Savings account special offers

Tembo Lifetime ISA: up to £300 welcome offer

You can get up to £300 when you transfer your Lifetime ISA to Tembo. The amount you get depends on how much you transfer:

Amount transferred	Cash bonus	Effective rate
Less than £5,000	£0	4.3%
£5,000 – £9,999	£30	5%
£10,000 – £14,999	£75	5.05%
£15,000 – £19,999	£100	4.97%
£20,000 – £24,999	£125	4.93%
£25,000 – £29,999	£150	4.9%
£30,000 – £34,999	£175	4.88%
£35,000 – £39,999	£200	4.87%
£40,000 – £45,999	£225	4.86%
£45,000 – £49,999	£250	4.86%
£50,000	£300	4.9%

The LISA is currently paying 4.3% and you get a 25% top-up from the government when you pay into it.

To get the welcome cash, you need to transfer your Lifetime ISA to Tembo by 30 September 2024 and you’ll get the bonus six months later.

Virgin Money: 6.25% savings rate when you deposit into a Stocks and Shares ISA (ended)

Virgin Money is offering a savings rate of 6.25% in a savings account when you also deposit at least £5,000 into a Stocks and Shares ISA and leave it there for a year.

You’ll get the standard fixed rate of 4.25% AER fixed plus a bonus rate of 2% on a matched amount of money in your savings account. Bear in mind that’s the rate right now, since the offer runs until September it might be the underlying fixed bond could have changed if you open it later.

How it works

You’ll earn the bonus on amounts that match the balance in the ISA. Say you chose to put £5,000 into your Stocks and Shares ISA – you’ll then be able to get the savings rate on the same amount put into your savings account.

If you put more into your ISA, you can earn the rate on a higher amount in your savings account. The money needs to stay in both accounts until the fixed account ends to earn the bonus interest rate on your savings.

Amount in Stocks and Shares ISA on 30 September 2024	Amount in savings account	Amount in savings earning full 6.25%	Total cash with Virgin Money
£5,000	£5,000	£5,000	£10,000
£10,000	£5,000	£5,000	£15,000
£5,000	£10,000	£5,000	£15,000
£10,000	£10,000	£10,000	£20,000

To get it, you need to pay into a Stocks and Shares ISA with the amount you’ll want to earn on in your savings account by 30 September 2024. The amount in this account on 30 September 2024 will be your “match limit”— the amount Virgin Money will pay the higher rate on in your savings account.

Then, you need to open an E-Bond Exclusive savings account with the amount you want to save before 7 October 2024.

How much you’ll earn

You can choose if your money in the ISA will be invested into one of three funds – Cautious, Balanced and Adventurous, which is a diverse portfolio made up by investment managers. These cost 0.75% per year, so £5,000 invested will cost £37.50 over a year.

The money in savings will earn a total of 6.65% over the year, as long as both the money in the savings account and money in the Stocks and Shares ISA remain — this will earn you £312.50 in interest if you have £5,000 saved. If you have more in your savings than your ISA, you’ll only earn the higher rate on up to the same value.

Your investments aren’t guaranteed to rise — there have been years that they’ve fallen in value, and other years where they’ve performed particularly well — don’t invest any money you aren’t prepared to lose. General guidance is that you should be prepared to invest for at least five years. Here are some possible outcomes:

Your investments earn nothing

If your investments were to earn nothing over the year, you’d earn a total of £295 on the combined £10,000, or 2.95%.

	Savings	Investments	Total
Amount saved/invested	£5,000	£5,000	£10,000
Performance	+6.25%	0%	Essentially 2.95% on full amount
Fee	£0	£37.50	£37.50
Total	£312.50	-£37.50	£275

Your investments rise by 5%

If your investments were to rise by 5%, you’d earn £545 on the combined £10,000, or 5.45%.

	Savings	Investments	Total
Amount saved/invested	£5,000	£5,000	£10,000
Performance	+6.25%	+5%	Essentially 5.45% on full amount
Fee	£0	£37.50	£37.50
Total	£312.50	£212.50	£525

Your investments fall by 5%

If your investments were to fall by 5%, you’d earn £45 on the combined £10,000, or 0.45%

	Savings	Investments	Total
Amount saved/invested	£5,000	£5,000	£10,000
Performance	+6.25%	-5%	Essentially 2.95% on full amount
Fee	£0	£37.50	£37.50
Total	£312.50	-£287.50	£25

Is it worth it?

This is worth a look if you plan to invest this much already, but it’s likely not worth doing just for the savings rate if you’re nervous about investing, as you essentially lock away twice the amount for the sake of a savings rate on just half of that.

If you plan to take up this offer, you should keep in mind that these are ready-made portfolios, so you don’t choose individual investments and you pay a fee of 0.75% for the management of the account and investments.

You can transfer in your ISAs too, so if you already have a Stocks and Shares ISA elsewhere, it can be transferred to Virgin Money to get you access to the rate on your savings.

Raisin: £100 welcome offer (ended)

Until midday on 30 September 2024, Raisin is offering a £100 welcome bonus if you open a savings account and fund it with at least £10,000 by 15 October. You’ll need the code OFFER100 for this.

This applies to easy access accounts and notice accounts, as long as you keep the money in the account for at least 6 months; and fixed rate accounts with a term of 6 months or over. 

If you keep the money saved for just six months it’s the equivalent of an extra 2% on £10,000. The best option right now is a six-month fix of 5.06%, meaning you’d get £253 interest plus the £100 bonus. That £353 is the equivalent of 7.06% AER back.

For £10,000 in a 12 month fix, this is effectively 1% added to the account rate. The best option on Raisin right now is a 5% account, so you’ll get £500 plus £100, which is £600, or 6%

The more money deposited and longer you save will reduce this effective rate.

Knowing this will help you compare Raisin accounts to other rates (you can see them all here).

Within 14 days of meeting the eligibility criteria (so 6 and a half months from now), you’ll get the bonus. 

To get the offer:

1. Click on the below link, which will add the promo code OFFER100
2. Sign up for a new Raisin UK Account
3. Apply for and open a savings account
4. Put at least £10,000 into your new savings account by midday on 15 October 2024.

If you need to access the money within 6 months, you won’t get the bonus.

Chip: Up to £50 welcome offer & 4.01%

Sign up for savings app Chip via this link and use the codes below to earn a bonus once you’ve saved at least £5,000 in the Instant Access account for 180 days (six months).

The size of the bonus is dependent on how much you deposit. However, you have until the end of the month to reach the required amount.

• £10 bonus when you deposit £5,000 and enter the code CLEVER5K
• £30 bonus when you deposit £10,000 and enter the code CLEVER10K
• £40 bonus when you deposit £15,000 and enter the code CLEVER15K
• £50 bonus when you deposit £20,000 and enter the code CLEVER20K

Once you’ve downloaded the app and signed up, you can enter the promo code in the “Promos & Referrals” button via the profile tab. Then add the money.

If you need to access the cash you won’t get the bonus. It’s also worth comparing six month fix rates to see if these will earn you more in that period (though don’t forget to factor in the bonus).

The account, which is held with ClearBank, also pays an interest rate of 4.01%

Santander Edge Saver: Up to £20 cashback

The Santander Edge Saver currently pays 7% on up to £4,000 – but to get it you need to have a Santander Edge current 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 conjunction with the Santander offer so you’ll need to make a purchase elsewhere first.

Hargreaves Lansdown: £25 ISA welcome offer (ended)

New and existing customers of Active Savings account via Hargreaves Lansdown can get a £25 bonus by saving £10,000 in an ISA.

You need to open up a new Cash ISA and add £10,000 via debit card (which means transfers won’t count). You also then need to also open an Active Savings Account by 24 October 2025.

Existing HL customers cannot already have a Cash ISA with the provider.

The terms and conditions don’t state you have to keep the money in the ISA for any length of time, though to be safe it makes sense to keep it there until 24 October.

You can open any type of Cash ISA, whether easy access, notice or fixed. Remember before 6 April 2024 you can only pay new money into one Cash ISA in the financial year. But from 6 April you can open up and pay into more than one.

The offer ends 25 April 2024 and you must keep the account open until 25 October 2024, when the bonus will be added to you cash savings account (not the ISA).

Moneybox: £25 ISA bonus (ended)

Open up a new Cash or Stocks and Shares ISA via the Moneybox app and you could get a £25 bonus.

You’ll need to open the account and add £500 to it before the end of January to be eligible. You can either add new money or transfer over an existing one.

Since you can have one Cash ISA and one Stocks and Shares ISA in a financial year you could potentially open up both accounts and get £50 back. However, if you’ve already paid into an alternative ISA at a different provider since April 6 2023 you can’t add money to a new one. Here’s more on how ISAs work.

You’ll get your bonus after 30 days of completing the transfer/adding the money. You must keep your money in the account for the full 30 days.

The Cash ISA currently pays 5.09% though it’s a limited access account.

Ends 31 January 2024.