You don't always need piles of spare cash to get a best buy savings account. Whether you have just £25 or a whopping £25,000, you can earn top rates of interest on all of it. Here's how...
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You don't always need piles of spare cash to get a best buy savings account. Whether you have just £25 or a whopping £25,000, you can earn top rates of interest on all of it. Here's how...
Small savers
Thankfully, those of you with just a few pounds to put away won't be left on the savings account scrap heap. In fact, you can earn a fantastic return with a deposit of only £1. Here are the three best buy accounts for smaller savers which all pay a cracking 6.50% AER or more:
Top 3 easy access savers
Bank/building society account | % AER | Minimum deposit |
|---|---|---|
6.56% | £1 | |
Birmingham Midshires e-Saver (Issue 2) | 6.52% | £1 |
6.50% | £1 |
On top of these great rates, you can get your hands on your cash whenever you need to from the Birmingham Midshires e-Saver (Issue 2) and the ING Direct (UK) Savings Account. But the Alliance & Leicester eSaver is a different story. Watch out because no interest will be paid for any month in which a withdrawal is made unless you take money out in July. Remember, easy access isn't always as easy as it seems.
And don't forget that the rate paid on the eSaver also includes a 0.83% bonus until 2 September 2009. A&L savers will need to check the return remains competitive once the bonus has disappeared next year.
If you have a little more spare cash, you could try the easy access account market leader, Kaupthing Edge, which requires an opening balance of £100 and currently pays a top rate of 6.55%.
Medium savers
Those of you with a bit more to save could go for the same accounts as small savers, but if you're happy to lock your money away for a while, you could earn even better rates by going for a fixed rate bond instead.
What's more, with a fixed rate account, you know exactly how much interest you'll earn on your savings during the term, unlike variable rate accounts which are vulnerable to rate cuts.
For deposits of £1,000 or more, the best buy is the ICICI HiSAVE Fixed Rate account. This is a one-year bond with an impressive fixed rate of 7.20%. But be warned: Withdrawals can't be made until twelve months is up. (Access is allowed if you sacrifice some of the return from the bond, but that means earning a far less competitive rate of 6.75%).
Big savers
Again big savers have the option to go for any of the accounts already mentioned. However, for savings of £25,000 plus one of my favourites is the High 5 account from Investec Private Bank.
The account is unique because it always pays the average of the five highest savings rates on the market as published by data provider and Fool partner, Moneyfacts. This means High 5 will always be competitive. You shouldn't need to shop around for the best savings rates ever again since Investec has already done the hard work for you!
As the top five accounts on the market change from time-to-time, the return from the High 5 account will be updated too. This is done on a weekly basis. So, with High 5, you can be certain the rate you're earning is one of the very best available -- week-in, week-out.
The only slight hitch is the lack of access to your savings because you will need to give 3 month's notice. But if you don't normally need to get your cash out in a hurry, I think High 5 is a good choice for big savers.
Of course, you could choose the most competitive account -- Heritable Bank's 60 Day Notice (Issue 2) account -- instead. But who's to say whether it will continue to top the best buy tables in the coming months?
So whether you're a small, medium or a big saver, there's a great savings account out there for you. Don't put up with pathetic savings rates when you don't need to. Just compare the market by visiting The Motley Fool Savings Centre today.