OakNorth Complete Review

OakNorth Bank plc has held a UK banking licence since 2015 and says it has lent more than £15.1bn to businesses since then. Its model is straightforward: it lends to established, mid-market companies, and it raises the money for that lending from savers. The savings products exist to fund the loan book, which is why the rates are competitive and why the range is narrow.

For a personal customer this makes OakNorth a deposit-taker rather than a bank you can run your life through. There is no current account, no debit card, no overdraft and no personal lending. Their own product terms require you to hold a personal UK bank or building society account that can transfer money to and from OakNorth, which tells you plainly how it expects to be used — alongside a main account, not instead of one.

Business customers get more. OakNorth offers a business bank account with a dedicated personal banker, multi-company management from one login, a payments hub and accounting sync with Xero, Sage and NetSuite. That account is not aimed at small firms: eligibility requires turnover above £1m, or £50,000 or more to deposit.

OakNorth Bank plc is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority and the PRA, under Financial Services Register number 629564. It is registered in England as company 08595042, with a registered office at 57 Broadwick Street, London W1F 9QS. Those numbers can be checked against the FCA register and Companies House, and are worth checking for any provider before you deposit.

Eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £120,000 per person. This is full FSCS deposit protection under OakNorth's own banking licence, not the safeguarding arrangement used by e-money firms — a distinction that matters, because safeguarded money is not covered by the FSCS and is not protected in the same way if the firm fails.

OakNorth applies a separate limit of its own: the maximum you may hold on deposit across all OakNorth accounts, excluding interest, is £500,000. That figure is well above the FSCS limit, so anything held beyond £120,000 with this bank is unprotected. Savers using OakNorth for a large balance should understand they are choosing rate over cover on the excess.

Accounts are opened online and managed through the OakNorth mobile app or online banking. The app's stated purpose is savings administration: applying for accounts, setting savings goals, moving money between your OakNorth accounts and your linked bank account, and viewing interest.

Because there is no current account behind it, the features common to app-led banks are absent by design. There is no card to freeze, no spending categorisation, no real-time purchase notifications and no budgeting tools, because there are no day-to-day transactions to categorise. Judging this app against Monzo's or Starling's is judging it for something it does not attempt.

Store ratings are strong on both platforms — 4.9 out of 5 on the Apple App Store and 4.9 on Google Play. Read those in context: an app with a narrow job to do, and no daily spending to go wrong, tends to score well against apps carrying a full current account.

The personal range is savings only, split between fixed-term deposits, notice accounts, base-rate trackers and cash ISAs. Accounts open from £1, and interest is calculated on the minimum daily balance and applied monthly. Deposits start earning no later than one business day after the money reaches the account.

The headline rate is 4.86% AER on the 12-month Fixed Term, which is the figure behind OakNorth's 'up to 4.86%' marketing. Shorter and longer fixes pay less: 4.00% at six months, 4.25% at nine, 4.50% at fifteen. A monthly-interest version of the 12-month bond pays 4.76% gross, which still works out at 4.86% AER.

Two accounts track the Bank of England base rate rather than being set by the bank. The Easy Access Tracker pays base rate minus 0.25, and the 95-day Notice Tracker pays base rate plus 0.37. With the base rate at 3.75% those come to 3.50% and 4.12% AER. The spread is contractual but not fixed — OakNorth can change it at its discretion, with 14 days' notice before any decrease.

Read the notice account rates carefully, because the advertised range is not what a new customer initially receives. The underlying rates are 2.35% AER on 35 days, 3.15% on 90 days and 2.25% on 120 days. New customers get a 1.00% AER boost for the first 12 months from opening, taking those to 3.35%, 4.15% and 3.25%. Existing customers do not get the boost. After 12 months the boost falls away and the account reverts to the underlying rate — so a 90-day account bought at 4.15% becomes a 3.15% account, and the 120-day account pays less than the 90-day one either way.

Opening an account is a fully online process. It is open to UK residents aged 18 or over in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and you must already hold a personal UK bank or building society account that can send and receive transfers, since that is the only route money takes in and out.

Day to day there is very little to do, which is the point of a savings account. Interest is applied on the first of each month, calculated on the minimum daily balance — worth knowing, because a withdrawal that dips your balance mid-month affects the whole month's interest, not just the days after it.

The constraint to plan around is access. Fixed terms lock the money for the term. Notice accounts require 35, 90, 95 or 120 days' warning before a withdrawal, so the money is not available in an emergency. Only the Easy Access Tracker and Easy Access Cash ISA offer next-business-day access, and they pay the lowest rates in the range. That trade-off between rate and access is the main decision OakNorth asks you to make.

OakNorth is worth comparing on rate and nothing else. The 12-month fix at 4.86% AER is competitive against the rest of the UK digital banks covered here, and the base-rate trackers are unusually honest in their construction: publishing a spread against the base rate tells you how your rate will move, where a discretionary variable rate does not.

The catch is in the notice accounts, and it is worth being blunt about it. The rate a new customer sees includes a 1.00% AER boost that runs for 12 months and is not offered to existing customers. When it expires, a 90-day account advertised at 4.15% becomes a 3.15% account, and unless you move the money you keep it at the lower rate. Note too that the 120-day account pays less than the 90-day one, so a longer notice period is not automatically rewarded here.

The other thing to hold in mind is the gap between the £500,000 OakNorth will accept and the £120,000 the FSCS protects. That is legal and clearly disclosed, but a saver placing more than £120,000 here is choosing rate over protection on the balance above it, and should do so deliberately rather than by accident.

Judged as a savings provider, OakNorth is a strong option for money you can leave alone. It is not an alternative to a current account, and comparing it with Monzo, Starling or Chase on features would miss what it is for. Hold it alongside a main bank account, not instead of one.