Money App News: Co-op Pays £300 to Switch, Aug 2026

The cash side of your banking apps moved this fortnight while the headline base rate did not. Switching bonuses are at their most generous in months with one deadline about to pass, and the savings market has flipped so that locking money away now pays more than leaving it accessible.

Switching bonuses reach £300, and Barclays’ offer closes on 27 August

Which? updated its survey of current account switching offers on 6 August, and the Co-operative Bank leads at up to £300, £100 clear of the rest of the market, though that top figure depends on being an existing Co-operative Bank or Coventry Building Society customer, who get an extra £100 loyalty payment in November 2026. HSBC pays £220 through its app, NatWest and RBS £200 each, and Nationwide and First Direct £175. The one with a clock on it is Barclays, at £200, which closes on 27 August 2026 and requires at least two active direct debits plus a £2,000 deposit within 30 days.

The mechanics are the same across all of them and they are where people lose the money. Every offer runs through the Current Account Switch Service, which moves your direct debits and standing orders and redirects payments for you, and every offer has conditions attached: a minimum number of direct debits, a minimum deposit, sometimes a debit card spend, all within a window measured from the day you switch. Missing one condition forfeits the whole bonus. Two more things worth knowing: switching does not close your old account unless you tell CASS to, and each switch leaves a hard search on your credit file, so serial switching has a small cost. Our how to switch bank account guide walks the process, and best bank switch offers is where we track the current table. The comparison is at Which?.

Fixed bonds now beat easy access, at 5.00 per cent for three and five years

Moneyfacts’ weekly savings survey on 13 August reports the best easy access rate holding steady at 5.00 per cent AER from LemFi, which includes a 1.89 per cent bonus that falls away after six months, with Tembo Money’s HomeSaver and Cynergy Bank both at 4.55 per cent. On the fixed side, the best one-year bond fell for another consecutive week to 4.85 per cent, while two-year rose to 4.90 per cent and both three-year and five-year reached 5.00 per cent.

Two practical points. First, the bonus structure on the top easy access accounts is doing a lot of work: a rate that includes a six-month bonus is really two rates, and if you take one you need a diary reminder for the day it ends, because the underlying rate is usually well below the table-topper. Second, the shape of the fixed market has changed. Being paid more for a five-year lock than a one-year lock is the banks telling you they expect rates to be lower later, and it makes fixing worth considering for money you genuinely will not touch. What it does not change is where an emergency fund belongs, which is somewhere you can reach in a day. Our where to keep an emergency fund guide covers that split, best easy access savings apps compares the app-based accounts, and if you are near the personal savings allowance the savings interest tax calculator shows what you actually keep. The weekly figures are at Moneyfacts.

Bank Rate stays at 3.75 per cent until at least 17 September

Nothing changed on rates this fortnight, which is itself the news: the Monetary Policy Committee held Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent on 30 July and does not meet again until 17 September. In between, the 10-year gilt yield briefly went above 5 per cent on 11 August as oil prices rose, then fell back to about 4.94 per cent by 13 August.

For app savers, that gap matters more than the direction. Easy access rates track expectations rather than the base rate itself, which is why the top of the table has been drifting while Bank Rate sat still, and why the fixed-bond curve turned upward before any cut has actually happened. If you have been waiting for a rate decision before moving money, there is nothing to wait for until mid-September, and five weeks in an account paying 2 per cent instead of 4.5 per cent is a real cost on a real balance. Our best savings apps comparison and the regular saver calculator are the quick way to check whether your current pot is still competitive. Gilt yields are tracked at Trading Economics.