Having been resident in France since Brexit, I still have a couple of UK bank accounts which I’ve had for years and neither pay any interest, being instant access, so thought I’d try to see what’s on offer out there for holding GBP. I realize it’s now difficult to open new UK bank accounts since the Brexit fiasco, so I’d be really interested to hear what other folks are doing to maximise interest on any sums sitting in bank accounts 
Depends how much you are talking about. I have moved money into WISE as at the moment this gets 3.3% cashback (it fluctuates). But Wise is not protected by the fscs so only a modest amount that would not be a disaster to loose.
The rest is in NS&I direct saver which is 3% now too (after a long time of being peanuts) .
Not the best rates, but not talking about a lot of money and fed up of moving money to chase rates.
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I can’t even remember the last time I even thought about interest rates, with them having been so incredibly low or non-existant for so long, so now I’m thinking something is better than nothing, given how relatively high they are right now. Good to know that about Wise as i must admit, I did think they were protected by fscs. Most of my funds are invested, but I do keep the equivalent of several months funds in bank accounts, readily available, and it’s this that I’m looking to gain interest on.
Yes, I’m getting a reasonable return on money “resting” (as Father Ted once said) in my Wise account too.
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They do have something called safeguarding, which they say is a level of protection. But not going to rely on that.
My system (which is perhaps an exaggeration) is that pension etc go into my trad bank account. Which I opened at age 16! I then shift into WISE if I want to bring it here, and there it stays until a quiver in the exchange rates. And if not it goes into NS&I until needed elsewhere. With electronic banking all can be done from my armchair, which pleases me.
How far we’ve come from going to post office to collect pension in cash (although apparently thousands still have to ) and receive cheques that you physically had to go into your bank branch to pay in,
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Since Virgin Money took over our Yorkshire current account it pays a small amount of interest each year, but impossible to open an account there now I think.
What a palava - I just tried to transfer a reasonably large sum from my santander account into wise to get the interest, and guess what, they blocked it for security reasons, so now plodding through the process to get it unblocked. I’m sure banks do this to dissuade folks from making such transfers 
Meanwhile, just got account unblocked and transfer complete. While I was on the phone, for what seemed like ages, I also managed to do something I’d been meaning to do for ages. I’ve always had a Santander 123 account but now don’t need that, and haven’t needed it for ages in terms of the rewards, but a long time ago they started to charge £4/month for the account. Very small amount and just hadn’t been bothered to grind through the process to change it before - well, guess what, I just did, after a very laborious 30 min call listening to someone step through all the waffle. So now £4/month better off 
and successfully transferred to their free account so keep the UK account. Certainly don’t want to be going through all that again!
They do it for money laundering reasons, and not because they want to. Especially if you suddenly carry out an atypical transaction involving more than you normally transfer. I would not think ill of them in these circumstances and personally I would expect them to do it.
Yes probably a little unfair of me in the height of frustration 
at least the transfer was almost instant after I’d gone through the rather painful process
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moneysavingexpert keeps track of UK accounts such as interesting interest-paying ones, on offer very regularly indeed. can look on the site or they alert in their newsletter when it’s worth reviewing and usually good set of alternatives when macro things change.
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Starling and Monzo both pay interest and are covered by FSCS, though (at least with Starling) they pay interest only up to a balance of £5,000.
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A few thoughts…
I presume you have no UK address and credit ‘presence’ you can use? Otherwise any of the MSE accounts as Karen mentioned. Would your existing UK banks allow you to open new accounts or switch to a different saver? I’ve got a Santander current account and I opened a 5.2% saver - maybe they might have allowed you to do so - (it’s withdrawn now but Santander’s sister bank cahoot has a saver at 5.12.
Also the UK revolut has savings - but you have to pay for the higher rate - might be worth it if it’s available for you?
“Turbocharge your GBP savings at 2.29%, or upgrade to Ultra to unlock 4.75% AER/Gross (variable)*. Your money is deposited with our trusted partner bank, so it’s protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000.”
Did you miss national savings 1 year fix at 6.2% ? Mentioned on SF.
Finally, if you have a UK pension fund or can get one and are happy with it’s performance rate you might be able to put savings into there - but only up to 5 years I think since last in UK?
3600 can be paid in - you pay 2880 and relief is 720 - when you come to cash in you pay 6.75% France tax (pension lump sum), so 243 (euro equivalent) netting you a gain of 477 on your 2880 - or 16.5%. plus the gain in the pension (if any - but you could have t in a cash / sterling fund - similar to wise I think.
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Do you have any French Livret accounts - they’re very convenient and the interest is tax-free
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And on the French livret accounts - the LEP is great however the Livret A at 3% is less than the 4% odd UK rate after France tax - so changing UK pounds into euros will lose me 1% each year until UK rates go down…
And will the France account rates also go down when the ECB starts cutting?
Thanks for all the suggestions:+1: When I called santander this morning they mentioned that as I was an overseas resident the only option available to me was the free no interest account so I’ve taken that and pushed funds into Wise for interest for now. When I was looking at other alternatives with other banks I kept coming across the ‘confirm you are UK resident’ unfortunately. I’m somewhat hesitant to convert alot into euros, given the dismal exchange rate, but who knows where that’s heading is anyone’s guess 
I think you need to be UK resident, but even so, it’s a sum in excess of the 5k that I’m moving so think Wise for now is probably the simplest immediate solution.
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As posted above, I’m pretty sure the Livrets are tax free; also if one invests the max one then can add the interest on it to the existing account, thus raising its ceiling.
The usual advice is to invest in the currency of where you’re resident.
In terms of currency, if I’d taken that advice I wouldn’t have benefitted from the dramatic strength in the dollar, so must say, I’m certainly not in that camp.
Look at Skipton International. Various offers - off shore Channel Islands. 20k minimum to open - and generally need 10k to get the rates
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That’s very interesting thanks.
I see it has 40 day notice amounts at 4.75% so that likely competes with revolut. Also dollars, perhaps of interest to the OP.
I have a Skipton BS regular saver at 7.5%