Best Savings Rates in Ireland

Interest rates on Savings Accounts in Ireland gradually fell lower and lower over the last few years. Many instant access deposit accounts were paying zero or a tiny 0.05% rate of interest in 2023.
On a deposit of €50,000 a rate of 0.05% would earn just €25 a year in interest – before tax.



The ECB started raising interest rates again in 2023 as inflation began to increase. Those ECB interest rate rises gradually resulted in higher interest rates for savers but most Irish banks weren’t in a big hurry to pass them on. (Despite massive increases in profits.)

The majority of Irish savings (€142 billion of it ) is held in instant-access accounts. If you have money sitting in a bank account paying just 0.1 % – you could get interest rates that are much higher elsewhere.

Irish savers could be collectively missing out on potential interest of around €3 billion in 2024 because most instant-access deposit accounts in Ireland have very low interest rates.

AIB and Bank of Ireland reported profits of around €2 billion each in 2023 – largely because savers are reluctant to move funds out of accounts that pay little or nothing in interest.



Fixed Rates

Interest rates of up to 3.5% are available at Raisin.ie (fixed for a year) . (March 2024)
On €50,000 – that rate of 3.5% would earn €1750 in a year before tax .

More About Raisin Bank…

By comparison – over five years – the 5-year State Savings Certificate (Issue 23) pays just 1.74% Tax-Free. (Interest of just €435 in six months on €50,000)

Visit our page comparing the Best Deposit Interest Rates in Ireland 


Instant Access Rates

The best instant access rate available in Feb 2024 is 4% at Trade Republic. (On balances of up to €50,000)

Check out the other instant access rates on our page of the Best  Savings  Rates in Ireland  



Lightyear is an investment platform, not a bank , but it also pays interest on clients’ uninvested cash . The current rates are shown below. (Instant Access, no minimum or maximum deposit).

Lightyear Savings
Lightyear Interest Rates
CurrencyInterest Rate
Euro3.25%
GBP4.5%
USD4.5%
Correct as of March 2024

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