If you are one of the savvy savers who poured money into their Isas this time last year, you need to watch out.
Hundreds of thousands of savers started last year on an excellent footing by funnelling as much as £3billion into cash Isas – up from £1.7billion the previous January.
Savers were tempted by an abundance of eye-catching cash Isa deals and decided to pile in. Many moved their money from ordinary accounts to Isas to avoid a tax bill on their interest.
But several of these top rates are now being slashed. If you don’t stay on your toes, you could find that the excellent rate you grabbed at around 5pc in January last year now pays you around 1pc.
It’s important to check your rate regularly – but it’s imperative to do so after a year, as many accounts have 12-month bonuses. For example, Metro Bank paid a table-topping 5.11 pc on its Limited Edition Variable Rate Cash Isa last January. That has already fallen to 3.1pc during the year – a much higher cut than the 0.5 percentage point cut in base rate that we’ve seen since January 2024.
But things are set to get worse. The rate includes a bonus – and once you have been in the account for a year it disappears. Instead, you earn Metro Bank’s standard rate, which is only 1.15pc.
Don’t move the Isa yourself, ask the new provider, so you can avoid losing the tax-free interest status on your money, says Sylvia Morris
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Halifax Isa Bonus Saver, meanwhile, paid 4.1pc this time last year – not a top rate but a decent one. The rate has since fallen to 3.6pc, in line with the base rate.
After a year the bank moves your money into its Instant Isa Saver, which pays only 1.15pc on balances of up to £9,999, 1.25pc on those between £10,000 and £49,999, and 1.6 pc on £50,000 or more.
Nationwide Triple Access Online Isa, on sale this time last year at 4.25pc, is now down to 4.1pc.
After a year, your money is moved into an ordinary Instant Isa account with the building society which pays as little as 2.05pc. This lowly rate will fall even further to 1.8pc at the start of February.
If you were lured in by Marcus’s Cash Isa’s 4.75pc rate last year, log into your account and renew your bonus. Unusually for banks and building societies, it allows you to do this when the bonus runs out if it has another one on offer.
That 4.75pc rate, including the bonus, has now fallen to 4.3pc. Once your bonus ends you will earn 3.79 pc. You can boost it back up to 4.3pc in a few minutes simply by renewing your bonus.
If your one-year fixed rate Isa is coming to an end, search out the best rates on offer now (4.53pc from Shawbrook and 4.52pc from Virgin Money).
You could find that your current provider’s rate is not nearly as competitive as it once was.
One that springs to mind is Tesco Bank, which became part of Barclays in November. It offered a near-top 4.9pc last year and now offers just 4.05pc.
To switch your Isa, find an account that suits you and then ask the new provider to organise the move. Don’t do it yourself as you can lose the tax-free interest status on your money.
Although there are still great rates to be had, they are not typically as generous as they were in January last year, thanks to two cuts in the Bank of England base rate, taking it from 5.25pc to 4.75pc.
Cuts from providers have followed, the last of which are filtering through now.
Some have lowered their rates by more than the 0.5 percentage point fall in the base rate, others by less.
But there is still a wide range between the top-paying easy-access cash Isa (nudging 5pc) and the worst (1.15pc).
