Marcus to cut its easy-access rate

The Marcus account, operated by investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, had consistently offered one of the top easy-access rates since its launch in September 2018 – until it was closed to new UK customers earlier this year. Now, existing customers will see their underlying interest rate fall from 1.05% AER to 0.7% AER.

The news comes the same week NS&I announced it'll be slashing rates on its accounts from November, and TSB revealed it'll stop paying interest on its popular Classic Plus current account in December.

See our Top Savings Accounts guide for more info on the best rates.

How will the Marcus changes affect me?

If you have a Marcus easy-access account, your underlying interest rate will drop from 1.05% to 0.7% on Monday 12 October.

However, any fixed bonus you have will remain in place until it expires 12 months after you took out the account or last renewed the bonus – so the overall interest you earn may be more than that underlying rate.

To illustrate this, here's how existing customers will be affected – their current rate will depend on when they took out their account or last renewed their bonus:

You can check whether you've got an active fixed bonus – and when this will expire – by logging in to your Marcus account and clicking 'View' next to the account name. You'll see any bonus details on the right-hand side (or towards the middle if you're using a mobile).

Should I switch?

You should weigh up carefully whether to ditch and switch after your rate drops in October.

For context, the top easy-access account at the moment is from Coventry Building Society, which pays 1.1% and allows two penalty-free withdrawals a year. The market is changing all the time though, so:

• If you have a Marcus account with a 0.1% fixed bonus, check the top-paying accounts on Monday 12 October to see if you can get a better deal. Based on current rates, there could be a small gain from switching to a top account, but things are moving fast and this could have changed by then.

• If you have a Marcus account without a fixed bonus, you're more likely to be better off switching, though again, this could change by Monday 12 October depending on what happens to savings rates.

It's also worth considering a fixed-rate savings account – these pay more and offer added certainty, but give you less flexibility with withdrawals. See Top Savings for more info and our current top picks.