The Best Cash ISAs With the Biggest Interest Rates
Financial Interest was founded by Damien Talks Money (234,000 YouTube subscribers) to teach the personal finance lessons he wished he'd been taught at school.
Last updated 1st December 2024
5 min read
The highest interest rates
| Provider | Interest Rate** | Notes | Minimum Balance*** | Maximum Withdrawals*** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moneybox | 5.17% | Includes 0.47% bonus rate for first year only | £500 | 3 |
| Trading 212* | 4.9% | Declining to 4.9% from 1st December (announced 28/11/2024) | £1 | Unlimited |
| Plum* | 5.18% | ISA transfers only get 3.79% AER (variable) 5.18% rate applies for new ISA deposits and includes 1.39% bonus rate for the first year only | £100 | 3 |
| Chip* | 4.58% | Provides account number and sort code | £1 | Unlimited |
| Zopa | 4.55% | Includes 0.5% bonus rate for first year only | £1 | “Withdraw your money at any time but your rate can change.” |
**AER (variable) for easy access Cash ISAs, rates accurate as of December 1st 2024.
***Minimum balance and maximum withdrawals to maintain the advertised interest rate.
List includes easy access Cash ISAs only — variable rate, no fixed terms. All rates were accurate as of December 1st 2024. Rates change quickly and may be different to what you see on this page. Get in touch if you’d like to report an error.
The 5 best cash ISAs for interest rates in the UK, at the time of writing, are Trading 212, Moneybox, Plum, Chip and Zopa.
However, it takes a bit of digging to work out which rates are really the highest.
Please remember, all rates on this page are variable (AER).
Moneybox has the leading interest rate on the market at 5.17% if you wish to transfer ISA funds from elsewhere. This rate is guaranteed to drop by 0.47% when the one-year promotional rate boost ends and, because it’s a variable rate, it could (and is likely to) decrease prior to that. You also must have a balance of at least £500 and can only withdraw up to 3 times per year without it affecting your rate.
Trading 212‘s 4.9% interest is the leading rate on the market (at the time of writing) if you’re looking for a flexible ISA — where you can withdraw and redeposit in the same financial year without affecting your annual ISA deposit limits. There’s also a debit card with up to 1.5% cashback that you can use with your Trading 212 account.
Editor’s update: We featured Trading 212 in our newsletter on November 28th, highlighting it as the top rate. They announced a rate drop from 5.17% to 4.9% two hours after we began sending that newsletter. Apologies to anyone seeing this after receiving the quickly-outdated information via email.
Plum‘s 5.18% AER only applies to new Cash ISA deposits, but is the top rate if you’re not transferring from elsewhere, though it includes a one-year bonus rate of 1.39% (variable) and declines to 3.79% (variable) thereafter. If you transfer an ISA from elsewhere, those funds will only generate 3.79% interest. If your balance drops below £100 or you make 4 or more withdrawals, your rate will drop to 2.5% (variable).
Chip comes in at 4.58% but some savers like them because they provide an account number and sort code, which means you can easily transfer to any other bank in future. You can still transfer from those that don’t provide these details (because they are not banks) but a small number of traditional banks have antiquated systems that rely on these two pieces of information.
Chip’s Cash ISA only requires a £1 minimum deposit, as does Trading 212’s, and both of these are flexible ISAs. This means you can withdraw and redeposit in the same financial year without impacting your annual ISA deposit limits.
Reasonable rates but you could get higher
| Provider | Easy Access Interest Rate (Dec 2024)** |
|---|---|
| Virgin Money | 4.51% |
| Cynergy Bank | 4.5% |
| Yorkshire Building Society | 4.3% |
| Marcus by Goldman Sachs | 4.3% |
| Shawbrook | 4.25% |
| Nationwide | 4.1% |
| Aldermore | 4.05% |
***Minimum balance required and maximum withdrawals to maintain the advertised interest rate.
List includes easy access Cash ISAs only — variable rate, no fixed terms. All rates were accurate at the time of publishing. Rates change quickly and may be different to what you see on this page. Get in touch if you’d like to report an error.
Very low rates and the worst offenders
| Provider | Easy Access Interest Rate (Dec 2024)** |
|---|---|
| OakNorth | 3.75% |
| Monzo | 3.6% – 4.1% |
| Coventry Building Society | 2.95% |
| First Direct | 2.7% |
| Nottingham Building Society | 2.5% |
| HSBC | 2.3% |
| Leeds Building Society | 2.15% |
| Paragon | 2% |
| Barclays | 1.66% |
| NatWest | 1.6% – 3% |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | 1.6% – 3% |
| TSB | 1.5% – 1.8% |
| Metro Bank | 1.4% |
| Santander | 1.4% |
| Halifax | 1.15% – 1.6% |
| Lloyds Bank | 1.15% – 1.6% |
| Bank of Scotland | 1.15% – 1.6% |
***Minimum balance required and maximum withdrawals to maintain the advertised interest rate.
Some of these banks are making so much margin on their savings accounts that the FCA is actively encouraging them to be provide better value for customers.
The rates are frankly laughable.
TSB, for example, offer just 1.5% AER in their Cash ISA Saver. And this includes a promotional rate of 0.2%! After one year, the rate drops to 1.3%.
Worse still is Metro Bank’s Instant Access Cash ISA: they offer 1.4% at the time of writing, but have already stated “In response to the Bank of England Base Rate decrease on 7 November 2024, this rate will change to 1.15% AER in December 2024.”
Soon, Metro Bank will boast the lowest rate on this list.
We’re not sure anyone offering 1.4% was in need of a “response” to the Bank of England’s base rate decrease from 5% to 4.75%, but hey, we’re just some Average Joes sharing our unqualified thoughts about money on the internet.
