Methodology

Last checked 14 Oct 2026. ClearRates lists savings accounts and orders them by rate and terms. Whether a provider pays us never changes that order. This page is about the site, not financial advice.

Verified at source

We aim to list a rate only when we can match it to a specific product page from the provider, or an official product document, with the same name, eligibility, term and deposit limits. We call that verified at source. A daily automatic check reads the provider's own page again. A roundup is never the evidence for a rate.

A lead from another site is a starting point. Before a row is treated as publishable we match the product name, eligibility, term or notice, and the deposit limits, and we keep evidence that shows the rate next to that product. If those details do not match, it is a different product. Ambiguous leads stay in a review queue.

Sunny holding a sign that reads Verified at source. — A public row is meant to match a provider page, with the rate kept as evidence.

Published interest and expected profit

Ranked comparisons use a rate the provider publishes as interest or AER. An expected profit rate, such as some Sharia accounts, can still appear on its own product card when it has been checked. It does not sit in a ranked list that mixes the two kinds of number. Al Rayan’s expected profit rate is the current example: it stays off the conventional interest ranking.

The firm that holds the money

A card is meant to show the deposit-taker’s legal name, the country and regulator, and whether brands share one banking licence. A savings platform that places money with more than one bank is described as held across a panel of banks. We do not invent one bank name for a panel.

Checked rates

A public row is a checked rate that has the facts required for its account type. Accounts that are still missing a required fact stay off the public lists. Bank Rate on the site is the Bank of England series. It was held at 3.75% on 17 September 2026. The next decision is 5 November 2026. CPI on the chart is the ONS 12-month rate, 3.1% for the 12 months to August 2026. The next release is 21 October 2026. Gilt figures are the stored yield curve. Individual gilt prices are not listed.

What “best” means

The homepage cards are the highest AER among accounts that are fresh (verified within 48 hours), covered by the UK FSCS, open to a new customer, and not restricted to a region, for a balance of £5,000. The full table does not apply that FSCS cut. It sorts every matching account by the rate you picked, and it labels accounts that are not UK-protected.

A rate not verified for more than 48 hours is marked Stale and left out of those homepage cards. A rate not verified for more than 7 days stays in the table, shows the date it was last checked, and is named in the needs-check report.

Sunny holding a sign that reads 48 hours, the time after which a rate is marked stale. — A rate not checked within this time is marked stale and left off the homepage cards.

Amount, tiers and regular savers

An account is hidden when the amount is below the minimum or above the maximum deposit, maximum balance, or every balance tier. A confirmed “no limit” is not a cap. A balance-wide tier shows the rate for the band that contains the amount. A split rate, where each band applies only to that slice of the balance, shows the combined rate for the amount and names the bands. A regular saver with a low maximum balance drops out of a large lump-sum search.

Tax illustration

The tax control is optional. It estimates income tax on one year of gross interest for the amount you entered, after the Personal Savings Allowance (£1,000 basic, £500 higher, £0 additional) minus any other interest you say you have already earned. ISA interest is treated as tax-free. The starting-rate checkbox adds a flat £5,000 zero-rate band and does not taper it. This is not a tax calculation for your return.

FSCS

The UK deposit limit used in the copy and the sample groups is £120,000 per person, per authorised firm. That figure was checked on 2026-10-14 at https://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/banks-building-societies/. Brands that share a licence share one limit. The compare page says so when you pick two accounts in one group.

Gilts

Gilt rows are data only. There is no buy button and no broker link. The after-tax column taxes an approximate coupon yield and treats the rest of the gross redemption yield as untaxed. It is an illustration.

Corrections

Each account has a report form. The note is stored in a review queue. There is no admin screen in this build. A wrong rate should be corrected before it is treated as live, and a live rate that cannot be re-checked is marked stale rather than left looking current.

Fees

Paid links are labelled and use rel="sponsored nofollow". They are not a sort key. See how we make money.