Marcus and Saga move up to 1% on easy access
11/04/2022
Easy access rates are at 17 month highs as rates finally heading back to levels last seen when National Savings & Investment's Income Bonds were cut from 1.16% AER to 0.01% in November 2020. Marcus and Saga, having dropped out of our top 15 for the first time since it launched in September 2018, responded on Friday by increasing their rate to 1% - comprising 0.90% underlying rate at 0.10% 12 month bonus.
Aldermore topped easy access with its Double Access Saver paying 0.95% on 25th March but, just two weeks on, it's been beaten by six providers with two current account tied offers also paying 1% or more.
Zopa was the first to pay 1%, on its Smart Saver account, but subsequently Al Rayan Bank (1.01%), Tandem (1.10%) and Cynergy* (1.10%) have all gone past 1% with Marcus and Saga (which is also part of Goldman Sachs International Bank, like Marcus) making the move at the end of last week.
Virgin Money's M Saver and JP Morgan's digital offshoot bank, Chase, pay 1% and 1.50% respectively on easy access but their accounts both require savers to have a current account with them to access those rates, albeit neither require customers to switch their current to access those offers.
The good news for savers is that both the quantity and size of banks paying these rates mean we can see no reason why these rates won't be sustained and potentially improved on. Chase is owned by global behemoth JP Morgan, Marcus and Saga are backed by Goldman Sachs and Virgin is one of the largest banks outside the big four clearing banks. Therefore, should any of the newer entrants want to compete, it is likely they will have to at least compete with the rates on offer currently. In reality, it's likely that one of the likes of Aldermore, Atom, Investec or Shawbrook, who were competing at the top end of the market previously, will join the 1% plus club soon.
* Cynergy isn't included in our tables because of the high bonus element paid on it's account - 0.80% of the 1.10% rate is a bonus.