Top 20 savings accounts and ISAs

Here are the top 20 places to put your savings, from across the entire market.

Every month we research various financial products to produce pieces with such titles as 'The top five thingamajigs', where a thingamajig might be a high-interest current account, a flexible personal loan or whatever. These pieces are boooring to write, and I'm sure they're boring to read if you're not looking for a thingamajig at the time you read the article. If you are looking for one at that time though, they're darn useful, which is why I feel they're worth writing, and why I spend a lot of time ensuring I've found the very best products.

Today I'm not giving you five, ten or 15, but 20 different savings accounts and ISAs. I'll give you the top few in seven different categories, which should suit the majority of savers.

Top three easy-access savings accounts

I'll start with the most popular: the easy-access savings account. Interest rates are variable, so all of these the rates can go down (or up) at any time. I've excluded accounts with catches, including those that penalise you for making four or less withdrawals in a year. No top easy-access accounts have good guarantees on the interest rate at present:

Account	AER	Min investment	Small print
ING Direct Savings Account	2.75%	£1	Nothing particularly disturbing
Akbank AK Savings Account	2.75%	£1	Nothing particularly disturbing
Birmingham Midshires Access Reward Account	2.75%	£1,000	You lose interest if you make more than five or more withdrawals in year one

Top three easy-access ISAs that don't allow transfers in

In this list, I give you the top three such accounts that don't allow you to transfer money in from other ISAs: these are for new money (up to £3,600) only. Again, I've excluded accounts with poor small print, e.g. those that force you to take out rubbish products simultaneously:

Account	Interest (AER)
Barclays Golden ISA	3.61%
NatWest/RBS Cash ISA Plus	3.51%
National Counties Guaranteed Cash ISA	3.26%

These ISAs have the same features as the easy-access savings accounts mentioned above, except they're tax free. There's no particularly disturbing small print on any of them, but you should always read it as it does affect you to varying degrees depending on your circumstances.

Top three easy-access ISAs that allow transfers in

This is exactly like the last table, except these tax-free accounts allow you to transfer money in from old ISAs:

Account	Interest (AER)	Small print
NatWest e-ISA	3.51%	Interest rate is lower at 3.25% if you invest less than £10,000
First Direct cash e-ISA	3.1%	Unusually, this easy-access ISA has a fixed interest rate (till 31/05/10)
Marks & Spencer Advantage Cash ISA	3.02%	Minimum £100

Top three regular-savings accounts

Regular-savings accounts are for people who want to drip money into savings for 12 months. This usually suits people who don't have a lump sum of money but have something spare at the end of the month. These offer a fixed rate of interest. As usual, I've excluded accounts heavy on small-print nasties, such as those that make you simultaneously use linked, poor-quality current accounts:

Account	Fixed AER	Investment limits	Small print
Barclays Monthly Savings Account	6%/	£20-£250 per month	Branch-only access for non-current account holders. Early withdrawals allowed, but you earn 3.03% AER in months where you make withdrawals
Principality Building Society One Year Regular Saver Bond	4%/	£20-£500 per month	Huge loss of interest on early withdrawals
Halifax Regular Saver	4%	£20-£500 per month	An early withdrawal results in huge loss of interest and account closure. You'll have to open a 2nd uncompetitive savings account, but you could put just £1 into Halifax's Web Saver

That wasn't a misprint: there's a huge gap of 2% interest between the top-paying account and the next.

Top two regular saver ISAs

These are the same as the previous table, except they're tax-free. There are only two on the market. I found three more that are masquerading as regular savers, but in reality they are just easy-access ISAs with worse interest rates, and terms and conditions. Here are the real ones:

Account

Fixed interest (AER)

Investment limits

Small print

First Direct Regular Saver ISA

£25-£300 per month

You must have a First Direct current account, but it doesn't have to be your main account so you can leave your other direct debits & standing orders with your own bank.
Partial withdrawals not allowed; full withdrawal allowed but is penalised by massive loss of interest

Britannia Building Society Regular Saver Cash ISA

3.1%

£20-£300 per month

Branch- and post-access only.

One penalty-free withdrawal allowed

Top three fixed-rate savings accounts

There are plenty of these so, unlike those pesky regular saver ISAs, they don't spoil the symmetry of my article. These are for people who have lump sums that are to be locked away for 12 months at the best fixed rate of interest possible:

Account	Fixed AER	Min investment	Small print
Bank of Ireland	4.1%*	£10,000	Branch only. No withdrawals allowed
ICICI Bank HiSave Fixed Rate Account (1 Year Bond)	3.9%	£1,000	No withdrawals allowed
AA 1 Year Fixed Rate Savings Account	3.74%	£5,000	Postal account only. No withdrawals allowed

* according to Moneyfacts.

You can get accounts that fix for longer than a year, but those pay just a little more. It's not worth tying your money in for longer in return for such a little extra reward, so I cannot recommend them.

Top three fixed-rate ISAs

These are the same as the last table, except they're tax free:

Account	Fixed interest (AER)	Investment limits	Small print
Northern Rock Fixed Rate Cash ISA Issue 106	3.15%	£500+	Charge equivalent to 60 days' loss of interest on early withdrawals. Transfers-in allowed
Birmingham Midshires Internet 1 Year Fixed Rate ISA	3.15%	£500-£3,600	Withdrawals subject to 90 days loss of interest. New money only
Halifax	3.1%	£10,000+	Partial withdrawals not permitted. Early closure allowed with a charge equivalent to 180 days' interest. You must transfer ISA money in to get this interest rate

If you don't like the top two in this last table, consider First Direct's cash e-ISA instead of Halifax's. (See my third table for details.) There are quite a few fixed-rate cash ISAs that just missed this last table, as they're all offering 3%. Feel free to search for them and read the small print yourselves. Personally, I'm pooped!

> Compare savings accounts and cash ISAs through lovemoney.com

All data from lovemoney.com, Moneyfacts, Moneysupermarket, the banks' own websites, and my own meanderings around the Web.