Amid a wave of savings interest rate cuts from high street banks and building societies following the Bank of England’s latest base rate reduction, a number of challenger and specialist banks continue to dominate the best-buy tables.
These providers have remained competitive throughout recent market turbulence – often among the first to pass on rate rises to savers, and the last to scale them back. Sally Conway, savings expert at Shawbrook, said: “Exploring options beyond major banks might lead to better interest rates”, adding “specialist savings banks can often be savers’ best kept secret.”
Challenger banks, typically digital-first and designed to compete with established high street names, are regulated in the same way as traditional banks and offer the same protections. Specialist banks, meanwhile, tend to focus on niche markets, such as savings or sector-specific lending, allowing them to offer more targeted products and attractive rates.
In contrast, many high street banks have been slow to adjust, maintaining lower returns even during periods of rising rates. As a result, it’s the challengers and specialists that continue to offer some of the most competitive savings deals, even as the market shifts downward.
Caitlyn Eastell, spokesperson at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, said: “After the recent Bank of England base rate cut, many providers have been rushing to re-price their offerings, which has ramped up the competition. But challenger banks continue to dominate the market-leading positions.”
At the time of writing, Chip and Atom Bank hold the top positions in the easy access savings sector, boasting Annual Equivalent Rates (AERs) of 4.77% and 4.75% respectively.
Meanwhile, Lloyds Bank’s Easy Saver offers an AER of 1.05% on balances up to £24,000. For the same deposit amount, NatWest offers a 1.25% AER.
In the fixed rate sector, Tandem Bank tops the board for one-year accounts with an AER of 4.44%. This is another table that the big four banks – HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, and NatWest – feature much lower down on.
The Bank of England cut the base rate from 4.5% to 4.25% in May, and average savings interest rates have been dropping in the weeks since. Experts are urging Brits to review their savings accounts and compare deals to make sure their money is still working hard for them.
This comes as new research from the savings app Spring found a collective £526billion is currently sitting idle in low-interest accounts paying 1.25% or less.
Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, said: “There are unfortunately some savers keeping their hard-earned cash in a current or savings account that pays poor returns and is eaten away by inflation. However, this money could work so much harder if consumers just take a little time out of their day to open an easy access account that pays better returns, which is quick and easy to do.”
