Banking Without Borders
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.
00:09:24 · Jonny Pease
[00:09:24] S0: You know, it's one or the other, isn't it? At least if you're chasing the top rate. The fixed cash ices are a wonderful, wonderful place to look to deposit money. I mean, the rates are incredibly competitive. Extremely competitive. Just wonderful. Let's just begin with the long-term cash icers. Aldermore at five years are paying 5.25% with a minimum of £1,000. Now that is the same as Shawbrook, both 5.25%, both £1,000 minimum. But the way we differentiate these two accounts is that one is a flexible cash icer and one is not flexible, and one is going to charge you 180 days of interest as a penalty for withdrawing, whereas the other one is 360. So Shawbrook aren't flexible, Aldermore are. Now, what I mean by flexible and non-flexible, simply put, if a cash ICER is flexible and you deposit money into it and then withdraw that money, you do not lose that amount from your cash ICER allotment for the year. Given the fact that these two share the same rate, it's obvious, in my opinion, that Aldermore would be a more compelling choice. Okay, it's flexible and it's only 180 days interest penalty if you want to withdraw money. Monzo, who'd have thought, hey? Monzo. They now have a very competitive three-year fixed cash ICE at 5.15%. I'm so happy to see them offering compelling rates, Jan, because for a long time they've kind of been a lot like Starling. They've really sat back on trying to compete in the market. But here we are, three years, 5.15% with a minimum of 500 pounds. It's a flexible ICE with an exit penalty of 270 days interest. Really good. They're matching Castle Trust as well at 5.15%, which has a minimum of a thousand pounds. How would you differentiate that apart from the minimum balance? Perhaps leaning on Monzo though, because simply it's digitized. Uh, the app is very fun, really easy to use, really powerful, really intuitive. And with that account, you're gonna get so many other benefits that Castle Trust simply will not provide. They they simply will not, will they be able to deliver the sort of experience that Monzo can? Two years, you've got Shawbrook, a plus account. When you see plus in brackets with Shawbrook's accounts, that means they are for new users only. That's paying 5.12% across two years with a minimum of 10,000 pounds. It's not flexible, it's not the best account.
00:11:43 · Jonny Pease
Castle Trust, I would probably push closer towards because they're paying 5.1% and it's new, existing, doesn't matter about that. It's got a lower minimum as well of a thousand pounds. And then Shawbrook again, one year fixed cash ICE of 5.02% minimum of 10,000 pounds. That's new customers only. And if you've had a Shawbrook account, perhaps, but you're looking for the best one year fixed cash ICE, Zopa at five percent. The thing with that is you'll have to open, you'll you'll have to open a free Zopa smart saver to get it. Only takes a few minutes to open, you know, a little bit longer to be verified. Super simple to do. I've done it myself. The key message here looking at this table, Jan, the gap between one year and five years is 0.23%, right? So if the bank hikes on Thursday and it say it continues going up next year, uh you're not going to get paid a huge amount more for locking away for five years when in it is possible that those five-year fixes could ramp up even more. I mean, how f how much farther further could they go if the bank hikes? Right. Look towards six percent. Um, so you know, it's not it's not financial advice, it's it's not a personal recommendation. If this was me, I'd be looking probably if I wanted to lock away um possibly a two-year fix at 5.1%, Castle Trust, for example, or or even just going to Zopa for the one-year fix, if if I wanted to fix.