Savings accounts
Savings accounts
Overview
A savings account is an FSCS-protected bank account that can accrue interest on behalf of a retail or business customer. Savings accounts may be held individually or jointly.
ClearBank calculates interest accruals on savings account deposits based on pre-agreed interest configurations. You can update the interest rate on your savings accounts to a pre-agreed configuration at any time.
Interest accruals are posted for you as regular payments to your customers' savings accounts. To learn more about interest configurations, refer to Interest configuration.
If you're interested in using savings accounts, please contact your Client Director.
ClearBank supports the following savings account types:
- Single customer savings accounts – held by one retail or business customer.
- Joint savings accounts – held by two or more retail customers.
- Junior savings accounts (ages 16–17) – held by one retail customer aged 16 or 17 and identified using a dedicated ProductId.
- Under-16 (U16) savings accounts – held in the name of a parent or guardian; no child customer record is required.
Savings account types
Single
To create a single savings account, create a retail or business customer, then include their customer ID in the customers array when calling POST /v2/savings.
Joint
To create a joint savings account, include multiple customer IDs in the customers array when calling POST /v2/savings. All customers must be retail customers.
Junior (16-17)
Savings accounts for customers aged 16–17 are created using the standard POST /v2/savings endpoint. The productId provided in the request identifies the account as a Junior savings account.
To create a product identification for this account type, please speak to your Client Director.
Under-16 (U16)
Under-16 savings accounts are created using the standard POST /v2/savings endpoint in the name of the parent or guardian. The productId provided in the request identifies the account as an Under-16 savings account.
No customer record or customer ID is required for the child.
To create a product identification for this account type, please speak to your Client Director.
Summary table
| Account type | Endpoint | Customers provided | Identification method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single savings account | POST /v2/savings | One retail or business customer ID | None |
| Joint savings account | POST /v2/savings | Multiple retail customer IDs | Customers array |
| 16–17 savings account | POST /v2/savings | One retail customer ID | Junior ProductId |
| Under-16 savings account | POST /v2/savings | Parent/guardian retail customer only | U16 ProductId |
Create savings accounts
Steps to create a savings account
Savings accounts have several interdependencies. When creating a savings account, follow the below steps to ensure you cover them all:
- Check you've created the retail or business customer this new savings account will belong to. To create a retail customer, refer to the Create a retail customer endpoint.
- Confirm which interest configuration should apply to the account (
interestConfigurationId).
Interest configuration IDs refer to a specific interest accrual arrangement, and are provided to you directly by a ClearBank contact. Refer to Interest configuration for more details. - Create the savings account by calling the POST /v2/savings endpoint using the customer's ID and the interest configuration's ID.
- Specify a nominated account to fund or defund the savings account using the POST /v1/accounts/{accountId}/related-accounts endpoint.
Note: A nominated account is the account that accrued interest, if any, will be transferred into upon closure of the savings account. Name matching between savings and nominated accounts is your responsibility.
Once you've opened a savings account, you can deposit and withdraw payments via Faster Payments or CHAPS. Savings accounts cannot send or receive Bacs payments.
Message flow diagram
Create joint savings accounts
Both single and joint savings accounts can be created using the POST /v2/savings endpoint. To make joint accounts using this endpoint, specify each customer's ID in the customers array.
Example payload: two customers
{"ownerName": "John and Jane Smith","sortCode": "010203","productId": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-7a8b-9c0d-1e2f3a4b5c6d","customers": [{"customerId": "0f1e2d3c-4b5a-6c7d-8e9f-0a1b2c3d4e5f"},{"customerId": "abcdef12-3456-7890-1234-56789abcdef0"}],"interestConfigurationId": "1234abcd-5678-9ef0-1234-56789abcdef0"}
Example payload: four customers
While joint accounts will typically have two customers, we can support any number of customers where there is a valid use case. Please contact your Client Director before attempting to create a joint account with more than two customers.
{"ownerName": "John Smith, Jane Smith, Steve Doe, and Emily Doe","sortCode": "010203","productId": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-a7b8-c9d0-e1f2a3b4c5d6","customers": [{"customerId": "9f8e7d6c-5b4a-3c2d-1e0f-9a8b7c6d5e4f"},{"customerId": "0a1b2c3d-4e5f-6a7b-8c9d-0e1f2a3b4c5d"},{"customerId": "f1e2d3c4-b5a6-c7d8-e9f0-a1b2c3d4e5f6"},{"customerId": "2b3c4d5e-6f7a-8b9c-0d1e-2f3a4b5c6d7e"}],"interestConfigurationId": "4d5e6f7a-8b9c-0d1e-2f3a-4b5c6d7e8f9a"}
Manage nominated accounts
ClearBank maintains two methods of managing nominated accounts. The first, newer method uses four related-accounts endpoints. These endpoints are also used to manage Hub Accounts.
To update a nominated account, you can call the DELETE /v1/accounts/{accountId}/related-accounts/{iban} followed by the POST /v1/accounts/{accountId}/related-accounts.
The second legacy method uses just nominated-account endpoints:
- You can call the PUT /v1/accounts/{accountId}/nominated-account to set and update a nominated account for a savings account
- You can call the GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/nominated-account to retrieve the details of the current nominated account.
Older, nominated account only endpoints:
Receive and manage interest payments
Guidance on configuring interest payments can be found on Interest configuration.
When an interest payment is made to a savings account, you'll be notified via the Interest Paid webhook.
Retrieve savings accounts
To retrieve all your institution's savings accounts, call the GET /v3/accounts endpoint and filter the result for savings accounts.
To retrieve a single savings account, call the GET /v3/Accounts/{accountId} endpoint.
To retrieve end of day balances for a savings account, use the camt.053 endpoints.
Update a savings account
Close a savings account
Steps to close an account
There are several steps you should follow to close a savings account:
- Withdraw all funds from the account.
- Verify that a nominated account has been defined. You can obtain details of the currently configured nominated account using the GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/nominated-account endpoint.
- Use the POST /v1/accounts/{accountId}/closure endpoint. This process is asynchronous and can take longer if an interest calculation is pending. Unpaid accrued interest, if any, will be deposited into the nominated account. If there is no interest to be paid, then it's possible to close the account without a nominated account being defined.
- (OPTIONAL) Check closure status using the GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/closure endpoint.
- The Account Closure Completed webhook will be sent once the account has closed.
Account closure may fail due to the nominated account details being incorrect. You will know from the ClosureFailureReason field in the Account Closure Failed webhook.
See the following possible combinations of accountStatus and closureStatus:
| accountStatus | closureStatus | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Enabled | None | No closure request submitted. |
| Enabled | Pending | Closure requested, interest being calculated. |
| Enabled | Failed | Closure request failed, see closureFailureReasons field for details. |
| Suspended | Pending | Closure requested for suspended account, interest being calculated. |
| Closed | Complete | Closure completed successfully. |
To reset the nominated account and close the account:
- OPTIONAL Obtain details of the currently configured nominated account using the GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/nominated-account endpoint.
- Correct the nominated account details using the PUT /v1/accounts/{accountId}/nominated-account endpoint.
- Use the POST /v1/accounts/{accountId}/closure endpoint.
The process is asynchronous. Unpaid accrued interest, if any, will be deposited into the nominated account.
- OPTIONAL Check closure status using the GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/closure endpoint.
- The Account Closure Completed webhook will be sent once the account has closed.
