Millions of Brits are leaving billions of pounds languishing in current accounts that pay zero interest, meaning their cash is left static and is slowly being eroded by inflation.
Of the total 86.3 million current accounts in credit in November 2025, 87% did not receive a single penny in interest payments on cash held as a current account balance, new analysis by Spring, a part of Paragon Bank, has revealed.
The average cash sum being left static in UK current account balances was £4,300.
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If this £4,300 was instead put into the best savings account on the market at the moment, Chase’s easy-access saver with boosted rate, currently paying 4.5% interest, the average Brit could earn around £193 in interest over a year.
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As Chase’s saver is an easy-access savings account, the money can be accessed at a moment’s notice, meaning there is little downside to storing cash there instead of leaving it as a current account balance.
Moving cash that is languishing in a current account into a high interest savings account means it is protected against inflation, which fell to 3% in January.
Inflation slowly erodes the real-terms value of your money as prices rise faster than your cash savings. This can be counteracted by putting your money in an inflation-beating savings account that pays interest and grows your money at a rate above inflation.
Accounts with high balances not protected from low interest rates
The problem of keeping large amounts of cash in current accounts earning no interest is also prevalent among those with higher balances, Spring’s analysis shows.
Over 6.5 million current accounts that contain a balance of over £10,000 are earning absolutely zero interest.
The average balance earning no interest among these accounts containing over £10,000 is £35,429. If that money were put into Chase’s 4.5% saver for a year, it would grow by £1,594, assuming the rate doesn’t change.
Those with very high current account balances are falling victim to this too – 340,000 accounts that have balances of over £100,000 are also earning no interest.
Assuming they moved £100,000 into a savings account paying 4.5% interest, this balance would grow by £4,500 in just one year.
The scourge of low interest rates is not contained to just current account balances. An increasing number of people are earning interest of 1% or less in their savings accounts.
Separate analysis by Spring found that 22.4 million UK savings accounts, collectively containing £71.3 billion, are earning these paltry interest rates.
Derek Sprawling, head of money at Spring, said: “It’s staggering that over six and a half million current accounts hold over £10,000 and are earning absolutely nothing, with some people leaving six-figure sums languishing in accounts that erodes the real value of their money.
“This isn’t about people being careless as our research shows many are stuck in old habits or feel overwhelmed by the choices available. But in a higher-rate environment, doing nothing can be incredibly costly. Even small changes, like moving surplus cash into a competitive savings account, could make a meaningful difference to people’s finances.”
Savers with accounts paying low interest rates might want to move their money into accounts that pay much higher interest rates.
As mentioned above, the top savings account on the market at the moment is Chase’s saver with a boosted rate, which pays 4.5% interest for the first year, before dropping to 2.25% thereafter. The boosted rate is fixed but the underlying rate is variable, meaning it can change.
If you know you will not need to use some of your money for a set period of time, you could consider locking it away to grow in a fixed-term savings account.
