Savings accounts available through Hargreaves Lansdown, plus guides and switch offers

Who they are

Hargreaves Lansdown was founded in 1981 by Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown, and has grown into the UK's biggest investment platform, servicing around 2 million customers with approximately £172 billion in assets under management. Most people know the name from pensions and stocks and shares ISAs, but HL also runs a savings marketplace called Active Savings.

In 2018 HL launched Active Savings to make it easier for consumers to shop around and take advantage of the best savings account rates using a single online hub. The service has since become an industry leader, winning "Best Savings Platform" at the 2024 and 2025 Good Money Guide Awards. In a major development, Hargreaves Lansdown was acquired by a consortium of private equity firms - CVC, Nordic Capital, and Platinum Ivy - with the acquisition completed and the company delisted from the London Stock Exchange on March 25, 2025.

Savings accounts

Active Savings is a deposit marketplace, not a bank. It lets you choose between savings accounts offered by other banks that partner with Hargreaves Lansdown, all managed through one login. This matters for FSCS purposes: each banking partner has FSCS cover up to £120,000, meaning that if the bank or building society holding your funds goes bust, the FSCS will compensate you up to that limit. HL itself is not the deposit-taker.

The accounts currently listed on DepositScout include an instant-access Easy Access account at 3.95% AER (variable, minimum £1), an HL Cash ISA at 4.52% AER (variable, instant access, minimum £1, FSCS protected up to £120,000), and a fixed-rate Cash ISA for five years at 4.40% AER (no access until maturity, minimum £1,000, FSCS protected up to £120,000). A Stocks and Shares ISA is also available, with investments protected up to £85,000 by the FSCS and uninvested cash covered up to £120,000.

One thing worth knowing: one of the attractions of Active Savings versus most other cash savings platforms is that it does not charge an annual management fee or any upfront costs - HL achieves this by charging the partner banks, though these charges may sometimes result in a lower interest rate than if you had gone to that bank directly.

Is it right for you?

HL suits savers who want a single login to manage cash across multiple banks, or who already use the platform for investments and want their ISA cash and portfolio in one place. Through one single application, savers can move money between accounts with different banks and building societies in just a few clicks, removing the need to complete another application each time.

If you hold a large cash balance and want to spread it across several banking licences for FSCS purposes, the marketplace model makes that straightforward. If you are comfortable going direct to individual banks and are happy to manage separate accounts, it is worth comparing direct rates too - you may occasionally find a marginally better deal that way.

The live rates shown on this page are always the current picture - check them before you decide.