The latest news to help you get the most from your savings account.
Here’s our monthly update sharing changes at leading UK savings accounts, as well as some of the articles you might have missed on the site.
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February’s savings news
Base rate cut could happen in April
The next Bank of England MPC meeting takes place on Thursday 5 February. It’s where they decide whether to change the base rate, which can impact the interest rate provided on savings.
However, the latest inflation figures saws an unexpected increase to 3.4%, the first increase since last June. This would suggest we won’t see a cut at this next meeting nor the one six weeks later in March. Instead a change to 3.5% in April is more likely. We could then see another cut later in the year.
So even if there is not cut this week, rates could still fall in anticipation or later cuts, if they haven’t already. And don’t forget some popular easy access accounts already track the base rate.
We’ll update you with what happens in our base rate change analysis article.
Nationwide and Virgin Money FSCS protection to merge
From 2 April 2026 any money you have at Nationwide or Virgin Money will count towards the same Financial Services Compensation Scheme cover.
That means you’ll have protection to a total of £120,000 if Nationwide (the new owner of Virgin Money) was to go bust, even if you had lower amounts saved with each brand that cumulatively added up to more.
NatWest and RBS regular saver rate cut
I’m a big fan of the Digital Regular Saver from Natwest and RBS. You can have one of these at each bank, and unlike other regular savers, you’ll keep earning interest on the balance after 12 months. Instead you’re capped at a balance of £5,000 to get the top rate.
From 19 January it’s now fallen to 5.25%, down from 5.5% and before that 6.17%. It’s still a decent rate to earn, especially if you have been saving into it for a while now.
However, you might want to consider a higher paying regular saver for new money you’re putting away, with rates going as high as 7.5%.
It’s also another reminder why it’s worth snapping up high paying fixed regular savers now. The rate can’t change for a year once opened, but could be cut like NatWest for new applicants at anytime. Top picks here are First Direct at 7% and Club Lloyds at 6.25%.
Barclays Rainy Day Saver cut again
From 11 March 2026 you’ll get 3.98% AER on balances of up to £5,000, down from the current 4.13% with the Barclays Rainy Day Saver. This is available to those with Blue Rewards (at £5 a month) or high earners with a Premier Current Account.
This was a top pick for many years, so a number of you might still be saving into it. But as I’ve covered previously when other cuts to this account have happened, I think your money is better off elsewhere.
Yes 3.98% isn’t too bad right now, but it can be beaten – especially if you’re paying £5 a month for the priviledge.
Featured switching deal
Our top pick
Customer rating
3.8/5
- Switch bonus£200
- Offer endsUnknown
- Extra bonus£25 Amazon Gift Card
- FSCS Protected? Yes
- Switch bonus requirements Switch using the Current Account Switch Service and close your old account within 60 days of starting the switch
- Deposit requirements Deposit £1,500 in the first 60 days from opening the account
- Direct debits transferred over Set up two Direct Debits before or after the switch from a selected list of household bills
- Existing customers? Can't have held any Santander current account on 1 January 2025
- Restrictions Can't have received a switching bonus from Santander already, offer limited to once per person
- Eligible accounts Open a new or hold an existing Everyday, Edge, Edge Up or Edge Explorer current account
- £25 Amazon Gift Card requirements To qualify for the gift card, you need to complete a full switch using CASS, and make five debit card transactions within 30 days of opening the account
Snoop adds round ups
Account aggregator and budgeting app Snoop has just added the ability to auto-save round ups when you spend from your linked accounts. There’s also the ability to boost the round up by 2x, 3x, 5x or 10x and customise which accounts you use for this.
The money will go to an easy access account paying 4%.
You can beat this with Chase (5% interest on round ups) and NatWest/RBS (5.25% as it’ll be in the Digital Regular Saver), but this is a good option for other accounts that don’t offer the feature or have lower / no interest rates on the money moved.
New Snoop applicants can also get a free £5 Amazon voucher when they first open and connect an account.
Monzo 1p challenge entry ends soon
Non-paying Monzo customers have until 31 January to activate the 1p Savings Challenge in their app. Max. Perks and Extra customers can start this anytime.
It’s a way to automate some extra savings, with 1p moving from your account to a separate pot on day one, then 2p the next day and so on. After 12 months you’ll have £667.50 saved.
Anyone who does join in will be entered into a £10,000 prize draw in a year as long as they save the full amount, while paid Monzo customers will also be entered into monthly £100 competitions.
Starling ‘Last Digit Widget’ feature
Away from auto-savings, there’s a new feature on Starling that encourages you to save small amounts, but you’ll have to make the transfer yourself.
It’s called Last Digit Widget. You’ll need to set up a new space for this, and the you’ll need to look at each transaction you make and manually move the amount of the last digit to this new space.
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February’s savings offers
We’ll share any other deals in our savings deals page if any more come along.
Can you earn extra on your savings?
Check out our list of the best savings special offers
Top savings accounts for February 2026
Remember, these are the accounts at the top of the tables. We’ve more options in our best savings accounts page, which is updated every day by the team.
Current account linked easy access saver picks as of 4/2/26
- Santander Edge Saver (6% AER variable, includes 2.5% bonus for 12 months) – max £4,000
- Nationwide (5% AER variable for 12 months) – max £1,500 – new customers only
- Chase Saver (4.5% AER variable, includes 2% bonus for 12 months) – new customers only
Easy & limited access picks as of 4/2/26
- Cahoot Sunny Day Saver (5% AER variable) – max £3,000, 12 months only (+ £25 via TopCashback)
- Mansfield Building Society (4.25% AER variable) – triple access / post only
- Manchester Building Society (4.15% AER variable)
- West Brom Building Society (4.15% AER variable) – max 4 withdrawals
- Virgin Money (4.15% AER variable) – max 2 withdrawals
- Shawbrook (4.13% AER variable)
Easy & limited access ISA picks as of 4/2/26
- eToro (4.48% AER variable, including bonus for 12 months) – new customers only
- Trading 212 (4.4% AER variable, includes bonus for 12 months) – flexible, new customer rate only
- Plum (4.3% AER variable, includes bonus for 12 months) – new customer rate only
- Atom (4.25% AER variable)
The best Easy Access Cash ISA savings accounts
Check out our list of the highest paying easy access Cash ISAs
Notice accounts picks as of 4/2/26
- 3 months notice – OakNorth (4.23% AER variable): 95-days notice
- 4 months notice- Oak North (4.5% AER variable): 120-days notice
- 6 months notice – Earl Shilton (4.25% AER variable): 180-days notice
Fixed savings accounts picks as of 4/2/26
- 6 months – ISBank via Raisin (4.24% AER fixed)
- 9 months – Oak North via Meteor(4.34% AER fixed)
- 12 months – Al Rayan via Meteor(4.4% AER expected profit)
- 18 months – Cynergy (4.2% AER fixed)
- 2 year – Al Rayan via Meteor (4.2% expected return fixed)
- 3 year – Al Rayan via Meteor (4.22% expected return fixed)
- 4 year – Cynergy (4.25% AER fixed)
- 5 year – Hampshire Trust Bank (4.31% AER fixed)
Fixed ISA accounts picks as of 4/2/26
- 12 months – IS Bank via Meteor (4.35% expected return fixed)
- 2 years Al Rayan via Meteor (4.15% expected return fixed)
- 3 years Cynergy (4.15% AER fixed)
- 4 years UBL (3.91% AER fixed)
- 5 years Close Brothers (4.21% AER fixed)
Lifetime ISA pick as of 4/2/26
- Moneybox Lifetime ISA (4.5% AER variable, incl 12 month bonus)
Regular Saver accounts (exisiting customer) picks as of 4/2/26
- Zopa Regular Saver (7.1% AER variable): max £300 a month
- requires a Biscuit (by Zopa) current account
- First Direct Regular Saver (7% AER fixed): max £300 a month
- requires a First Direct current account
- Co-operative Bank Regular Saver (7% variable): max £250 a month
- Requires a Co-op Bank current account
Regular Saver accounts (for all) picks as of 4/2/26
- Principality Building Society (7.5% AER fixed for six months): max £200 a month
- Monmouthshire Building Society (6% AER variable): max £500 a month
- Scottish Building Society (6% AER variable): max £250 a month
The best monthly savings accounts
Check out our list of the highest paying regular or monthly savings accounts.
