Regular savings accounts explained: Are they worth it?

How you can save every month for a higher rate.

I’m a huge fan of monthly or regular savings accounts. They’re great for people putting money aside every month, and they also tend to have some of the highest interest rates!

Following a series of base rate increases, you can now get up to 9.5% via these accounts – far above the best options elsewhere.

But these monthly savers are often misunderstood, especially when it comes to the amount of interest you’ll earn. So here’s an explainer to make sure you know how they work.

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What is a regular savings account?

A regular savings account is designed for people saving some of their income every month rather than depositing a lump sum. Hence the name. Usually this transfer is made by a direct debit, set up when you open the account.

I’m a big fan as they encourage you to save a set amount every month, rather than ad hoc amounts as and when you have spare money.

How regular savers work

Often there are limits and restrictions, though this can vary depending on the account.

You’re limited to how much you can save in them

You can typically only deposit between £50 to £500 every month, with most actually having a cap of around £200.

You might also have to pay in a minimum each month, though that might not be much – usually £25 or £50.

The account normally closes after 12 months

The vast majority of regular saver accounts (Natwest/RBS’s option is an exception) last for just one year. Once the year is up you’ll be paid the interest and the account is closed with your money moved to a lower paying easy-access account.

Withdrawals can be limited

Some regular savers don’t allow withdrawals until the year is up, or have extra limits on them such as just two a year. If you do take money out, you might not be able to add it back in for that month.

The best accounts require current accounts

The highest paying regular savers are usually restricted to existing customers of the bank. Though you should be able to easily open a new current account with those banks to be eligible, there might be better paying options at other banks, for example a monthly reward or cashback. There are also a handful of loyalty savers via building societies that require you to have been a member on a certain date.

How interest is calculated

The main area people get confused about is the interest rate. For this example, let’s use an example interest rate of 5%.

If you save £250 a month into the account, and therefore have £3,000 saved by the end of the year, you might expect to get 5% on that £3,000 – a total of £150.

However you don’t have £3,000 for the full year – you’re adding money incrementally. This means you’ll only earn interest on the cash held each month. So the first £250 will have been saved for 12 months and earn the full 5% – a figure of £12.50 over the year

In turn, the second £250 saved will only be in the account for 11 months. So you’ll earn 11 twelfths of 5% on £250 – which works out as roughly £11.45 of interest.

The next £250 will be 10 twelfths, the next one 9 twelfths and so on. If you miss a month or pay less in that month, then that’ll also affect your earnings. If carried on you paying in the maximum every month, you’d earn £81 after a year.

If you calculated this £81 return on the total £3,000 balance it’s effectively 2.7% – just over half the advertised rate. This is why people get angry. But you are still earning that headline money on your monthly deposits.

And that “50% of the headline rate” is a handy shortcut if you want to find out how much you’ll make based on the annual balance saved. For a more accurate figure, you can use the calculator on Money Saving Expert.

How much could you make?

Here are the top paying accounts at the time of writing, and the interest in the first year if you deposit the maximum amount allowed at the start of the month.

Bank	Rate	Monthly limit	Max interest in 12 months	Requirement?
Saffron Building Society	9%	£50	£29	Existing member
Skipton Building Society	7.5%	£250	£121	Existing member
First Direct	7%	£300	£135	Current account
Club Lloyds (Review)	6.25%	£400	£161	Current account
Natwest (Review)	6.17%	£150	£60*	Current account
RBS	6.17%	£150	£60*	Current account
Halifax	5.5%	£250	£89	No

Regular savings hacks

These regular savings accounts aren’t just for people building up a new savings pot. You can funnel other, lower-paid savings, into these accounts.

Drip feeding your savings

If you’ve got a small lump sum you can gradually move money from one account into a regular savings account.

Say you have £3,000 already. The first thing to do is move it to the highest-paying account or accounts you can find.

For the example here let’s assume it’s all in an easy-access account earning 3.85%. In a year this would earn you £115.50 of interest.

But if you then move it month by month (at £250 a time) to a regular saver account paying 7% you would earn a combined total of £166 in interest (£113 from the regular saver and £53 from easy access account). That’s £51 more than if you’d left it in the easy-access account.

However, this might not be too different from putting the cash in a one year fix. For example, one that pays 5.25% would earn £157.50. Here’s more on drip feeding vs fixes.

Using multiple regular savers for larger savings

You’re not limited to just one regular saver, so you can use the same trick as above to drip-feed deposits if you have a larger stash.

For example, at the time of writing, you could pay a total of £1,000 each month into four accounts that earn above 6%.

Are regular savers worth it?

The best regular savings accounts

Right now existing customers can get up to 9.5%, those with current accounts up to 7%, and with no restrictions up to 5.5%. Check out my regularly updated list of what’s on offer.

It’s always worth trying your local building societies too as they may have higher rates that are only accessible if you live locally.

However, it doesn’t make sense to have a regular saver paying less than the best easy-access accounts, while lump sums might be better off in a fixed-rate bond. I’ve listed the highest paying ones in my savings best buy tables.