other ClearBank powered accounts. That's something to consider with this one, but it's still an outstanding account for a six-month period. But if you don't want a bonus element, I think this next account is really interesting. So the Oxbury Autumn account, which actually pushed up from 4.3% in issue one, now to 4.57%. There's no bonus, there's no cliff. The only downside, I suppose, is that some people won't be able to register if you've had an Oxbury account previously because it's new customers only. This one has a minimum balance of £1,000 and a maximum of £120,000. Zopa have a limited access account, 4.56% for 12 months. Interestingly, if you push above 50k with this account, you get 3.5%. So you'll get a bit of a blended rate above 50k. Now, the reason it's called limited access is because on the fourth withdrawal, it drops to 2%. Pretty significant. But if you can hold, if you can limit your withdrawals, then it's very compelling at 4.56%. Nice little option for anyone perhaps that's had Oxbury previously, or someone that doesn't want to go with LemFi, perhaps already has used LemFi like me. You know, my bonus um has now ended with LemFi. So I'm actually actively at the end of this month looking to move my money. The Tembo Home Saver is still on the table at 4.55%. That's a great option. We actually have an affiliate link for Tembo, I'll pop in the description box. They are a whole of market broker. What I mean by that is they have access to every within reason product, mortgage product that you could find. And they they are a good option because they will match any product that you might find elsewhere that they have. So it's very likely with Tembo that you could take out a very competitive mortgage with them. And if you were to take out a mortgage, that 4.55% easy access account would gain a percent bonus. So it could technically be worth 5.55%. Cahoot SimpleSaver is there on the table at 4.52%. Chase UK, as always, is there at 4.5%. El Shilton, the Building Society is at 4.5% as well.
00:06:15 · Jonny Pease
Sainsbury's, this is a recent one, has an easy access account at 4.25%, although nectar members are going to get 4.35%. On small pots, you know, if you've got £4,000, the Santander Edge Saver continues to be an option, although you'll need the Edge account, which will cost you £3 a month or £36 a year. So you'd have to consider that in terms of the interest you would earn on that account. If you don't want to pay a fee, the Cahoot Sunny Day Saver is also there. 5% with a cap of £3,000. That's a nice small pot win, I must say. It's a 12-month account. At the end of that 12 months, I've been in this position as well with Cahoot. It reverts to a standard savings account. I believe if you want to call it a savings account or not, you don't have to because it had like one or two percent, I think, max. It wasn't a very good account. So if you do deposit money with Cahoot, be sure to set up a calendar reminder for those 12 months.
00:07:10 · Jan Watermann
[00:07:10] S1: We also have extremely competitive easy access cash ISEs this month. Let's start with eToro, which is actually up from 4.87% and it's now 4.94%. I think that's almost 5% extremely competitive for cash ISA. The only downside here it's a it's a money market fund they're essentially investing in, which comes with limited FSCS protection. Um, you're only getting 85,000 pounds instead of uh the normal 120,000 pounds. But besides that, yeah, not much of a downside. There's a minimum investment requirement of 500 pounds, and you are restricted to more than to only three withdrawals per year. Um, if you exceed that, you lose your 1% bonus, so that reverts to 3.94%, still somewhat competitive. Number two is trading 212 with their cash isa 4.87%. There's only a one pound minimum deposit, and this is a promotion that's running for new customers only. You have to sign up from Deposit Scouts table in order to take advantage of these 4.87%. If you don't, you're getting less interest. Um, so you definitely want to avoid that. And number three is Moneyfarm Cash ISA with 4.79%. Invest into a money market fund, so you get the same downsides that you would get with eToro. And I think for that, um, I would rather use eToro personally, but it's ranked third here. Chip has a smart cash ice available right now at 4.75%. Um, that's for new customers only. It's essentially 12 month bonus, expires after 12 months, so you need to make sure you set up your alarm. We have Ecology Building Society with the double access cash ISA, 4.65% next. Um, that can be opened with 50 pounds minimum. And I think there's no bonus component. So that's pretty attractive if you're looking for an account that is yeah, just good in general without any bonus. Agrius Landstone with their cash ISA is ranked fifth, I believe, 4.52%. Um, also here, no bonus, no cliff, um, and also no withdrawal limit. So a lot of options really gotta make a um yeah, make up your mind what's important for you. We're gonna link all of these accounts in the in the description below. Just uh pick whatever you think is right.
00:09:11 · Jonny Pease, Jan Watermann
[00:09:11] S0: Yeah, I think it comes down to whether you're comfortable with the money market fund or not, isn't it? It's it's it's like eToro or money farm. It's a personal decision. Happy to go with the money market fund entirely protected as well. If not, you've got chip trading 212. [00:09:23] S1: You're absolutely right, Jonny.