Want a quick boost for your savings? Try these top rates that few know of...

FOR SAVERS seeking to squeeze every last drop of interest from their nest egg, there’s a new place to look. Normally, the best rates are on easyaccess or fixed-rate accounts. But, for the first time I can remember, lesserknown notice accounts top the charts.

These are like easy-access accounts in that they pay a variable rate of interest. But the key difference is that you must give your provider warning if you intend to make a withdrawal.

They are regarded as a halfway house between easy-access and fixed-rate deals as you cannot access your money whenever you wish, but it is not locked up for a full term of a year or more.

You need to be organised to use them as they often ask for between 30 and 90 days’ warning of withdrawals.

Before using them, you should make sure there is enough in your easyaccess account to cover emergencies and planned spending.

You can earn as much as 5.4 pc on the top-paying notice account — from Vanquis Bank and offered on deposits of a minimum of £1,000. You need to give 90 days’ notice to get your money back.

In contrast the top one-year fixed-rate bond pays 5.15 pc on a minimum £5,000 at Investec Bank. The top easy-access account is 5.1 pc from Close Brothers — and you need at least £10,000 in your account to earn it.

Notice accounts, once a mainstay of bank and building societies’ savings ranges, were overtaken by easy-access deals. Now they are offered by a few building societies and new banks.

Monument Bank and West Bromwich Building Society pay 5.25 pc with 60 days’ warning. Investec Bank also pays 5.25 pc but with a 90-day notice period.

Also worth a look are those from Shawbrook bank at 5.14 pc for 45 days’, Charter Savings Bank at 5.15 pc on 95 days and Kent Reliance at 5.13 pc on 60 days.

Providers warn they can withdraw the accounts from sale at any time — and will if they suddenly become popular.

Watch out for the terms and conditions. You can’t usually get your money back at once even if you are happy to pay a fee — you have to sit out the notice period.

And with West Bromwich you need to be very organised. You can make as many withdrawals as you like but can only have one notice period on the go at a time. You must wait for the current notice period to end before the next.

West Bromwich has launched a tax-free cash Isa version of its account at a lower rate of 5.06 pc. Unlike its non-Isa version, you can get your hands on your account immediately — Isa rules say providers must allow this. But you will pay a charge equal to 60 days’ interest — £8.30 for each £1,000.

It joins a small handful of providers, which offer notice cash Isas so you can enjoy top rates and earn tax-free interest. Furness BS offers 5.01 pc on 90 days’ notice. Chorley BS pays 5.05 pc but with 150 days’ notice to make a withdrawal. Aldermore Bank asks for 30 days’ notice and pays a far lower 4.5 pc.

Variable-rate accounts, including both notice and easy-access types, pay more in general than fixed-rate bonds due to differences in the way they are priced.

Fixed-rate bonds have tumbled over the past few months as providers have priced in the fact that interest rates are expected to fall from their current level of 5.25 pc.

Variable-rate accounts tend to reflect what is happening to interest rates in close to real time. They have not fallen as steeply as fixedrate accounts so far — but are likely to do so as soon as the Bank of England cuts the base rate.