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Goldman Sachs launches market-leading easy access account

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
27/09/2018

US banking giant Goldman Sachs is jumping headfirst into the British savings market with a new easy access account launching today that’s shot straight to the top of the best buy tables.

The account is launching under the bank’s Marcus brand and pays an interest rate of 1.5%, pipping the 1.41% paid by previous market leader Yorkshire Building Society.

This is the highest easy access rate seen since March 2016, according to the experts at Savings Champion.

Savers can deposit between £1 and £250,000 and withdraw their money as many times as they like, with no fees or charges. The interest rate includes a 12 month bonus rate of 0.15% and the account can only be opened and managed online.

Marcus may be an unfamiliar name to most UK savers but it has been around in the US since 2016 offering personal loans and savings accounts. It’s reportedly attracted more than £16bn in deposits.

Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at investment platform, AJ Bell said: “Marcus occupies a middle ground between the high-street banks and the new, digital-only start-ups. The challenger bank will appear much like a start-up, with accounts only available online, but it has the backing of global investment bank Goldman Sachs.

“Savers have been reluctant to move from well-known, high-street brands to unheard of start-ups, so this may offer an appealing alternative.”

Savers who have money languishing in poor paying easy access accounts paying as little as 0.15% are being urged to switch to better deals.

Anna Bowes, co-founder of Savings Champion, said: “By moving from some of the lowest paying accounts with the likes of HSBC, to a top-paying account such as the new account from Marcus, you can get up to 10 times more interest in a year. On a deposit of £85,000, that is the difference between earning either £127.50 a year or £1,275 a year.

“By completing an application, which might take you half an hour, you can get an additional £1,147.50 a year.

“If you were to base this figure on an hourly rate for the time it took you to make the switch, you would be hitting £2,295 an hour. Now, if someone offered me that kind of wage, I would snap it up, so there is a very good reason to switch to a better account.”

To open a Marcus savings account, visit www.marcus.co.uk.