eToro Cash ISA Review: 4.87% AER

eToro has been sitting at the top of the easy-access cash ISA table since July 29th 2026, when it bolted an extra percentage point onto the rate on its Cash ISA. At 4.87% AER (variable), it is the highest headline rate on any easy-access cash ISA in the UK right now, and it is comfortably clear of the chasing pack. eToro's recent rate hike marks their first return to the top of our rate table since the expiration of their last promo rate of 4.78% on May 1st 2026.

What the 4.87% is actually made of

The rate has two components.

The first is the standard introductory variable rate of 3.87% AER. That accrues daily, starting the working day after your money clears, and it is the rate you will see in your account.

The second is a fixed one percentage point boost, and this is where people get caught out. The boost is not paid monthly alongside the standard interest. It accrues quietly in the background and lands in your Cash ISA as a single lump sum when you hit the 12-month mark. Close the account, transfer out, or breach the conditions before that anniversary and you do not get it. You keep the 3.87% you have already earned, but the top slice disappears.

To hold onto the boost you need to keep at least £500 in the account and make no more than three withdrawals in the first 12 months. Make a fourth withdrawal and you drop to the standard rate of 3.57% AER (variable) from that point onwards.

After 12 months, everyone drops to 3.57% AER — a fall of 1.3 percentage points from the headline. If you have not diarised the anniversary, you will be sitting on a below-average rate without noticing. Put a reminder in your calendar the same day you open the account.

Every one of these figures is variable. The underlying rate can move at any time, including during the boost period, so the number you sign up for is a snapshot rather than a promise.

eToro's Cash ISA invests into money market funds

This is the single most important structural point, and it is the one most commonly glossed over.

Your money is not held as a cash deposit. It is invested in a Qualifying Money Market Fund — a low-risk fund holding short-term, high-quality debt, designed to hold a stable value while tracking short-term interest rates. The ISA is run on the Moneyfarm platform (Moneyfarm is the trading name of MFM Investments Ltd, FCA number 629539) and accessed through the eToro app. Client money sits with custodians including Barclays and Saxo Capital Markets UK.

The practical consequence is the FSCS position. Because this is an investment rather than a deposit, you get FSCS investment protection of up to £85,000 if Moneyfarm fails — not the £120,000 deposit protection that now applies at a bank or building society. And FSCS protection never covers losses caused by market performance.

For most savers that distinction is academic — QMMFs are about as dull and stable as regulated investments get. But if you are consolidating several old ISAs into one place, the £35,000 gap between the two protection regimes matters, and eToro may not be the right home for a six-figure balance.

Access, minimums and transfers

The account is a flexible ISA, which is genuinely useful and still not universal at this end of the market. Withdraw money and replace it in the same tax year and it does not eat into your £20,000 allowance.

But flexible is not the same as unlimited. This is a triple-access account: three withdrawals a year and no more, if you want to keep the boost. Anyone using a cash ISA as a working buffer should look elsewhere — Chip and Plum both allow unlimited withdrawals.

Minimums are £500 to open with new money. On transfers, the picture is muddier than we would like: eToro's product page still quotes a £15,000 minimum ISA transfer, while the terms circulating since the 29 July relaunch put it at £5,000. If you are transferring, check the promotion terms before you start the paperwork — cash ISA transfers take up to 15 working days, and you do not want to discover the mismatch halfway through. Transfers do not use any of your current-year allowance.

How eToro compares to other easy access cash ISAs

(rates as at 18 August 2026)

Chip is the closest genuine rival — a flexible ISA, instant access, £1 to open, no cap on withdrawals — but like eToro's boost, the 4.55% is for new customers only. Plum sits at 4.36% on the same instant-access, flexible, £1 terms and is open to anyone. Hargreaves Lansdown's 4.52% is competitive but is not a flexible ISA, so anything you withdraw is gone from your allowance for that tax year. Trading 212 props up this group at 3.60%, and that is its new-user rate.

So eToro's lead over the best flexible alternative is 0.32 percentage points. On a full £20,000 held for a year that is £974 against £910 at Chip — about £64. Real money, but not life-changing, and worth weighing against a three-withdrawal limit, a £500 floor and the £85,000 protection ceiling.

If you can genuinely lock money away, the fixed-rate side of the table pays more. Vida Savings' two-year fixed rate ISA leads it at 4.77% with no minimum balance, and Tandem's one-year fix pays 4.60% from £1 — both listed as flexible ISAs. A guaranteed 4.77% for two years against a variable 4.87% that reverts to 3.57% after twelve months is a much closer call than the headline gap suggests, and arguably the better deal for money you will not need.

Why eToro is paying over the odds

Here is the part that explains the rate. eToro is not a bank and does not need your deposits to fund a loan book. It is an investment platform, and a market-leading cash ISA is one of the cheapest customer acquisition channels it has. A full percentage point on a £20,000 balance costs about £200 a year — trivially cheap next to what brokers typically pay to win a funded investing client. And look at what else happened on 29 July 2026: eToro scrapped dealing commission and annual custody fees on its Stocks & Shares ISA on exactly the same day. Both products sit in the same app, on the same Moneyfarm platform, sharing the same £20,000 allowance. The timing is not a coincidence. Then add the policy backdrop: from 6 April 2027, under-65s can only put £12,000 of their allowance into cash, with the remaining £8,000 having to go into a stocks and shares ISA or similar. eToro is buying cash savers today who will be structurally required to invest something tomorrow — and when that moment comes, the investment account is one tap away, with no commission to pay. It is a well-built funnel, and knowing that does not make the 4.87% any less real. It just tells you why it exists.

Our verdict: Is the eToro Cash ISA worth it?

The 4.87% is the best easy-access cash ISA rate available today, and for the right saver it is worth having.

That saver has at least £500, will not need more than three withdrawals in a year, plans to stay put for the full 12 months to collect the boost, is holding well under £85,000, and is comfortable with money market funds rather than bank deposits.

If any of those do not describe you, Chip gives up 0.32 percentage points and hands back unlimited withdrawals, a £1 minimum and ordinary deposit protection. That is a fair trade. And if the money can sit untouched for a year or two, look at the fixed-rate table before you look at either.

Two dates for the diary either way: the Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% on 30 July 2026 with three of nine members voting for a rise, and meets again on 17 September 2026. And your own 12-month anniversary — because on the day after it, 4.87% becomes 3.57%.

DepositScout earns a commission if you open an eToro account through our links, at no cost to you — it helps fund our research and doesn't change what we write. This article is information and opinion based on our own testing, not financial advice.