Why it pays to start saving NOW for Christmas 2022 - or drip feed your cash in for a rate boost: Lock into a 5% rate with latest 12 month regular saver deal

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Christmas 2022 might seem an impossibly long way off — but it’s not too soon to start saving.

Banks have launched a host of regular savings accounts paying top rates of up to 5 per cent to help customers fund the festive season next year.

You can usually save between £10 and £1,000 a month for a year, with the account maturing in time to do your Christmas shopping. 

Festive rate: Banks have launched a host of regular savings accounts paying top rates of up to 5% to help customers fund the festive season next year

Many savers may choose to drip-feed in cash from other easy-access accounts, where there is some £967 billion stashed away. 

Yorkshire Building Society’s Christmas Regular Saver pays 1 per cent for 12 months on savings between £10 and £300 a month.

You can withdraw money only on the anniversary of opening the account but can close it any time.

The rate is variable so could even go up when interest rates rise. NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland offers a Digital Regular Saver to current account holders paying 3.04 per cent on deposits of between £1 and £50 a month.

TSB has just upped its Monthly Saver rate to 2 per cent for current account holders saving between £25 and £125 a month. All three let you take money out at any time.

Nationwide’s new Flex Regular Saver, on offer for a limited period, pays 2 per cent to those who have a current account with the building society. 

You can put in up to £200 a month, and can make three withdrawals during the 12-month term. Any more and the rate drops to 0.35 per cent.

Savers who have been members with Cambridge Building Society for at least three years can earn a fixed 5 per cent with its Extra Reward Regular Saver on up to £250 a month.

It pays a lower 3 per cent if you have been a member for only one year.