For those of us who look at best buy tables, the Monzo easy access ISA is fairly middling in terms of rate. But these tables are dominated by relatively small (at least in terms of name recognition) specialist savings banks and building societies. There will be a lot of people who won’t want to bother opening accounts at these places just for a savings account and for them the more relevant comparison is perhaps the Monzo ISA vs the bigger names or the high street bank they may already have some relationship with (maybe as their previous/other current account provider). Unfortunately the online comparison tables don’t easily allow restriction to the major banks. But I was curious enough to take a look myself.
The table below shows Easy Access Cash ISAs from banks included in the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) Personal Banking Service Quality survey (plus Monzo). This survey currently involves the 16 largest personal current account providers in GB and the 7 largest in NI.
https://insights.gfk.com/personal-banking-service-quality-great-britain-0
https://insights.gfk.com/personal-banking-service-quality-northern-ireland-0
Because I have focussed on Easy Access cash ISAs I have not included
*Fixed Term cash ISAs
*Limited access cash ISAs (those that limit the number of withdrawals you can make in a year).
*Notice period cash ISAs (those that require a notice period of more than 1 day to make a withdrawal).
| Bank | Worst Rate1 | Best Rate | Flexible?2 | Min opening deposit | Conditions to achieve best rate | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of Ireland UK | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A (No ISAs) |
| Bank of Scotland | 0.35% | 0.35% | Yes | £1 | N/A | Click Here |
| Barclays | 0.60% | 0.75% | Yes | £1 | Balance above £100k | Click Here |
| Clydesdale Bank | 0.60% | 0.90% | Yes | £10 | Balance above £40k | Click Here |
| Coventry Building Society | 1.45% | 1.45% | Yes | £1 | 0.3% Bonus until Aug 2020 | Click Here |
| Danske Bank | 0.50% | 1.00% | No | ? | Balance above £45k | Click Here |
| First Direct | 0.85% | 0.85% | No | £1 | N/A | Click Here |
| First Trust Bank | 0.75% | 1.00% | No | £50 | Balance above £35k | Click Here |
| Halifax | 0.60% | 0.60% | Yes | £1 | N/A | Click Here |
| HSBC | 0.55% | 0.85% | No | £1 | Premier account and rolling bonus period on new deposits | Click Here |
| Lloyds | 0.35% | 0.35% | Yes | £1 | N/A | Click Here |
| Metro Bank | 0.90% | 0.90% | Yes | £1 | N/A | Click Here |
| Monzo | 1.14% | 1.14% | Yes | £500 | N/A | Click Here |
| Nationwide | 0.50% | 1.10% | Yes | £1 | Nationwide current account or 15 years membership | Click Here |
| Natwest | 0.20% | 0.85% | No | £1 | Balance above £50k | Click Here |
| RBS | 0.35% | 0.85% | No | £1 | Balance above £25k | Click Here |
| Santander | 0.20% | 1.50% | No | £1 | 123 World or Select Account, and min opening deposit of £500. Includes a first year bonus | Click Here |
| The Co-operative bank | 0.56% | 0.75% | No | £1 | Online only | Click Here |
| TSB | 0.30% | 0.60% | Yes | £1 | 0.3% first year bonus | Click Here |
| Ulster Bank | 0.35% | 0.85% | No | £0 | Balance above £25k | Click Here |
| Yorkshire Bank | 0.60% | 0.90% | Yes | £10 | Balance above £40k | Click Here |
Compiled 11 April 2019
1 Several banks have a variety of interest rates depending on factors which vary from bank to bank. Examples include the type of current account you have (e.g. Standard, Fee-based, Premium) and the balance in your account. The worst and best rates from each bank are included in the table, but not rates in between.
2What does Flexible mean? Click here
Aside from the opening deposit requirement, the Monzo easy access ISA compares rather favourably to the banks who are the major providers of current accounts. In terms of rates it’s only beaten by Santander (which comes with certain conditions to achieve the best rate) and Coventry BS (who don’t seem to be offering current accounts anymore so I’m not sure why they are actually in the CMA list).
After doing this, an earlier criticism I made of of Monzo that I will reinforce is they really need to add information on the Flexible nature of the ISA to their webpage and the app. This information was available on the ISA product page at every bank listed in the table except Monzo. It shouldn’t require a request to customer service to get this information.