The number of people enquiring about and opening savings accounts surged in the spring, as they sought to secure a safe home for their money and to lock into favourable rates before interest rate cuts fed through to savings rates.
The good news is that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) can provide a safeguard adding a valuable level of reassurance for UK savers. For any money you hold in an account with a UK-authorised bank, building society or credit union that fails, the FSCS will compensate you:
The FSCS will automatically cover you; you do not need to take any action. You need to be on top of your cash balances because the cover applies to the total sum of money held, and because some banks share a banking licence, this will affect how much of your money is protected. So, if you hold over £85,000 / £170,000, it needs to be spread across different banks that don’t share a licence to benefit from the protection. If you hold multiple accounts with banks that share the same banking licence, anything you hold over £85,000 / £170,000 in aggregate will not be protected. Keep on top of your cash balances with our help.