Savings Guide: ISAs take 'battering' - but best five-year bond launched for months

There are plenty of savings accounts to choose from, ranging from easy access to fixed-rate bonds. Savers now have more options to beat inflation. For this week's savings guide, Anna Bowes, personal finance expert from The Private Office, reviews the best options on the market...

Easy access

The top easy access rate on offer is still 5% AER - that's through the Chase saver, with a boosted rate of 2.25% for 12 months. Its underlying rate is variable, so if we see the base interest rate cut over the next few months, this could well fall.

Elsewhere, Atom Bank has reduced its Reward Saver Account from 4.75% to 4.60%. The new rate is still competitive, although the access is extremely restricted. If you make more than one withdrawal, the rate will dip to 2.5% in that month, but it will bounce back to the higher rate in the following month.

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Cahoot's Simple Saver is still offering the top unrestricted easy access account that doesn't require you to open a current account with them too, paying 4.55% AER. But after 12 months, any remaining funds in this account will be transferred to a Cahoot Savings Account, which currently pays only 1.20% AER.

For those who want a straightforward, easy access account, the Family Building Society could be your top choice, even though it's no longer in our top five. It's paying 4.52% AER and you can only withdraw up to £25,000 a day.

Fixed-rate bonds

The best one-year fixed rate on offer is still with financial app provider Prosper, via Al Rayan bank, which has a bond paying 4.6%.

This is a Sharia-compliant account, which means that rather than an interest rate, the rate offered is an Expected Profit Rate (EPR) - so it is not guaranteed.

That said, Al Rayan has always paid out the EPRs and if the worst should happen and it drops the rate, it would offer penalty-free access to the bond, paying the original promoted EPR up to that point.

Most importantly, the funds deposited are fully protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

GB Bank is still offering the top traditional fixed-rate bond but the rate has dropped slightly to 4.53%, from 4.58%.

The five-year table has seen the most activity this week, with the top rates now higher than they were a week ago.

Chetwood Bank launched a new bond paying 4.5%, taking it to the top of the table, pushing DF Capital into second place.

But Birmingham Bank wanted in on the action and launched a market-leading account paying 4.51%, which is the highest rate we've seen since the beginning of May.

Fixed-rate cash ISAs

The top one-year ISA is slightly higher than a week ago, after the introduction of a one-year cash ISA from Tembo paying 4.27%.

The top two-year ISA rates have taken the biggest battering, with Vanquis dropping the rate it's offering from 4.23% to 4.18%.

United Trust Bank has also dropped its rate from 4.20% to 4.16%.

Easy access cash ISAs

The freeze on activity in the easy access cash ISA table has continued, and all of our top five are the same as they have been since early July this year.