Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
More than a million UK current accounts with balances of more than £50,000 earn no interest, research has found, leaving customers heavily exposed to the corrosive effects of inflation.
There were 1.04mn accounts with balances of over £50,000 at the end of March 2026, containing a total of £116bn, according to analysis by savings account provider Spring. The average balance in these accounts was £111,537.
Derek Sprawling, head of money at Spring, said many savers were unlikely to realise how much they were losing out on by leaving sums of this size in an account paying zero interest. “Often, it comes down to convenience or habit, but with balances of £50,000 or more, the missed returns can be significant.”
Of the broader 91mn accounts in credit in March, some 79mn — or 87 per cent — paid no interest on balances, according to the research, which used figures from UK consumer data provider Caci.
Alongside the data analysis, a survey by Spring found that just over one-third (36 per cent) of people questioned kept their savings in an account provided by their main current account provider, while one-fifth (21 per cent) kept savings in the current account itself. The company said “a mix of habit, uncertainty and confusion” explained why individuals had left substantial sums in non-interest-bearing accounts.
The longer such sums lie idle, the greater their loss of purchasing power. Goods and services costing £100 in 2016 would now cost £140, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator. The latest annual CPI inflation figure is 2.8 per cent, but inflation hit 11.1 per cent in October 2022.
Savers can help offset the impact of inflation by agreeing to put their money away for a set period of time. The average easy-access savings rate today is 2.5 per cent, according to finance website Moneyfacts. But for a one-year fixed savings account, it is 4.23 per cent.
Cash Isa rates are barely any higher at 4.25 per cent for a one-year fixed account, but savers have been piling into these accounts in recent months ahead of a cut in the annual cash Isa allowance from £20,000 to £12,000 from April 2027. Interest on money held in cash Isas is not subject to tax.
Savers put £12bn into cash Isas in April this year, according to Bank of England data, the second-highest month for inflows on record. Charlene Young, senior pensions and savings expert at investment platform AJ Bell, said this year was the last in which under-65s could pay in up to £20,000 before their allowance is cut.
But she warned of the further impact of inflation. “We already had sticky inflation before the Iran conflict, and further surges are expected as the full impact of supply chain disruption and energy shocks filters through.”
