Nationwide to cut interest rates on 37 savings accounts

Nationwide is cutting rates on 37 savings accounts after the Bank of England (BoE) lowered the base rate last month.

The building society is slashing rates by up to 0.25 percentage points from 10 February after ratesetters at the BoE reduced the base rate from 4% to 3.75% on 18 December.

Nationwide is reducing rates across a range of products, including its One-year Triple Access Online Saver, Flex Instant Saver and Smart Junior ISA Maturity.

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Customers with a Flex Regular Saver, FlexOne Saver, Start to Save, Smart Instant Access & SmartSaver or Smart Limited Access savings account will see no change from 10 February.

Tom Riley, director of group retail products at Nationwide, said: “Although we’ve made reductions to a number of savings accounts, our range continues to pay more than the market average, giving savers every reason to put their money with Nationwide.”

What Nationwide accounts are affected?

Nationwide will reduce rates by between 0.15 and 0.25 percentage points on 10 February.

The headline rate on its Help to Buy ISA will drop from 2.5% to 2.25%, while its Continue to Save product will be lowered from 1.75% to 1.5%.

Its Limited Access One-year Triple Access Online Saver will drop from 3.5% to 3.3% while its Branch Instant Access Maturity savings account will go down from 1.45% to 1.25%.

Here is a full breakdown of Nationwide savings accounts which are having their interest rates lowered in February:

Source: Nationwide

¹ Flex Saver / Flex ISA: £0-£9,999.99 from 1.25% to 1.15%; £10K-£49,999.99 from 1.35% to 1.20%; £50K+ from 1.45% to 1.25%.

² Instant Access: £0-£9,999.99 from 1.10% to 1.10%; £10K-£49,999.99 from 1.15% to 1.15%; £50K+ from 1.35% to 1.20%.

What can affected Nationwide customers do?

If you don’t have a major sense of loyalty, you could ditch your Nationwide savings account and sign up for one paying a higher rate elsewhere.

Sophie Barber, analyst at personal finance comparison site Finder, pointed out Chase’s easy access savings account currently pays 4.5% AER interest. It’s available to those opening a current account with the bank and allows for unlimited withdrawals.

If you haven’t maxed out your ISA allowance for the 2025/26 tax year, you could also open a cash ISA.

The £20,000 annual cash ISA allowance is being reduced to £12,000 for under-65s from April 2027 so now could be a good time to sign up for one, Barber said.

Trading212 is currently paying 4.33% AER on its easy access cash ISA, while Plum and Moneybox are both offering cash ISAs paying 4.32% AER.

You could also sign up for a one-year fixed rate cash ISA with Shawbrook Bank paying 4.14% AER and lock your cash away.

Anna Bowes, savings expert from financial planning firm The Private Office, said cash ISAs could be a better bet than taxable fixed-rate bonds, if you’re someone with a lot of cash stashed away.

At the time of writing, the top one-year fixed rate bond is paying 4.55% AER, whilst the top one-year fixed rate cash ISA is paying 4.14% tax-free/AER.

For those who don’t pay tax on their savings, the bond was “clearly the winner”, Bowes said, as it would provide an extra £41 of gross interest for each £10,000 deposited.

However, those who are paying tax on their savings interest would actually do better opting for the cash ISA, by her calculations, as no tax would be owed on savings made within the cash ISA.

“The rate on the bond would fall to 3.64% after basic rate tax had been deducted, so a basic rate taxpayer with a deposit of £20,000 would earn £828 in the cash ISA, but just £728 from the bond, if they had already used their personal savings allowance,” Bowes explained.

Bowes also said Nationwide customers considering ditching their savings accounts should factor in whether it could make them ineligible for a Fairer Share payment this year.

The building society has issued the £100 payments to eligible customers each year since 2023 but hasn’t confirmed whether another will be paid in 2026.

If the Fairer Share payment returns this year, it is likely the eligibility criteria will be similar to 2025, when you needed to have a qualifying current account and qualifying savings account, or a qualifying current account and qualifying mortgage, open with the building society.