How to unlock exclusive savings deals that pay out over 5% – and beat even the best buys off the table
- With savings platforms you can hold money at various banks and mortgage banks
- The website based platforms often have top deals that you can’t find anywhere else
- Savings platforms: find the best rates and receive bonus boosters
Savings rates reach 5 percent, but some top deals are only accessible by signing up with a savings platform.
These websites allow you to hold money in one place with several banks and building societies, and often have top rates you can’t find anywhere else.
Last week, the Raisin savings platform launched a one-year fixed-rate savings bond from the National Bank of Egypt.
Savers who can lock up their money for a year will receive 5.25 percent interest on this deal.
The best annual rate outside of a platform is 5.26 percent at SmartSave Bank.
Online Links: Savings platform websites allow you to hold money with several banks and building societies in one place, and they often have top deals
Savings platforms: find the best rates and receive bonus boosters
The Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings platform offers 5.06 percent for a one-year fixed rate savings bond from Aldermore Bank.
That’s higher than the 4.85 percent you can get on the same type of product as an Aldermore direct customer.
Raisin and Hargreaves Lansdown are both free to use. Other major platforms include Aviva Save, AJ Bell Cash Savings Hub, Flagstone, and Interactive Investor.
The big advantage of savings platforms is that you can easily move money between providers to access better rates.
Once you’ve signed up, you don’t have to fill out a form and prove your identity every time you open a new account. They only ask for your details once and the whole process can take ten minutes.
You can then transfer cash to your account on the platform, known as a cash hub, before deciding how to distribute it among savings providers.
There are some drawbacks. The services of the Savings platform are only available online and you cannot yet open a savings platform account in joint name.
Rates are also not always better than those offered directly by banks and building societies, so you should still check.
Rachel Springall, from Moneyfactscompare, says: ‘Savings platforms can be a great way to manage your nest egg well and apply for new accounts quickly. But check whether the platform charges administration costs.’
Savings platforms make their money by taking a share of the banks or building societies that offer accounts with them.
Each platform has different providers listed at any given time. Currently, Hargreaves Lansdown has 12 providers on its list and Raisin has nearly 20. The products on offer are mainly fixed rate, where you tie up your money for a period of time, but there are also a few easily accessible accounts.
For example, through Raisin, you can open an easily accessible GB Bank account that pays 3.7 percent, while Hargreaves Lansdown offers the Zopa Easy Access account at 3.52 percent.
However, these are slightly lower than the 3.85 percent you can currently earn by going directly to Secure Trust’s Access Account.
Check how your money is protected. If you choose UK banks or building societies on the savings platform, your money will be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
If you choose accounts from banks in other European countries, they will be protected by the European Deposit Guarantee Scheme.
The FSCS gives up to £85,000 in cover per person if a UK bank or building society goes bankrupt. If you have money on a savings platform with two banks in the UK, you have £85,000 cover with each.
You should also consider how any compensation would work if the platform’s money hub went down. At Raisin, for example, this also falls under the FSCS.
With Hargreaves Lansdown, your hub money is held with Barclays Bank. If the latter were to fail, it would be protected by the FSCS. But if Hargreaves failed, it falls under the protection rules of the Financial Conduct Authority.
sy.morris@dailymail.co.uk