Best UK Savings Rates — July 2026 | 8% Regular Saver, 4.90% Fixed & More

In this episode we cover the best UK savings rates for July 2026 — including a new headline regular saver rate from Santander, fixed bonds pushing to 4.90%, and the latest switch bonuses with some deadlines coming up fast. We also cover the Halifax rebrand to Lloyds and what it means for existing customers.

In this episode:

• Switch offers up to £600, including HSBC standard at £220 — best accessible bonus this month
• Easy access accounts up to 5.00%, including Revolut, Tembo and a notable rate increase from Cahoot
• Cash ISAs — easy access up to 4.62% with Plum, fixed up to 4.60% with Tembo and Oak North
• Fixed rate bonds up to 4.90% with Marcus and Afin Bank
• Notice accounts — honest take on whether they're worth it right now
• Regular savers — why 8% isn't as simple as it sounds, and the accounts actually worth opening
• Halifax is being rebranded to Lloyds — what changes and what doesn't

All accounts are listed and updated daily at DepositScout.com. Affiliate links for selected accounts are in the show notes.

Join the new Banking Without Borders Discord community 

https://link.bankingwithoutborders.co.uk/discord

Check out our website DepositScout.com for the latest savings rates. 

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, welcome back to your savings rate update for July. So the base rate is still sitting at 3.75%. The Bank of England met on the 18th of June and held again, which was pretty much what everyone was expecting, and markets are still not pricing in a cut. If anything, the conversation has actually shifted towards how long will rates stay where they are rather than fall. For savers, the short version is this: rates are holding up really well, competition is strong, and there are some genuinely good deals across every category this month. We've got a new headline regular saver rate worth talking about, some strong switch bonuses with deadlines coming up, and the usual full rundown across easy access, ISA, fixed accounts, and notice accounts. And all the accounts we mentioned today are available on depositscout.com. There you can filter by type, see full details, use the savings and tax calculators, and check rate history graphs to see whether a provider has been stable or tends to cut quickly after launching. I'll put the link for depositscout.com in the description box below. So Jan, I just want to kick things off quickly and mention a big, big, big piece of news. So Halifax, who are owned by Lloyd's Banking Group, are being rebranded to Lloyd's. We're actually saying goodbye to the Halifax brand. And what this means for Halifax customers is that they're going to be switched over to the Lloyd's banking app, although their account numbers and sort codes are going to remain the same. Anyway, should we kick things off with switch offers?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, Johnny, excellent switch offers this month. Let's start with Barclays. Their Premier account offers 600 pounds if you switch to it. That's an offer that's available only until the 27th of August this year. Absolute top bonus on the market. The only issue is that this premier account is rather restrictive. I have to I believe you have to uh pay in at least um £100,000 per year or something, or you have to have a salary of £100,000 per year in order to qualify for this. And if you don't, or investments, and if you don't, HSBC is probably the best option. Their standard bank account switch bonus is £220, and it's really easy to get. You only have to have um £2,000 that you pay in. You have to set up two direct debits and then spend £500 from the account, and then you can take advantage of this £220 switch bonus, which is excellent. Also worth pointing out is that First Direct has an offer. If that's an account you're considering switching to, um good choice. That's a 200 pound bonus, which is available until the uh 15th July 2026. Um so if you're listening to this within the next two weeks, take advantage of this. It's also a really good account. Um, highly recommend it.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah, and when that bonus ends, it's gonna drop to 175 pounds. So act now to get an extra 25 pounds with First Direct. But do remember HSBC, First Direct, they're part of the same group, so you can't have a switch offer from both. I'd probably lean on HSBC so you can get an extra 20 pounds. And if you want to know all of the details for every single switch offer that's available right now in the UK, just check out depositscout.com forward slash switch hyphen offers. Link in the description box. We've got everything on there for you, just like easy access savings accounts, which are also available on Deposit Scout. And it's a super competitive month as always for these Revolute top the table. Quite clearly, Yan, this is a bit of a marketing play from them because the account is a little bit restrictive. Unfortunately, if you've held a Revolute Savings account previously, you're not gonna be able to get this 5% saver. You get 5% on savings up to £25,000. Any deposits beyond that will revert to the rate that your account has. So if you take out a Revolute standard account, you're only gonna get 2.9%. So above 25 grand, you're getting 2.9%. So you end up getting a blended rate essentially. So if you're saving, I don't know, like 100,000 pounds, that's not going to be that advantageous. And if you've not had like the Chase Saver for before, for example, Chase UK's easy access account, that could be better. Likewise for Tembo as well, these two are at the top. Tembo are actually second with 4.55%, but that is a a little bit restricted, that has a max deposit limit of £20,000. Whereas Chase UK allows you to deposit up to 3 million pounds, which arguably Yan makes them the best easy access account available right now. You're not getting Revolut's blended rate, you're not getting capped at 20k like Tembo. But of course, a lot of people have had Chase UK already, and the Kahoot Simple Saver could be quite interesting, particularly for anyone that's had Revolute Chase UK or isn't interested in Tembo. This is 4.32%, and they just increased it actually from 4.17%. And that's the highest that rate's been since the 31st of March 2026. It's actually trending upwards. And given how long it typically takes for them to increase a rate, I don't think you need to rush to lock this in. And ultimately, you're looking at a minimum balance of a pound, a maximum balance of half a million pounds. And look, a great option if you're after a big name because Santander owned Cahoe. So Jan, what about cash ices?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

So we have Plum with 4.62% at the top of the table. Um 100% flexible offers is available from only one pound of minimum deposit, and that's our absolute topic this month. One thing to keep in mind though, we also have a huge bonus component with disaccount that drops to 2.54% after 12 months, which is whew, that's um that's terrible, really. That's almost half. Um, not quite, but almost. Um so you really have to set up an alarm for 11 months and then spend the last month searching for a new account if you don't want to earn these 2.54% on your cash ISA. Um, if you're not into that, you don't like bonus components at all. Atombank offers 4.25%, which is also an insanely good account. No bonus component here, so you can you can yeah, live full with full peace of mind. Tembo 4.05%, which is also really good. Um XCB 4%. Um it's a flexible ISA and Moneybox also 4%. And that's an account that was it's down from 4.75% last month. And we've if we take a quick look at the rate history graph on depositscout.com for money box, we see it looks like a almost looks like a roller coaster. It goes up and down all the time. So I would not be surprised if that account um changes to be top of the list very, very soon again. And in case that happens, just keep an eye on it, subscribe to our rate alert so you'll be informed when that happens, and then you can sign up for that account because at 4.75% that will be the top of the list for easy access cash ISES. What I find fascinating, Johnny, is the fact that um yeah, these these rates are almost as high as the or they're actually higher than the fixed rate uh cash Icer rates currently available, right? And it should be the opposite way.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

You think. I mean, Plum's 4.62% is higher than any fixed rate cash Icer right now. The best one is 4.6%, which is Tembo. That has a minimum deposit of £500. Pretty compelling, quite a solid rate. After that, we have Oak North at 4.56%. They also have a two-year, so that that was a one-year. They also have a two-year at 4.55%. Tandem Bank have a two-year at 4.45%. And nationwide, if you're looking for a big name account, have a have a have a nicer at 4.41%. But if you're willing to stretch that a little bit longer, you can get up to 4.6%. So quite compelling, particularly if you're someone that's interested in nationwide, because it is a great bank.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Fixed rate bonds. Um, situation looks tiny bit different. You're actually being rewarded for committing your money for a longer period of time. My absolute favorite account is Marcus. They offer 4.9% on their one-year account, minimum deposit of only one pound, maximum deposit of 250,000 pounds. So it's it's also great for high balances. And um, one thing to keep in mind the interest is paid at maturity, which you know you might not think this matters, but if you look at it from a tax perspective, it kind of matters because if it all lands in one set tax year, um it will yeah, push you over uh your your personal savings allowance, and then you'll be taxed on this. And if it pays monthly, you might be there might be a way that you can, you know, um shift some some other savings income that you already have in order to not trigger this. Besides that, AFEN Bank five-year term, 4.9% as well. And you can choose whether you want your interest to be paid monthly or at maturity. MBA, hmm, might be still worth mentioning that account. Um, it's an account that's fully managed by phone, so in case you don't have internet at home, that's your account. One-year term, 4.75%. I believe that's down from 4.85% in the previous month. Would I recommend that account to anyone? No, probably not. Probably not, but unless you really want to manage your account by phone, which is not a desire I had previously, but you never know. Maybe there are people out there that that are into that.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah. Yeah. Notice accounts we've badmouthed in the past. Regular use viewers, regular listeners to the podcast or the interest rate recaps will know. Jan especially likes to argue the point of or what the point is of notice accounts. But I think this month, Jan, we may have one that seems quite compelling. I think we have an argument for one. I think we do. And that is Stream Bank. Stream Bank have a 90-day notice at 4.35% with a minimum deposit of a thousand pounds. And why we think this is compelling is well, if you've used Chase UK, if you've used Revolut and you're unable to open those accounts, and perhaps Tembo looks compelling, but you want to deposit more than £20,000. Well, Stream Bank were offering 4.35% up to £120,000. There's also the Stafford Building Society at 4.26%. That is a 180-day notice, so twice as long as Stream Bank and less interest on that account. Maybe worth mentioning, um, but it's all about Stream.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Uh let's move to regular savers, which are anything but regular this month. Extraordinary interest rates. We have Santander at the top of the list with 8%. Listen to that. 8%. Where do you earn 8% on your savings? I mean, it's literally the only account that's paying that much. Um, top of the market, exactly. You can deposit a maximum of 200 pounds per month. So this might not be for everyone. Um, but if you do that for 12 months, you'll earn 104 pounds on your 2400 deposit, which is yeah, pretty nice. And you should you should take advantage of that if you can, um, just to all earn these 8%. If you have 4,000 pounds right now, Santander offers the Edge Saver, which is also a really good account, that pays 6% on on a year. Um, and if you make them up, that's the the the best regular saver account in terms of total interest paid that you'll be getting. I believe if you you deposit these 4,000 pounds right now, earn six percent on one year, you'll be getting 240 pounds of interest.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Um that is correct, and then just the downside calculator on deposit scout.com to check that and then realize that the mass on it was super easy to do. But yeah, that is I did it in my head.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Exactly. Even though you need to send an edge current account, which costs, I believe, three pounds per month, um, it's still totally worth it because just make the mafia. Yeah, three pounds by twelve, that's 36. Deduct that from these 240 pounds of interest that you'll be receiving, um, you're still way up compared to the second best option, which is the Monmouthshire Building Society. They also offer six percent, but only on 500 pounds per month. So the total amount of interest you'll earn with that account is 195 pounds on six thousand pounds deposited. Hmm. What do we learn from that?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

He talked about the Santander Edge account fee and having to calculate that or factor that into the potential interest you can earn. But what about the value you can derive from the account itself? You can get 1% cash back.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

It's an excellent account.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Exactly. You got the 1% cash back on bills, direct debits, up to £10 per month. So you can get that back. You've got um great travel benefits, it's a great card for transacting internationally and withdrawing from ATMs. And of course, as well, not to forget, they've got a switch offer of £180. That makes it even more attractive. Wow. And if you want to take advantage of any of the accounts we've talked about today, they're all available on depositscout.com. Jan and I update the table every single day. And of course, if you do use Deposit Scout, please please jump in the comments, let us know your feedback. We'd love to hear what you think about it. And you can jump on the Discord as well. There's a link for the Discord in the description box, along with all of the providers we've talked about today that we have affiliate links for. You can use those to support the channel. And we'll see you in the next episode. Right, Jan?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

It's been a pleasure as always, and thanks everyone for listening. Goodbye.