Best savings rates for pots ranging from £1k to £50k

A quick roundup of the best rates for any pot size, including how you can effectively earn more than 6% on £10,000 savings.

How much you earn depends on how much you have

What’s the best possible rate you can earn on your savings?

You might think the answer would be straightforward, but the truth is it will vary greatly depending on how much money you want to set aside.

In fact, the top rate can range anywhere from 5.2% to 10.38% as a result of your pot size.

So let’s take a quick look at the top savings rates available on cash savings of all sizes, starting at £1,000 and going all the way up to £50,000.

How we’ve selected the rates

For each section we’ll look at the absolute best rate available and, if that is only available to existing customers, the best open-to-all rate on the market as well.

Where the best rate is an access account, we will also provide the best fixed-rate account.

That’s because rates are widely expected to continue falling in the coming months as the Base Rate gradually declines and, as a result, many savers will be looking to lock into a top rate.

The best savings rates for <£1,000 pot: up to 10.38%

Choosing the best rate for this category is tricky as it could involve both people who only have a tiny amount of money to set aside as well as people who have just started saving and are looking to regularly set money aside.

Let’s start by looking at those with only a small pot and no plans to grow it rapidly.

For this, the best rate currently available is an easy access Cash ISA paying 5.2% from Trading 212 and can be opened from as little as £1.

If you’re looking to lock into a fixed-rate account, Atom Bank has a six-month bond paying 5% that can be opened with as little as £50.

If you only have a very small pot but are now in a position to regularly set money aside, you should instead look at a regular savings account.

The best by far is from Virgin Money, paying a stonking 10.38% rate and allowing monthly contributions of up to £250.

The catch is you need to be a Virgin current account customer to get it.

If you aren’t a customer or don’t fancy switching just to get that, the best open-to-all regular saver pays 8% and is available from Principality Building Society.

SUMMARY

Best rate with strings attached: 10.38%

Best open-to-all rate 8%

The best savings rates for a £3,000 pot: 6%

The Santander Edge Saver account pays 6% on savings of up to £4,000.

However, this includes a 1.5% bonus for the first 12 months and is only available to Santander Edge current account customers.

That account charges a £3 monthly fee, but this can be more than offset if you take advantage of its cashback perks.

The best open-to-all option is the easy access Cash ISA we mentioned earlier from Trading 212, which comes with a variable rate of 5.2%.

If you’re worried about rates falling, the top one-year fixed-rate account is from Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (available through savings platform Raisin) and has a 5.05% rate and can be opened from £1,000.

SUMMARY

Best rate with strings attached: 6%

Best open-to-all rate: 5.2%

Best fixed-rate savings: 5.05%

The best savings rates for a £5,000 pot: 5.2%

The best option here is once again the easy access Cash ISA from Trading 212, which comes with a variable rate of 5.2%.

If you’re looking to lock your money away, the top one-year fixed-rate account is from Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (available through savings platform Raisin) and has a 5.05% rate and can be opened from £1,000.

SUMMARY

Best open-to-all rate: 5.2%

Best fixed-rate savings: 5.05%

The best savings rates for a £10,000 pot: effectively 6.06%

To earn the best rate on your £10,000 you’ll need to stack a cashback offer on top of your savings interest.

Savings platform Raisin is currently offering a £100 bonus to anyone opening an account and depositing £10,000 into one of its savings accounts (offer ends 30 September).

You can learn more about how to qualify here.

In effect, this will give a 1% boost to your returns on a £10,000 pot.

The best rate available on the platform at the time of writing is 5.06% from the National Bank of Egypt, meaning you can effectively earn 6.06% on your pot.

We should point out that this account is only a six-month fix.

If you fancy locking away for a little longer, the top one-year account on the Raisin platform from Mizrahi Tefahot Bank pays a marginally lower rate of 5.05%, meaning an effective rate of 6.05% over 12 months.

Please note that to qualify for the £100 cashback offer you need to use the code OFFER100 when applying. Please check out the full details here before applying to ensure you don’t miss out.

SUMMARY

Best overall account (fixed): 6.06%

The best savings rates for a £20,000 pot: effectively 5.56%

Much like with the £10,000 pot example above, the best way to maximise your savings is to take advantage of a cashback offer on top of your interest.

Raisin will pay a £100 bonus to anyone who opens an account and deposits their pot with the savings platform before 30 September (learn how it works here).

This will give you an effective boost of 0.5% on your £20,000 pot over one year.

The best rate available on the platform is currently 5.06%, from the National Bank of Egypt, meaning you can effectively earn 5.56% on your pot when the bonus is added on.

We should point out that this account is only a six-month fix.

If you fancy locking away for a little longer, the top one-year account on the Raisin platform from Mizrahi Tefahot Bank pays a marginally lower rate of 5.05%, meaning an effective rate of 5.55% over 12 months.

Please note that to qualify for the £100 cashback offer you need to use the code OFFER100 when applying. Please check out the full details here before applying to ensure you don’t lose out.

SUMMARY

Best overall account (fixed): 5.56%

The best savings rates for a £50,000 pot: effectively 5.26%

As with the previous two examples, the best way to earn the top rate on a £50,000 is to combine a signing up bonus along with a top fixed-rate savings account.

In summary, you can currently get a £100 top up when you sign up to a savings account through savings platform Raisin (learn more about that offer here).

On a £50,000 pot, that adds an effective 0.2% boost to your returns over a year.

When you consider the top account available with Raisin currently pays 5.06%, from the National Bank of Egypt, that would effectively give you a rate of 5.26%.

However, this account is only a six-month fix.

The top one-year account on the Raisin platform from Mizrahi Tefahot Bank pays a marginally lower rate of 5.05%, meaning an effective rate of 5.25% over 12 months.

As mentioned earlier it’s important to point out that, to qualify for the £100 cashback offer from Raisin, you need to use the code OFFER100 when applying.

Please check out the full details here before applying.