Best Savings Rates in Ireland 2026 for a Lump Sum

If you have just moved to Ireland with savings, the money is probably sitting in a current account earning nothing. AIB’s Personal Demand Deposit pays 0.25% AER. The headline 3.00% you will see advertised is the Online Regular Saver — capped at €1,000 a month, with any balance above that monthly limit dropping back to 0.25%. It is a regular-savings product. A lump sum cannot use it.

EU banks open to Irish residents pay up to 3.15% on any amount with no monthly cap — Klarna’s fixed terms and Raisin’s partner banks — and all carry deposit protection to €100,000. Two catches. Neither deducts DIRT at source, so you declare the interest to Revenue yourself. And watch the “up to” in any advertised rate: bunq’s headline 3.01% is a bonus rate that only applies above a threshold, and drops to 1.51% on a balance you leave sitting.

This guide is about where a lump sum goes. For choosing a day-to-day current account, see best bank accounts in Ireland.

What Irish banks actually pay

AIB’s published personal deposit rates, as an example of the high-street market:

Account	Rate (AER)	Conditions
Personal Demand Deposit	0.25%	No minimum, no maximum, instant access
Online Saver — Regular Saver rate	3.00%	€10 minimum, applies only up to a rising monthly limit
Online Saver — Standard rate	0.25%	Applies to balances above the monthly limit
Online Notice Deposit 7	0.75%	7 days’ notice, up to €1,000,000
Personal Fixed Term Deposit — 6 months	1.50%	€5,000 minimum
Personal Fixed Term Deposit — 1 year	2.00%	€5,000 minimum
Personal Fixed Term Deposit — 2 years	2.26%	€5,000 minimum

Rates from aib.ie, checked 31 July 2026.

The monthly-limit trap

This is the detail that catches people who arrive with a lump sum. The 3.00% rate is real, but it applies to a monthly limit, not to your balance.

AIB’s own terms: the limit starts at €1,000 from your first lodgement and rises by €1,000 a month to a maximum of €12,000 over twelve months. In month 13 it resets to €1,000 and the cycle restarts. Anything above the limit earns the Online Standard Saver rate of 0.25%.

So put €40,000 in and, in month one, €1,000 earns 3.00% and €39,000 earns 0.25%. A year later you would be up to €12,000 at the good rate — and then the limit drops back to €1,000 and most of it falls to 0.25% again.

If you already have the money, an Irish regular-saver account is not built for you. That is not a criticism of the product — it is designed to reward a monthly savings habit, and it does that well. It is simply the wrong shape for relocation money.

Instant access: where a lump sum can go today

Provider	Rate (AER)	Notes
AIB Personal Demand Deposit	0.25%	Irish bank, DIRT deducted at source
Klarna Flex	1.95%	No minimum, no fees. Higher tiers need a paid membership
Klarna Flex with Plus / Premium / Max	2.05% / 2.15% / 2.45%	Requires the corresponding paid Klarna membership
bunq	1.51% base, 3.01% bonus	The 3.01% applies only above your threshold — see below
Raisin Demand Deposits	Variable	From €1, top up or withdraw any time

Klarna Flex is instant-access with no minimum deposit and no account fees, and you can split savings across up to three Flex accounts. The base rate is 1.95% — the 2.05%, 2.15% and 2.45% tiers each require a paid Klarna membership, so factor the subscription cost against the extra interest before upgrading. → Open a Klarna Flex account (affiliate link — see how Settle.ie is funded)

bunq advertises “up to 3.01%”, and the “up to” is doing a lot of work. It runs two rates: a base rate of 1.51% and a bonus rate of 3.01%. Which one you get depends on a threshold — the highest balance your savings account held over the previous six months, recalculated every 1 January and 1 July. You earn the base 1.51% on everything up to that threshold, and the bonus 3.01% only on savings above it.

New customers do get 3.01% on the whole balance, but only until the first threshold calculation. For a lump sum you intend to park and leave alone, that means the rate drops to 1.51% within at most six months — because your own balance becomes the threshold. bunq rewards money you keep adding, not money you keep still.

That makes it a poor fit for relocation savings specifically, and a reasonable one if you are actively building a balance month after month. Worth knowing too: bunq’s fixed Term Deposits pay up to 2.11%, and its business accounts pay 0.75%. → Open a bunq account (affiliate link)

Fixed term: locking money away

Klarna’s fixed rates from 31 July 2026:

Term	Rate (AER)
3 months	1.84%
6 months	2.89%
9 months	2.46%
12 months	3.00%
18 months	3.02%
24 months	3.05%
36 months	3.08%
48 months	3.10%

Two things stand out. The 6-month term pays more than the 9-month term — 2.89% against 2.46% — so read the table rather than assuming longer is better. And the 12-month rate of 3.00% is a full percentage point above AIB’s 2.00% at the same term, with no €5,000 minimum. → Open a Klarna Fixed account (affiliate link)

Klarna fixed accounts must be linked to a Klarna balance, so you will set that up first.

Raisin works differently: it is a deposit marketplace rather than a bank. One application gives you access to fixed-term accounts from 30+ European banks, with terms from one month, and Raisin states it does not accept payment to boost any bank’s position in its listings. Its Starter Account pays 3.10% AER for 3 months and is open to new customers only — on Raisin’s own representative example, €30,000 for 3 months returns roughly €230 gross.

For a three-month horizon that beats every Klarna fixed term except the 48-month.

On the marketplace itself there were 24 one-year offers when this guide was checked, led by:

Rate (AER)	Term	Bank’s country
3.15%	1 year	Latvia (A)
3.10%	1 year	Lithuania (A)
2.90%	1 year	Sweden (AAA)
2.65%	1 year	Italy (BBB+)
2.60%	1 year	Germany (AAA)

Two things to read alongside the rate. Each offer shows the country whose deposit guarantee covers it and that country’s credit rating — the €100,000 protection is only as reliable as the state standing behind it, which is why the highest rate is not automatically the best choice. And Raisin flags some offers as “no withholding tax”; where that label is absent, the bank’s own country may deduct tax at source before the money reaches you, on top of your Irish DIRT obligation. Check the offer details before committing. → Open a Raisin account (affiliate link)

Is the money safe if the bank is not Irish?

This is the question most newcomers ask, and the answer is more reassuring than it first sounds.

Deposit protection across the EU is harmonised at €100,000 per person, per bank. The difference is which country pays out:

• AIB, Bank of Ireland, PTSB — Irish Deposit Guarantee Scheme
• Klarna — Sweden’s scheme, to a maximum of SEK 1,150,000. Sweden’s National Debt Office makes compensation available within 7 business days
• Raisin partner banks — each covered by its own country’s scheme, shown against every offer in the listings
• bunq — Dutch-licensed, covered by the Deposit Guarantee Scheme

One caveat worth stating plainly: Klarna is not authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland, and its Irish savings service sits outside Central Bank consumer-protection rules. The deposit guarantee is Swedish. That is a normal arrangement for a passported EU bank, but it is not the same as banking with an Irish institution, and you should know which it is before you decide.

If you are spreading a large amount, the €100,000 limit is per bank — which is precisely what makes a marketplace like Raisin useful above that threshold.

DIRT: the bit newcomers get wrong

Irish banks deduct Deposit Interest Retention Tax at source. The interest arrives in your account already taxed, and there is nothing further to do.

Klarna and Raisin do not. Both say so explicitly:

Interest earned is subject to tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) may not be withheld. It is the consumer’s responsibility to ensure that taxes are reported and paid on interest earned on your deposits. — klarna.com/ie

Deposit interest retention tax (DIRT) is not taken at source. Any interest earned must be declared to Revenue in an annual tax return. — raisin.com/en-ie

So the headline rate is a gross rate, and your return after tax will be lower than the number advertised.

Revenue’s own position on this is worth reading carefully. DIRT is charged at 33%. Interest from an account in another EU member state is taxed at that same rate — but you must declare it on your annual return, and Revenue states plainly:

The income will be subject to a higher rate of 40% tax if it is not returned on time. — revenue.ie

That is the trap. An Irish bank handles this for you and you never think about it. Klarna and Raisin do not, so a missed deadline turns a 33% charge into 40%. On €1,000 of interest that is €70 you did not need to lose.

Worth knowing too: PRSI may apply to deposit interest in some circumstances, though USC does not. If you have never filed an Irish return, this is the thing to get advice on — and it is the single most common reason people are surprised by these accounts a year later.

What to do with a relocation lump sum

A workable default, and the reasoning behind it:

1. Keep three to six months of expenses instant-access. Moving costs run late and over. This is not the money to lock away.
2. Fix only what is genuinely surplus. A 12-month term at 3.00% is worth roughly €300 more per €10,000 than leaving it at 0.25% — but only if you can leave it alone for the full year.
3. Stay under €100,000 per bank. Above that, split across institutions.
4. Put the DIRT aside as you go. The tax is not deducted for you; treat the gross interest as partly spoken for.

For anything involving moving the money into euro in the first place, the exchange rate will cost you more than the interest rate will earn you — that is covered in banking in Ireland.

Opening an account when you have just arrived

Irish banks generally require a PPS number and proof of an Irish address, which is the standard newcomer bottleneck. The usual sequence is a digital account first for day-to-day banking, PPS number next, then savings once you are established. Our step-by-step guide covers which proof-of-address documents Irish banks actually accept.

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Sources and verification. AIB rates and monthly-limit terms from aib.ie deposit rates. Klarna Flex and Fixed rates, membership tiers and deposit-guarantee terms from klarna.com/ie, with fixed-term rates effective 31 July 2026. Raisin Starter Account rate, marketplace offers, deposit protection and DIRT treatment from raisin.com/en-ie. bunq base and bonus rates and threshold mechanism from bunq’s own help centre, What MassInterest rate applies to me?. All checked 31 July 2026.

Savings rates change frequently and often without notice. Always confirm the current rate on the provider’s own site before moving money. This guide is general information, not financial advice.