Simple trick to get best buy one and two-year fixed-rate savings deals

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Savers can beat the top one, two, four and five-year fixed-rate deals available to all by opening an account with savings platform Raisin UK*.

It is once again offering new customers a £25 bonus when signing up for an account*.

Currently, the top one-year rate on the platform is with Investec Bank, which offers 5.15 per cent.

However, on a £10,000 balance – the minimum required to qualify for the bonus – that £25 bump brings it up to a best buy at 5.4 per cent.

Bonus boost: Raisin UK’s £25 sign up deal on deposits of £10,000 launches some of its fixed-rate accounts to the top of the best buy tables

Raisin’s top two-year rate on the platform is with Bank of Ceylon, which pays a rate of 4.95 per cent. On a £10,000 balance, the £25 bonus boosts the rate to a best buy at 5.06 per cent.

Fixed-rate savings accounts are dropping like a stone. Last month, rates scrutineer Moneyfacts Compare warned savers were facing the biggest monthly cut to fixed-rate accounts in more than a decade. 

One-year fixed-rate accounts have fallen rapidly from their peak of 6.2 per cent with NS&I’s showstopping Guaranteed Growth Bonds which launched in August last year. 

The deal was pulled in October, and no one-year bond has reached this high since. 

By nabbing the £25 sign up bonus with Raisin, you can get a table topping rate on one and two-year fixed-rate accounts. 

Andrew Hagger, founder of personal finance website MoneyComms, says: ‘On the one year Investec deal it makes sense to use Raisin to enhance your annual interest return – on £10,000 you’d earn £540 in interest instead of £515. 

‘Sign up on Raisin is fairly quick and painless, so no reason not to take advantage.’

An account must be funded with a minimum of £10,000 and the bonus will paid out 14 days afterwards.

People with large sums of above £85,000 will probably prefer to go direct with a savings provider as it doesn’t mean splitting the money between different banks to ensure all funds are protected.

Raisin says savings on its platforms are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), up to a maximum of £85,000.

As a savings platform, Raisin UK offers access to multiple savings products and banks. It allows savers to manage all their savings through a single online app-based account.

As for whether savings platforms are a safe place to park your savings, all of Raisin’s UK-based partners are part of the FSCS.

This means, if the provider fails, your money is protected up to the value of £85,000, the same as investing direct.

Savings platforms are good for both savers who want to spread their money around multiple providers, maximising FSCS protection, but without having to open a new account at each bank every time.

‘They can open a single account with Raisin, or the other platforms, and access a wealth of providers – some of whom offer deals better than those available direct and some with providers who aren’t accessible to ordinary savers.

Savers need to move quickly if they want to lock in one of these rates as it is only on offer until 29 February 2024.

To get the bonus, savers must follow this Raisin UK link and register with the bonus code ‘RAISIN2524’ before 29 Jan and fund their first savings account with £10,000 before 29 Feb 2024.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk