Savings Rates Round-Up: Best Accounts This Week (March 2026)

The one account everyone should know about: Santander Edge Saver, 6.00% AER

Santander's Edge Saver pays 6.00% AER on balances up to £4,000. That's the highest easy-access rate on the UK market right now. Nothing comes close.

There's a catch you can do the maths on in thirty seconds. The Edge Saver requires a linked Edge current account, which costs £3 a month. At 6.00% on £4,000, you earn £240 in a year. The current account costs £36. Net gain: £204. That's still the best easy-access deal available, by a wide margin.

A few things to know. The 6.00% only applies to the first £4,000, so this isn't where you park £20,000 of savings. It's a high-yield pot for a specific chunk. The rate includes a 2.5% bonus that drops off after 12 months, so put a calendar reminder on the date you opened it. When the bonus expires, move.

Two other easy-access accounts are worth flagging in the same tier. Cahoot Sunny Day Saver pays 5.00% on up to £3,000 for a 12-month term, no existing relationship needed. Tembo pays 4.55% with a 12-month introductory bonus, app-based. Coventry Building Society pays 4.25% on a triple-access account, where you can withdraw up to three times per year. None of these are the Santander deal, but they're a tier above what your high street bank is paying.

Regular savers: where the 7%+ rates live

Regular savers are the curious cousin of the savings world. The headline rates are eye-watering — 7.5%, 7.0% — but you can only feed them £200 or £300 a month, and the money you put in during, say, October only earns interest for two months before the year ends. So your real return is closer to half the headline rate. That's still very good. Better than anything else available on new monthly deposits.

The four to know:

Principality Building Society pays 7.50% fixed on up to £200 a month for 6 months. It's open to anyone — no existing account, no hoops. Save the full £200 a month for the term and you'll have £1,200 and earn around £28 in interest. Not life-changing money. But it's 7.5% on cash that would otherwise sit at 1.5% somewhere, and for someone genuinely getting started with saving, that £28 feels different than it reads on a page.

First Direct pays 7.00% fixed on up to £300 a month for 12 months. Existing customers only. Run for the full year and you earn around £137.

The Co-operative Bank pays 7.00% variable on up to £250 a month, existing customers only. Variable means it can change.

Nationwide and Virgin Money both pay 6.50% variable on up to £250 a month, existing customers only.

If you don't already bank with First Direct or the Co-op, Principality is the obvious move. It's open to all, the rate is fixed, and the term is short enough that the discipline is achievable.

Cash ISAs: use the £20,000 while you still have it

The best easy-access cash ISA rate this week is 4.42% AER. The best fixed rate is 4.25%. Neither beats the Santander Edge Saver. So why does the ISA matter?

Because the interest is tax-free, permanently, and because the government has announced plans to cut the cash ISA allowance from £20,000 to £12,000 for under-65s from April 2027. The proposal is not yet law, but the direction is clear. The 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years are likely your last guaranteed chance to use the full £20,000 limit. After that, you may lose the ability to shelter that extra £8,000 a year from tax, forever.

A reality check on who this actually matters for. If you're a basic-rate taxpayer earning less than £1,000 in savings interest a year, your Personal Savings Allowance already covers you, and a high-rate savings account often beats the ISA on raw return. The ISA matters more for higher-rate taxpayers, who get only a £500 PSA, and for additional-rate taxpayers, who get nothing at all. For them, the ISA is not optional. MoneySavingExpert maintains a live best-buy cash ISA table updated daily if you want to track where the top rates are sitting.

The Zopa Biscuit thing

I want to spend a moment on this because it's the cleanest example of how the savings market works against the people using it.

Zopa's Biscuit regular saver was briefly one of the best deals on the market. 7.1% AER for 12 months, up to £300 a month. A diligent saver running the full term would have earned around £137 in interest.

Zopa has quietly cut the term to 6 months for new customers. The headline rate is still 7.1%. The maximum interest over the shorter term is now around £36. That's a 74% fall in actual return, with no fanfare and no change to the rate they advertise.

This is exactly the trick to watch for. The number on the marketing page stays the same. The fine print does the cutting. The lesson isn't to distrust Zopa specifically — they're not unusually bad here — it's to always calculate the pound figure, not the percentage. The percentage is for the advert. The pound figure is the truth.

If you opened a Biscuit account in the last three months expecting a 12-month term, log in and check what you actually got.

How to stack these accounts

The smartest move isn't picking one. It's running several at once.

Here's what I'd do with £8,000 of savings, today:

£4,000 into the Santander Edge Saver at 6.00%, sitting as the accessible emergency fund. £200 a month into the Principality regular saver at 7.50%, for fresh savings as they come in. The remaining lump sum into a Cash ISA at 4.42%, as the long-term tax-free home for money you won't touch.

All three accounts are FSCS-protected up to £85,000 per institution. Your money is safe. The only thing you're spending is half an hour of admin, once.

What the rest of 2026 probably looks like for savings rates

The Bank of England is expected to cut its base rate three or four times this year, ending at around 3.25–3.75%. Savings rates typically fall by about 1.1–1.25% for every 1% cut in base rate, and they often move before the announcement, not after.

What that means in practice: if you're holding £10,000 in an easy-access account at 4.8% today, your blended return over 2026 is more likely to be around 3.9% by the time rates have drifted down. If you locked the same £10,000 into a fixed-rate bond at 4.8% today, you'd earn the full amount regardless of what the Bank of England does. The difference is about £200.

That's not enormous, and the decision isn't only mathematical. Fixed bonds lock your money up. If you might need it, the lock matters more than the rate. For most people with £10,000 to £50,000 in cash, splitting the difference makes sense: 50–70% in a one-to-five-year fixed-bond ladder, 30–50% kept in easy-access for liquidity and emergencies.

If you have more than £100,000 in cash, the maths leans further toward locking in — 60–80% in fixed, the rest accessible. If you have under £5,000, the laddering complexity isn't worth it. Stay in competitive easy-access and switch providers when the bonuses expire.

There's also a personal question underneath the strategic one. The honest version of this is: which mistake would bother you more? Locking in 4.8% and watching rates rise? Or staying flexible and watching them collapse? Neither answer is wrong. The right strategy is the one you'll actually stick to without checking obsessively. Peace of mind has a return too.

What to do this week

If you do nothing else, do these three things:

Open the Santander Edge Saver and move up to £4,000 in. You can do this online in fifteen minutes. The £204 net annual return is the highest in the market.

If you have £200 a month to set aside, open a Principality regular saver. Open to everyone, no existing relationship needed, 7.50% fixed for six months.

If you haven't used your ISA this tax year, do so before 5 April. The £20,000 limit may not be there next year. Even if rates aren't headline-grabbing, using the allowance now protects future you from a tax change you can't reverse.

And if you've got a Zopa Biscuit account opened in the last three months, log in and check the term.

The banks aren't doing you a favour with these rates. They're competing for your deposits because their funding costs depend on attracting them. That dynamic ends the moment the Bank of England cuts deeply enough. The window is open right now. It won't be open in October.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best savings account in the UK right now? As of March 2026, the best easy-access rate is the Santander Edge Saver at 6.00% AER on balances up to £4,000. For regular monthly deposits, Principality Building Society pays 7.50% fixed for 6 months and is open to all. The best cash ISA easy-access rate is 4.42% AER.

Is the Santander Edge Saver worth the linked current account fee? Yes. £4,000 at 6.00% earns £240 a year. The Edge current account costs £36. Net return: £204, still the best easy-access deal on the market. The 2.5% bonus element expires after 12 months, so plan to switch when it drops.

What is the best regular saver if I don't bank with First Direct or the Co-op? Principality Building Society, 7.50% fixed for 6 months on up to £200 a month, open to everyone. It's the cleanest option for someone starting from scratch.

Cash ISA or savings account? Basic-rate taxpayers earning under £1,000 in interest a year are usually better off in a high-rate savings account — your Personal Savings Allowance covers the tax. Higher-rate taxpayers (£500 PSA) and additional-rate taxpayers (no PSA) need the ISA. With the £20,000 cash ISA allowance potentially being cut from April 2027, filling it now is sensible regardless.

Is my money safe? Yes, up to £85,000 per person per institution under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. If a bank fails, the FSCS pays you back automatically up to that limit.

What is happening to the cash ISA allowance in 2027? The government has proposed cutting the allowance from £20,000 to £12,000 for under-65s from April 2027. It is not yet law. If it passes, anyone who doesn't use their full £20,000 in 2026/27 will permanently lose the ability to shelter that extra £8,000.

What happened to the Zopa Biscuit account? Zopa shortened the term from 12 months to 6 months for new customers without changing the headline rate. Actual interest on £300/month dropped from around £137 to around £36 — a 74% fall in real returns. Check your terms if you opened one recently.

Will rates go down further in 2026? Almost certainly. The base rate is expected to land between 3.25% and 3.50% by year-end, and savings rates follow within weeks. Today's 6%+ easy-access deals are unlikely to survive past mid-year.

This article provides general information about UK savings accounts and rates as of March 2026. It is not personalised financial advice. Your best choice depends on your tax position, access needs, and goals. For free impartial guidance, visit MoneyHelper. For tailored advice, speak to an FCA-authorised independent financial adviser.