Is it worth paying the £3 monthly fee for this high interest rate?
Despite a recent rate cut, the Santander Edge Saver pays 6%, which is still higher than any other easy-access account right now.
But there are drawbacks, including the requirement to open a Santander Edge current account (which has a monthly fee, though this is covered for a year at the moment), a limited balance that earns interest and a bonus that ends after 12 months.
When you take all that into account, just how much will you earn? Here’s our analysis.
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What is the Santander Edge current account?
The key requirement for the Edge Saver account is you must have a Santander Edge current account. Opening this be subject to a credit score – something you don’t need to think about with most savings accounts.
The account itself can earn you cashback on some spending and bills. Unless you’ve already got one of the now-defunct Santander 123 or 123 Lite current accounts, this is probably the best way to earn a little on your key bills. Though at 1% don’t get too excited.
Likewise, the 1% on debit card spending is limited to just supermarket and transport purchases – something you can already get via other cashback cards.
Both sets of cashback are capped at £10 a month. Even though that means the potential to earn £240 a year, I don’t think you actually will – as my analysis shows.
And a big reason for this is the £3 monthly fee. That £36 a year will wipe out most of the cashback you earn on your bills. So why bother, well if the £36 is accounted for, it means you will be getting the full 6% on your savings in the linked Edge Saver.
Can you avoid the £3 fee?
Until 7 October, Santander is offering £36 to new Santander Edge customers to cover the £3 a month fee.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to earn cashback on the Santander Edge current account, you might be able to avoid the £3 fee altogether.
As long as you don’t set up any direct debits, you won’t get charged each month, but you’ll still be able to open up the Edge Saver and earn the full 6%.
However, Santander reserves the right to move you off the Edge current account if you don’t meet the criteria, which would lose you access to the Edge Saver too.
What is the Santander Edge Saver?
If you have the Edge current account you’ll be able to open up a Santander Edge Saver account.
The Edge Saver pays a 6% interest rate, but that contains a 1.5% bonus for 12 months, so it’ll drop to 4.5% after a year (though as the rate is variable it could go up or down in this time).
Note if you applied for the account in the 12 months before 1 August 2024 you’ll still get 7% until the year is over, after which it’ll also drop to 4.5%.
The interest is also only on balances of up to £4,000. Anything in the account above this will earn nothing at all.
The joint account hack
Each person is allowed only one Edge Saver per Edge current account, but there is a way you might be able to get more.
Joint Edge account holders can get one saver each even though they’d have just one current account. That helps limit the impact of the fee on savings held by the couple, so you’ll earn even more.
And you could each have a personal account as well. So between the two of you, that could be four Edge savers. However, that would be three lots of the fee.
Though the new higher savings rate doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider paying for more than one of the Edge current accounts.
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How much interest will you earn in the first year?
Assuming you’re accounting for the fee against the cashback, you’ll get the full 6% back on your savings. So if you have the full £4,000 saved in the account for a year, you’ll make £240 in interest in the first year. That’s pretty decent right now.
But if you didn’t factor in the fee on your cashback rates (perhaps you already have the 123 Lite account, or don’t pay the bills themselves), then you’ll need to deduct it from your earnings.
Of course, if you’re making the most of the current offer, you don’t need to deduct this, getting you better earnings.
The tables below show how much you’d earn on different balances at the full rate, plus what you’d earn after the fee and the real interest rate when that happens.
I’ve also split the analysis to show how this builds if you are able to open up additional Edge Savers by having a joint Edge current account, or a mix of personal and joint accounts.
Remember this is just for the first year. Once that bonus is gone you’ll want to shop around to see if it’s worth moving your money to a better paying account elsewhere. At the time of writing you can beat 4.5% in a number of easy access accounts.
One Edge account with one Edge Saver
Without the fee, 6% is one of the highest-paying options out there. But it drops a lot if you do need to account for £3 a month.
Importantly, don’t have less than £600 in there as you’ll be losing money! I’d suggest you also want to look elsewhere if you have £3,000 or less in savings.
| Amount saved | Annual Interest | Interest after £36 fee | Effective interest rate |
| £500.00 | £30.00 | -£6.00 | -0.60% |
| £1,000.00 | £60.00 | £24.00 | 2.40% |
| £1,500.00 | £90.00 | £54.00 | 3.60% |
| £2,000.00 | £120.00 | £86.00 | 4.3% |
| £2,500.00 | £150.00 | £114.00 | 4.56% |
| £3,000.00 | £180.00 | £144.00 | 4.80% |
| £3,500.00 | £210.00 | £174.00 | 5% |
| £4,000.00 | £240.00 | £204.00 | 5.10% |
One joint Edge account with two Edge Savers
Of course if you have the joint account instead you can open two Edge saver accounts and pay just one fee. Then the rate starts to improve, as this table below shows.
The amount saved is the cumulative amount across two savers, even though you’d only be allowed up to £4,000 in each one.
| Amount saved | Annual Interest | Interest after £36 fee | Effective interest rate |
| £4,500.00 | £270.00 | £234.00 | 5.20% |
| £5,000.00 | £300.00 | £264.00 | 5.28% |
| £5,500.00 | £330.00 | £294.00 | 5.35% |
| £6,000.00 | £360.00 | £324.00 | 5.40% |
| £6,500.00 | £390.00 | £354.00 | 5.45% |
| £7,000.00 | £420.00 | £384.00 | 5.49% |
| £7,500.00 | £450.00 | £414.00 | 5.52% |
| £8,000.00 | £480.00 | £444.00 | 5.55% |
One personal Edge and one joint Edge account with three Edge Savers
You can build on this again if you have another £4,000 to save by adding a personal account alongside the joint account to open another Edge Saver – though you’ll be doubling the fee to £72 a year.
| Amount saved | Annual Interest | Interest after £72 fee | Effective interest rate |
| £8,500.00 | £510.00 | £474.00 | 5.58% |
| £9,000.00 | £540.00 | £504.00 | 5.6% |
| £9,500.00 | £570.00 | £534.00 | 5.62% |
| £10,000.00 | £600.00 | £564.00 | 5.64% |
| £10,500.00 | £630.00 | £594.00 | 5.65% |
| £11,000.00 | £660.00 | £624.00 | 5.67% |
| £11,500.00 | £690.00 | £654.00 | 5.68% |
| £12,000.00 | £720.00 | £684.00 | 5.7% |
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Two personal and one joint account with four Edge Savers
Or if you really go to town – and pay the fee three times with a joint account and a personal account each you can open up a total of four Edge Savers. Obviously one of these account fees might be covered by cashback.
| Amount saved | Annual Interest | Interest after £108 fee | Effective interest rate |
| £12,500.00 | £750.00 | £714.00 | 5.71% |
| £13,000.00 | £780.00 | £744.00 | 5.72% |
| £13,500.00 | £810.00 | £474.00 | 5.73% |
| £14,000.00 | £840.00 | £804.00 | 5.74% |
| £14,500.00 | £870.00 | £834.00 | 5.75% |
| £15,000.00 | £900.00 | £864.00 | 5.76% |
| £15,500.00 | £930.00 | £894.00 | 5.77% |
| £16,000.00 | £960.00 | £924.00 | 5.78% |
Watch out for tax on multiple Edge Savers
If you have multiple separate Edge Savers, there’s a risk the rate will reduce again thanks to tax. Don’t forget the tax-free Personal Savings Allowance is only £1,000 or £500, depending on your tax bracket.
That means any earnings over these amounts will be taxed at 20% and 40% respectively. Plus the PSA is only on earnings before the fee.
However, since the joint account interest will be shared 50/50 it means only higher rate tax paying couples with four Edge Savers and the full £16,000 saved will need to worry too much – unless you have savings elsewhere which also contribute to your tax-free allowance.
How does it compare to other savings accounts?
You can’t get close to 6% on a lump sum anywhere else right now, though regular savers do pay more, with accounts from 6.17% to 10%.
If you are paying the fee you may be better with an account with a lower AER, but will pay you more overall.
Is Santander Edge Saver any good?
Andy’s Analysis
Despite the drop from 7% to 6%, when you compare the headline interest rates it’s a really decent rate, that’s currently well above the rest.
However, when you factor in the £36 fee it does mean it’s not as strong as others – though rates will fall elsewhere too.
And if you add in extra current accounts to give you access to more Edge Savers you’ll still be looking at close to 5.8% on balances up to £16,000.
Plus, remember that 6% rate is only for 12 months. When it drops to 4.5% there are a number of best easy-access accounts that beat it right now.
Summary
Santander Edge Saver (6%)
| Account name | Edge Saver |
| Required current account | Santander Edge current account – review here |
| Monthly fee | £3 (on the current account) |
| Interest rate | 6% AER (drops to 4.5% after 12 months) |
| Max savings interest paid on | £4,000 |
| Withdrawals | Easy access |
| Multiple accounts | One per person per current account (so you could have two Edge Savers with a joint current account in addition to another with your own Edge current account) |
| Requirements | Must have Santander Edge current account. |
How to get a Santander Edge Saver account
You’ll need to open up the Santander Edge account – here’s my full review. Note this isn’t available to customers with the Edge Up current account.
There’s also the chance to get an extra £10 to £20 cashback when you first apply for the current account (details below).
Quidco & TopCashback: Up to £20 when you open an Edge account
If you apply for the Santander Edge account via cashback sites Quidco or TopCashback there’s often an extra you can earn on top, normally between £10 and £20 (the amount varies).
If you’re not already a customer of either site then make sure you sign up for a welcome offer first, worth up to £17 – though this can’t be used in conjuction with the Santander offer so you’ll need to make a purchase elsewhere first.
I opened a 7% account a while back. I was content to let the standing orders on my current account (Edge) wipe out the fee. After a year it dropped and is now only paying 4.2% which is disappointing. My annual interest will credit soon and I have earmarked a shortlist of others paying more. It was good while it lasted, but all good things… etc.
I’ve had the Edge saver for almost 12 months now so I’m about to lose the 1.5% bonus rate. Does anyone know if it’s possible to close the account then reopen a new one and therefore qualify for the bonus interest rate for another 12 months?
Yes, you can. I closed the 7% saver after the year had finished through online chat and opened a new one at 6% on the same day. It was very easy to do.
Good to know, I shall do that myself when the bonus rate expires.
Hi Andy, I have a joint Edge account with my wife, £4000 in each following your advice. Today i visited Sandander to open a sole account in my name, and was told as i have a joint account I could not have a second Edge saver account in my name, as per turms and conditions, only one account each. I did mention your name and advice, and was told you were wrong, Am i missing somthing?
Hi James, show them this page https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/santander-edge-saver#:~:text=You%20can%20have%20a%20maximum%20of%20two%20accounts%20%E2%80%93%20one%20for%20each%20Santander%20Edge%20current%20account%20you%20have%20(in%20your%20sole%20name%20or%20that%20you%20hold%20jointly%20with%20someone%20else).
What a palaver!
You’ve heard of the trickle down economy. There’s no evidence that ever happens but here’s yet another example of the trickle up economy. Banks falling over each other to dream up new ways to give cash to people who are lucky enough to have a chunk of savings. And where do you think it comes from? Punitive overdraft and transaction charges on those who are already in debt.
And yet people will spend hours working out how to play with their balances to get an extra 50 quid interest over a year.
It’s a pretty crap way to run society.
Yes it is a Crap way to run society but it’s all we have to work with ! I am an Old Bloke of 84 years and ‘savings cash heavy’ (not much time left so do not take risks). For very many years I (and many other savers) have subsidised those who use zero interest on borrowed money to enjoy this ridiculous way to operate by Bank Of England.
Personally the 2023 years may teach people more about money. Like other old people I paid 15% for my mortgage. Quantitive Easing ruined my retirement plans and life savings ..UNTIL
these rapid increases in interest rates..then Bonanza (for us Savers) .. at last! Why should we have subsidised other peoples reckless investments (large mortgages).
Now we can all live in the real world where working and savings are rewarded.
Personally I hope interest rates increase to 10% -OK I’m a rotten ‘xugger’ (change x for b).
I enjoy your articles Andy – keep up the good work.
Regards
Well said, you old sugger
Yep, I’m with the old rugger and Del
Terry, as a society, we DO subsidise the less well off. This is why we have state pensions…the pension you enjoy was paid for by a previous generation. NHS treats all eligible, free whether they have grafted or not..eg: those too disabled to work. Those who got 0% interest on borrowing will not ALL have ‘enjoyed’ this money. Many use it to pay debts, like huge cost of living hikes! Maybe we are too benevolent in some ways, but not in others. My hubby worked from 14 till he was too ill (cancer)…hard labour mostly, then died aged 64, months off his pension. His state pension returned to the pot to fund the system. We worked 91yrs between us, always low pay despite trying to claw our way up. Life is not always kind. We had under 5 holidays in almost 47yrs, abroad only twice for 1 wk each time, the last, 17yrs ago. If you want to use blame, blame greedy banks & shareholders in big businsess, like water firms for paying shareholders big bucks. If you think you subsidised us, then I thank you & those like you or we would have been destitute. On money I now get, I keep 3 to 4 families afloat by adding a few tins of food or to top up fuel, so they are less pressure on the state & others who feel they contribute. Having worked in some very hard jobs, from 15yr old mill girl to cleaner with multiple jobs, factory work, mental health hozi & in Crown Court (fancy name, low pay), to lowest paid Civil Servant, & STILL sharing what I can. I think me and my lad did our bit. Our girl too… even after a stroke at 40, still trying to hang onto her job despite being advised not to after working from 14 at weekends, evenings & all summer. Not everything is as cut & dried as you think. Life has been so very cruel…but I wouldn’t want you or anyone else to hear our horrendous truth. Best wishes, Val.