Once you open a savings account, your fixed term begins and you have 14 days to transfer between £10,000 and £85,000 from your nominated current account. Once your funds are deposited, you won't be able to withdraw the money for the fixed term.

If you don't fund your savings account with the minimum balance allowed, £10,000, during the 14 day deposit window, we'll close your account.

In exceptional circumstances we may consider an early withdrawal but we're not obliged to do so. Examples of what we consider exceptional circumstances include:

• Bankruptcy
• Insolvency
• Diagnosis of a critical illness

In circumstances like these, we may need evidence from you before allowing you to withdraw your savings early.

It takes less than ten minutes to open a SmartSave account. We just need a few details about you, including the following:

• Your address details for the last three years
• Your National Insurance number
• The sort code and account number of the current account you'll transfer your deposit from

You can open a SmartSave Fixed Rate Saver account from our homepage.

Our online application should take just 10 minutes to complete.

As a digital bank, we use an online tool, and information provided by Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), to check that your bank account is registered to your name and address. This helps us confirm your identity and protect against fraud and money laundering.

When submitting your nominated current account details during your SmartSave application, it’s important you check that:

• Your bank details are correct
• The bank account is registered in your name and current address
• Your bank accepts faster payments

If we can’t match your account details during your first attempt, we’ll always give you the opportunity to try a couple more times using the same information or a different bank account.

Although some companies offer alternative ways of verifying details such as bank statements, we’ve made the conscious choice to continue verifying our customer’s details 100% online. This helps us keep costs low so that we can offer the best rates for our customers and provide a better way to save for the majority of our customers.

This also means, however, that if your bank account hasn’t been shared with CRAs just yet, we won’t be able to successfully verify your details online and help you with a savings account. This issue impacts a number of different bank accounts; partly because the industry standard for current account details to be shared with CRAs was only introduced from around 1998.

Our digital approach allows our customers to manage their savings account completely online, allowing us to keep costs low so that we can continue to offer the best rates possible. This does mean, however, that some customers won’t be able to open a savings account with us, depending on who they bank with, as we mention above.

This can sometimes be resolved by speaking to your bank directly and giving your consent for them to share your bank account information with CRAs.

Unfortunately, if we can’t match your account then you won’t be able to open a savings account right now. We welcome more support from established banks to increase the number of accounts they share with us. Until then, we’re working hard to welcome even more customers to SmartSave.

In order to be eligible for a SmartSave Fixed Rate Saver account, you must be:

• At least 18 years old
• A UK resident only
• A UK taxpayer only

If you don't meet the criteria above, you won't be able to open a SmartSave account at the moment.

We verify your identity online when you're opening a savings account with us. We do this through a number of electronic tools, one of which is by confirming your details through a credit bureau. As an online bank, it's really important that we're able to verify your identity before you open your account. If we can't verify your identity, you won't be able to open a SmartSave savings account.

You can deposit up to £85,000 into your savings account as long as it is transferred from your nominated current account.

Your current account must be:

• In your name
• A current account, not a savings account
• Able to send and accept faster payments
• From a UK bank or building society

We don't offer ISAs or accept deposits from ISAs.

So we can keep your money safe and protect against fraud, you must transfer your money from the nominated current account you shared with us when you set up your SmartSave account.

If you transfer money from a different current account, we'll send the money back to you. This can take a couple of days to reach your account, depending on your bank.

In order to be eligible for our savings account, you must be:

• A UK resident only
• A UK taxpayer only

If you don't meet the criteria above, you won't be able to open a SmartSave account at the moment.

To keep your money safe and protected against fraud, we need two years address history from you to verify your identity when you're opening a SmartSave account.

You must be at least 18 years old.

A UK resident is a person who:

• Has their main home in the UK
• Is registered with a medical practitioner in the UK
• Has been resident in the UK for 6 months out of the last 12

If you're a resident of any country other than the UK, you aren't eligible to open a SmartSave account at the moment.

Please note, the Crown Dependencies and Channel Islands are not considered to be part of the UK.

To keep your money safe and protect against fraud, we verify your identity with Credit Reference Agencies, just to confirm you are who you say you are, when opening a SmartSave account.

We won't be performing a credit search and this won't affect your credit score.

We're sorry that you've not been able to open a SmartSave account right now.

This is usually because we weren't able to verify your information electronically. As an online bank, it's really important that we're able to verify your identity before you open your account.

We’re sorry we can’t help you reach your savings goal today. Keep us in mind as things may change and hopefully we'll be able to offer you an account in the future.

We ask for your National Insurance number when you’re opening an account with us, to make sure you’re a UK citizen.

In order to be eligible for our savings account, you must be:
 

• A UK resident only
• A UK taxpayer only

If you don't meet the criteria above, you won't be able to open a SmartSave account at the moment.

If you’ve lost your National Insurance number, you can find it at: https://www.gov.uk/lost-national-insurance-number

The maximum amount you can deposit is £85,000. This means all of your deposit is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK's deposit guarantee scheme.

We currently offer 1 to 5 Year Fixed Rate Saver accounts.

Take a closer look at the great rates available on our Savings page.

 

We're here to help you save the smart way.

Our UK support team are available through our SaveBot, live chat or email on Monday to Friday, from 8am to 6pm. 

If you’d prefer to speak to us on the phone, send us an email and we’ll call you back - so you won't ever have to wait on hold again. 

Or you can search our FAQs for more information.

We don't currently accept applications under a power of attorney. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

You can manage your SmartSave savings account completely online. When you're logged in, you'll be able to see your savings balance and full transaction history on the Overview page.

The minimum amount you can deposit is £10,000.

Once you've opened your savings account, you have 14 days to deposit money from your nominated current account into your SmartSave account.

If you don't transfer the minimum balance of £10,000 into your SmartSave account within the 14 day deposit window, we'll close your account and send your deposit back to your current account.