How does Multiply pick the savings account it recommended me?

If you decide to set up a product or account we recommend the provider may pay us a fee for sending them your business. This is how Multiply generates enough money to help us keep your financial plan free.

The amount we get paid by the provider never affects what products you’re shown in the plan. But we thought you might be interested to find out what factors or criteria do come into the equation when we select our products.

So what’s important in a savings account?

Our product research team, Jan and Stephen, think through what’s important to customers in a savings account. These principles help us choose providers based on what you care about:

Price: Everyone wants to get the most for their money and choosing a savings account is no different, we make sure our recommendations take into account the interest rate you’ll get paid.

Ease of set up: It’s 2019, which means you shouldn’t need to take heaps of documents to a local branch to set up a savings account. That’s why we only recommend savings providers that are online and easy to set up.

Accessibility: Some cash savings products are only available to certain groups of people, like a provider’s existing customers. To make sure our recommendations are suitable for the majority of people, we filter out providers with these kinds of restrictions.

Flexibility: We think the financial products you buy should fit with your life. So we screen out products that aren’t flexible, for example we wouldn’t recommend ISAs that don’t accept incoming transfers.

Security: Whether it’s a rainy day fund or a deposit on a new home, you need to know your savings are safe. That’s why we only recommend products that are secure and held risk-free. All the accounts we recommend are FSCS protected which means the money you put in them is protected up to £85,000.

And how do you decide what type of account is suitable for me?

The type of savings account you need will differ based on your circumstances or goal. For example, if you’ve used your entire ISA allowance for the year, Multiply wouldn’t recommend you open another one. Equally if we’ve recommended you build up an emergency fund, we would always recommend an account that was instant access, i.e. carries no penalties for withdrawing early if you need to.

The types of accounts we currently recommend are:

Instant access savings accounts

Instant access Cash ISAs

How do you keep your recommendations up-to-date?

We reassess our top list of providers every four weeks. On top of this we always make updates when:

• The Bank of England base rate changes.
• There’s a new product on the market or a product provider collapses.
• There’s a big regulatory change that might have an effect on interest rates.

If you have any feedback or thoughts, let us know by reaching out in the closed community Facebook group or tweeting us @MultiplyAI