Top interest rate - Trading 212
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
ISA |
SIPP |
 Trading 212
|
 |
£1 |
Yes |
No |
Interest rate: Investing app Trading 212 launched a cash ISA in May 2024. The current interest rate of 5.17% is the highest of any U.K. provider, making it one of the best cash ISAs in my view.
Account type: Trading 212 offers an easy-access cash ISA, meaning you can withdraw your money or transfer your account at any time. The ISA is also flexible—if you withdraw money and put it back in during the same tax year this won’t reduce your overall allowance.
Trading 212 does not offer fixed-rate cash ISAs, which means there is no guarantee the interest rate will remain at this high amount. The rate is likely to drop if the Bank of England reduces the U.K. base interest rate again.
Account features: Still, Trading 212’s cash ISA is currently the best-paying easy-access cash ISA available. It’s easy to open an account or to transfer a cash ISA from another provider. The Trading 212 app is great, making it easy to keep track of your money. I like the fact you can see your daily earnings through interest whenever you open the app. You can also view your account on the Trading 212 website. Some providers are app-only.
If you are saving for the long-term, then Trading 212’s stocks and shares ISA may be a better fit for you. Trading 212’s stocks and shares ISA pays 5.1% interest on any uninvested cash, so you can still earn interest on money not invested in the stock market. Explore more about its other offerings by reading my full review of Trading 212.
High interest rate - Plum
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
ISA |
SIPP |
 Plum
|
|
£1 |
Yes |
Yes |
Interest rate: Plum’s easy-access cash ISA offers a generous 4.92% interest, although this drops to 4.04% after 12 months. You can open an account with a £1 deposit, although if you have less than £100 in Plum’s cash ISA then the interest you’ll receive drops to 3%.
Account type: One point to note is that Plum’s cash ISA is not flexible, meaning withdrawals that are paid back in during the same tax year may not be allowed if you have already maxed out your £20,000 ISA allowance for the year.
Account features: Plum’s cash ISA accepts transfers in from other providers. However, you will get a lower interest rate of 4.04% rather than the top rate of 4.92%.
Best for ease of use - Hargreaves Lansdown
Interest rate: Hargreaves Lansdown's ISA options currently include an easy-access account with Zopa paying 4.4%, or a one-year fixed cash ISA with OakNorth Bank paying 4.25% interest. Bear in mind that Hargreaves Lansdown charges a commission to its banking partners, so this may mean a lower interest rate is offered than if you were to open an account with the provider directly.
Account type: Hargreaves Lansdown’s cash ISA is offered through its Active Savings Account. Hargreaves Lansdown has partnered with multiple banks and savings providers to offer a range of easy-access, fixed, or limited-access accounts.
The benefit of this is that you can hold accounts with various providers all through one account with Hargreaves Lansdown. This could be a great option if you already have an investment ISA with the broker.
Account features: You cannot transfer a cash ISA from another provider directly to the Hargreaves Lansdown cash ISA. However, you can transfer to their stocks and shares ISA first and then transfer into the cash ISA. Read more about all of its other offerings by visiting my comprehensive review of Hargreaves Lansdown.
Great app - Chip
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
ISA |
SIPP |
 Chip
|
 |
£1 |
Yes |
No |
Interest rate: Chip’s easy-access cash ISA pays 4.84%. It’s flexible so you don’t need to worry about losing any ISA allowance on withdrawals if the money is replaced in the same tax year.
You can open an account with just £1. However, you can only open an account through the Chip app, and not online through the web.
Account features: There are no limits on withdrawals and you won’t get a reduced interest rate for accessing your money – unlike Plum which reduces the interest rate to 3% after four withdrawals.
One downside of the Chip cash ISA used to be that it didn’t allow transfers in – meaning you couldn’t move funds from another ISA provider into your Chip account. But this has now changed and Chip accepts transfers from cash ISAs held with other providers. You’ll need to transfer the full balance though as Chip doesn’t allow partial ISA transfers.
Overall, Chip’s offer is competitive, making a Chip cash ISA a good option. The Chip app is great to use and Chip also offers other savings and investment accounts.
Access to both easy-access and fixed accounts - Zopa
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
ISA |
SIPP |
 Zopa
|
|
£1 |
Yes |
No |
Interest rate: Zopa’s Smart ISA offers interest of 4.8% for the first year, dropping to 4.3% after you’ve had the account for 12 months.
Account type: The Zopa Smart ISA is flexible, meaning you can take money out as needed and put it back without affecting your overall £20,000 annual ISA allowance. Another bonus is that Zopa’s cash ISA allows transfers in, although you have to transfer a minimum of £500.
Account features: A great feature about Zopa is that it offers access to both easy-access and fixed rate deals within one account. You can lock part of your money away for up to five years to benefit from a guaranteed interest rate. The rate for a five-year fix is currently 3.9% a year through Zopa or 4.6% for one-year.
Wide range of options - Virgin Money
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
ISA |
SIPP |
 Virgin Money
|
 |
£1 |
Yes |
No |
Interest rate: The interest rate offered on Virgin Money's easy-access cash ISA is a competitive 4.5%, which accrues on a daily basis and is paid to you on the last working day of December each year or when you close your account.
Account types: Virgin Money offers a good range of different cash ISA options, offering easy-access, fixed or defined access accounts.
Account features: The account can be opened online through the website or in one of Virgin Money’s stores, and managed online, in the store, or over the phone.
A downside is that you need a current account with Virgin Money to access this ISA. If you don’t have a current account, you can still open a defined access cash ISA. This pays interest of 4.25%, which drops to 2% if you make more than three withdrawals.
FAQs
Can I make withdrawals from a cash ISA?
Yes, you can make withdrawals from a cash ISA any time you like if you have an easy-access cash ISA.
If you have a fixed cash ISA, you can only withdraw money after a specified time or you’ll pay a penalty. Fixed-rate cash ISAs are where you agree to lock your money in an account for typically one, two, or five years in exchange for a guaranteed interest rate across that time.
What is the difference between a cash ISA and a savings account?
The difference is that interest earned in a cash ISA is tax-free. You will not have to worry about income tax.
With an ordinary savings account, you can earn up to £1,000 a year in interest before 20% income tax is due if you are a basic-rate taxpayer. This is known as the Personal Savings Allowance. Higher-rate taxpayers earning more than £50,270 a year can earn up to £500 in interest before income tax of 40% is due on interest above this. Additional rate taxpayers don’t get any Personal Savings Allowance so they will be paying 45% tax on interest earned from savings not held in an ISA.
ISAs should therefore be prioritised if you have a high level of cash savings and could go over the Personal Savings Allowance. You can pay up to £20,000 into ISAs each tax year.
How many cash ISAs can I have?
You can have as many as you would like. It used to be the case that you could only pay into one cash ISA each tax year, but new rules as of April 2024 mean you can now pay into multiple ISAs of the same type each year.
Can I have two different cash ISAs with different providers?
Yes, you can hold and pay into cash ISAs with different providers. The only limitation is that you can not go over the £20,000 annual ISA allowance overall.
Can you transfer stocks and shares to a cash ISA?
Yes, you can transfer a stocks and shares ISA to a cash ISA if you want to reduce your exposure to the stock market. To keep the money in the ISA wrapper, request a transfer rather than withdrawing money from your account and then paying it into a cash ISA.
To do so, go to the website of the cash ISA provider you want and fill in a transfer form. You can transfer all or only part of your savings. You can also transfer from stocks and shares ISA to a cash ISA with the same provider if they offer both – such as Hargreaves Lansdown. Your investments will have to be sold before the transfer, so the process can take a few weeks.
How much can I put into a cash ISA?
There are no overall limits on how much can be held in cash ISAs. However, there is a cap of £20,000 that can be paid into ISAs each year.
Are cash ISAs tax-free?
Yes, cash ISAs are completely tax-free which is their main appeal. Do be aware that there is always the chance that tax rules may change in the future.
When is the best time to open a cash ISA?
Any time that works for you! Ideally make sure you have maxed out your ISA savings as much as you can before the end of the tax year (5 April) as any unused allowance can’t be carried over to the next tax year.
Cash ISAs are typically for those who may need access to savings within the next few years and who don’t want to risk stock market uncertainty. If you’re saving for the long-term – five years plus – a stocks and shares ISA may be more suitable as there is typically a better chance of growth outpacing inflation.
Why you should trust us
Elizabeth Anderson has been a financial journalist for more than a decade. She’s written for major national newspapers, contributed to corporate reports and research, and reviewed dozens of share dealing platforms, SIPP providers, ISAs, and brokerage firms. Elizabeth started her career at Bloomberg and has worked for the BBC, The Telegraph, The Times and the i newspaper. She is passionate about helping people understand finance and investing. A keen investor herself, Elizabeth invests through general dealing accounts, ISAs and several SIPPs.
Steven Hatzakis is a well-known finance writer with 25+ years of experience in the foreign exchange and financial markets. He is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for Reink Media Group, leading research efforts for ForexBrokers.com since 2016. He has served as a registered commodity futures representative for domestic and internationally-regulated brokerages. Steven holds a Series III license in the US as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
All content on UK.StockBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the U.K. brokerage industry.
Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Click here to learn more about how we test.
How we tested
At UK.StockBrokers.com, our online broker reviews are based on our collected quantitative data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research and collect hundreds of data points while testing brokerage firms, share dealing platforms, SIPP providers, ISA providers, and other financial service providers relevant to U.K. investors.
Mobile testing is conducted on modern devices that run the most up-to-date operating systems available:
- For Apple, we use MacBook Pro laptops running macOS 14.5, and the iPhone 15 running iOS 17.6.1
- For Android, we use the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra devices running Android OS 14.
All websites and web-based platforms are tested using the latest version of the Google Chrome browser.
Our researchers thoroughly test a wide range of key features, such as the availability and quality of trading platforms for web, desktop, and mobile, charting, real-time and streaming quotes, and educational resources – among other important variables. We also evaluate the overall design of the mobile experience, and look for a fluid user experience moving between mobile and desktop platforms.
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