Martin Lewis said he was ‘gobsmacked’ about the best savings rate in the UK right now (Image: ITVX)
Martin Lewis has put the spotlight on a market-leading interest rate for savings which he says is ‘gobsmacking’.
The money maestro returned on the latest instalment of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on Tuesday, January 20 where he took viewers through the ‘fascinating’ scenario for savings right now which has led to a one-year fix currently being the best option available in the UK.
Speaking to his live ITV1 audience, Martin explained that easy access accounts usually offer the best rates, as they are variable and can be cut later, while fixes usually offer slightly less, but the trade-off is that you are guaranteed that rate for a set amount of time.
However, right now, the best savings rate on the market is a Marcus one-year fix at 4.55%, beating even the best easy access, from Chase, at 4.5%.
Martin said: “I want to go quite large on this because I think this is fascinating. This could well be the last over-4.5% savings fix that we see in 2026.
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“So it’s from Marcus which is part of giant American bank Goldman Sachs, it pays 4.55% and it’s a one-year fixed savings so the rate is guaranteed for a year.
“Now what is rare here is normally when you put your money in fixed savings you can’t get it, your money is locked away for a year, you can’t take it out.
“Here it isn’t totally locked away. You can close this account to withdraw your money early and you will lose up to 90 days’ worth of interest, which is a pretty good get out of jail free card, if you think you’re going to lock the money away but there’s just a tiny chance you might not be able to.
“And then this smashes the next-best-buy payer, which is Shawbrook at 4.27% for a one-year fix.
“And most surprisingly, it even beats the best easy access, which is Chase at 4.5%. And remember that’s variable so if the UK base rates drop, as they’re predicted to, that will drop too.
“They dropped to 3.75% last month and they are forecast to drop this year to 3.25-3% some time over the next year (they’re only forecast, not definite).
“But what is fascinating here and the reason I want to explain it to you, is when they set the rate of the new fixed savings, they are setting it based on predictions of future rates, whereas when they set a rate of easy access, because it moves with base rates it will move after the base rates have been cut. So when interest rates are dropping you would expect easy access to pay a lot more than fixes.
“But here we have a fix paying a lot more than easy access, so it’s an outlier.
“My honest guess, someone in head office in America said, we want you to buy more customers, and Goldman Sachs has big pockets, so they’re buying more customers with a total outlier rate of 4.55%, so in the future they can cross-sell other products.
“But hey what do we care? You need a fix, go grab it.”
Martin did caution that there are still some savings accounts or situations where you could get more depending on your circumstances, such as Help To Save accounts for those on benefits or low incomes and Cash ISAs for those who pay tax on their savings.
“But for a lump sum one-year fixed account, this is quite gobsmacking in the current environment,” he added.
Martin warned on the show that such accounts tend to release in batches at a time, but that it could be gone within a few days depending on how many sign up.
As of Friday afternoon, the Marcus website had updated to tell customers: “We’re sorry, but the 1 Year Fixed Rate Saver is currently unavailable,” but it is not yet clear if this means it has been discontinued permanently and Marcus has been contacted for comment.
The Martin Lewis Money Show Live from Tuesday, January 20 is still available to watch via ITVX.