Close Brothers Savings: £10,000 Minimum, 4.85% Ceiling

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Every Close Brothers savings product starts at £10,000. There is no £1 taster account, no £25 regular saver, nothing for a child. Cynergy and Santander open at £1 and Aldermore from £25 — Close Brothers has drawn its line an order of magnitude higher, and that single rule defines the brand as a consolidation home for larger balances rather than a place to start saving.

What you get for clearing the bar is pricing without gimmicks. The Easy Access account pays 3.85% AER variable with unlimited withdrawals and no bonus attached. Cynergy's 4.15% only beats it because 2.00 percentage points of that number expire after twelve months, leaving a published 2.15% underneath, and Cynergy has closed that account to new customers anyway. At the fixed end, the five-year bond pays 5.34% AER, the three-year 5.18% and the two-year 5.16% — the best fixed rates in this comparison.

The complication is upstream. Close Brothers Group has been provisioning heavily for motor finance redress, raising its provision to £300m from £165m ahead of the FCA scheme, with further provisions since. Deposits stay FSCS-protected, but no other provider here carries an active, quantified conduct liability of that scale.

The £10,000 floor

Minimum £10,000, maximum £2,000,000 — on every product, easy access and fixed alike. There is no starter tier below it. The variable accounts do now publish a sub-£10,000 rate rather than simply refusing the balance, but it is 1.00% AER: if your easy access balance slips under the floor, the rate falls from 3.85% to 1.00%, which is a penalty rather than a tier.

That rules Close Brothers out for most first-time savers and for anyone building a pot from monthly income; there is no regular saver, and no products for under-18s. It also means you cannot split a modest sum across two Close Brothers accounts to blend liquidity and rate — £20,000 buys you exactly two products, and only if you commit £10,000 to each.

For a saver with £50,000 or £150,000, the calculation inverts. A high floor is no obstacle, the rates are consistently near the top of the market, and dealing with one provider across easy access, notice and fixed reduces the admin. Bear in mind the FSCS limit of £120,000 per eligible person (£240,000 joint) sits well below the £2,000,000 account maximum — anything above the limit is unprotected, so genuinely large balances still need splitting across licences. Close Brothers Savings does not share its licence with another retail savings brand.

3.85% easy access with nothing hidden in it

The Easy Access account pays 3.85% AER variable with unlimited withdrawals. There is no bonus period, no withdrawal counter, no monthly funding requirement and no linked current account.

Set that against the alternatives in this cluster. Cynergy's 4.15% is 2.00 points of bonus over a published underlying rate of 2.15%, and is closed to new customers. Santander's Easy Access Saver is 2.00%. Nationwide's Instant Access Saver is 1.10–1.20%. Aldermore's Easy Access is 2.25%. Judged on what the rate will still be in fourteen months, and with no withdrawal counter attached, 3.85% is the strongest unconditional easy access offer here — provided the balance stays above £10,000.

The 95 Day Notice account pays 4.10% AER variable (again 1.00% below £10,000) and accepts top-ups at any time — a sensible middle rung for money you can plan a quarter ahead for, and one of the few Close Brothers products that will take additional deposits after opening.

Bonds to 5.34%, and a ten-day window to fund them

Fixed Rate Bonds:

• 5 years — 5.34% AER
• 3 years — 5.18% AER
• 2 years — 5.16% AER

The one-year bond has gone: bond terms are now two, three and five years only, so the shortest fixed commitment Close Brothers will take is two years. Fixed Rate Cash ISAs still run over one, two, three and five years and pay 5.12% at five years, 5.11% at three and 5.05% at two. The one-year ISA is the one figure we will not print: Close Brothers’ own ISA hub table says 4.91% and its own one-year product page says 4.84%, and until the two agree there is no single published rate to quote.

The funding mechanics are more forgiving than Cynergy's in one respect and stricter in another. You have a 10-day window to fund a bond or ISA after opening (Cynergy allows 14), but the money can arrive in multiple transfers rather than a single payment — useful if you are drawing funds from several places or working around bank transfer limits. Once the window closes, bonds accept no further deposits and no withdrawals at all until maturity.

Two ISA restrictions deserve attention. Early exit from a fixed cash ISA costs 90 days' interest at one year, 150 at two, 270 at three and 365 at five, and a Fixed Rate Cash ISA cannot be topped up in subsequent tax years — each year's allowance needs a fresh account.

Interest paid away, not rolled up

Close Brothers pays fixed bond interest annually and/or at maturity to a nominated account, and does not compound it. That is a genuine split in the market and it cuts both ways. Note the limit of the rule: the easy access, notice and cash ISA accounts all pay interest into the account itself and do compound it, so this applies to the bonds and nothing else.

For someone living off their savings — a retiree drawing income, or anyone wanting the interest out of the account and into spending money — this is exactly right, and it is something Cynergy cannot do at all, since its bond interest is paid into the bond and cannot be paid away.

For an accumulator, uncompounded interest is a real cost over a five-year term. If you intend to reinvest, you have to do it manually each year and at whatever rate is available then, rather than earning the contracted rate on the growing balance. Factor that in before comparing a Close Brothers five-year bond with a compounding alternative.

The motor finance question at group level

This is the standout negative and it belongs in any honest assessment. Close Brothers Group raised its motor finance redress provision to £300m from £165m ahead of the FCA's redress scheme, covering discretionary commission arrangements dating back to 2007, and has taken further provisions since as disclosed in its half-year results.

What this does not mean: your deposits are unprotected. Savings remain covered by the FSCS up to £120,000 per eligible person. What it does mean is that, alone among the five providers here, Close Brothers carries an active and quantified conduct-redress liability at group level, and savers who prefer not to hold money with a business in that position have a legitimate reason to look elsewhere.

The complaint numbers reflect the same issue rather than the savings business. The Financial Ombudsman Service recorded 671 new cases against Close Brothers Limited between 1 July 2025 and 31 March 2026 — around nine times Aldermore's volume and eight times Cynergy's — though the great majority relate to motor finance rather than to savings accounts. Uphold percentages are unverified.

On recognition, Close Brothers won two categories at the Moneyfacts Compare Awards 2026 on 9 February 2026: Fixed Rate Savings Provider of the Year and ISA Provider of the Year — the only provider-level Moneyfacts wins in this group. It is not a Which? Recommended Provider and does not appear on the Defaqto Banking Award 2026 list.

Figures were taken from each provider's own published terms on 7 October 2026. Variable rates can change at any time — confirm the current rate with the provider before applying.