New research has estimated that the combined loss for savers is around \u20ac3bn.<\/p>\n
They are losing out by keeping savings in low-yielding accounts and ones that are not paying any interest at all, according to a study carried out by digital bank Raisin, a German-based digital savings platform that connects Irish savers with high-interest deposit accounts.<\/p>\n
Raisin said the \u20ac3bn being eroded from the value of savings works out at \u20ac1,500 per household, although many Irish households have no savings at all.<\/p>\n
Interest rates paid on demand deposit accounts remain low in this country and have not moved in recent months, with an average of just 0.13pc.<\/p>\n
However, term deposits, where money has to be left in the bank for a set period to get a given interest rate, have more competitive interest rates, Raisin said.<\/p>\n
The amount put into term deposits has grown recently by about \u20ac2.5bn, Raisin said.<\/p>\n
Raisin country head for Ireland, Eoghan O\u2019Hara, said active savings behaviour made a difference, which sees people moving money to get better rates.<\/p>\n
\nBetter offers are now available<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The study estimates that once the impact of inflation is accounted for, the average household with savings lost around \u20ac730 in purchasing power on demand deposits and over \u20ac800 on current accounts last year.<\/p>\n
However, savers who chose a one-year term deposit at an average of 2.28pc at the end of 2024 earned around 17.5 times more interest last year than the average demand deposit saver.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Hara said: \u201cSavings behaviour will be decisive in 2026. Better offers are now available and actively comparing rates will matter more than European Central Bank (ECB) policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inflation continued to erode purchasing power.<\/p>\n
The most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office show inflation was at 3.2pc in the year to November, its highest level in almost two years.<\/p>\n
Raisin said the monthly average for last year works out at 2.15pc.<\/p>\n
But with demand deposit rates in Irish banks stuck at low levels of roughly 0.13pc (annual equivalent rate) on average, the real return on readily accessible savings fell to about -2pc.<\/p>\n
\u201cApplied to the estimated volume of demand deposit savings held by Irish households, this equates to a substantial loss of purchasing power, corresponding to roughly \u20ac730 per household over the year,\u201d Raisin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith roughly the same volume in deposits held in no-interest current accounts, households lost an additional \u20ac810 on these savings.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/f4f6821a-8dcc-47fb-8fb9-9a0041bd084c.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The European Central Bank. Photo: Bloomberg<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Irish savers who locked in their money at the start of the year benefited materially.<\/p>\n
A saver who invested \u20ac10,000 in a one-year term deposit at a top rate of 3.05pc Aer at the end of December 2024 earned \u20ac305 in interest before taxes in 2025.<\/p>\n
By comparison, an average demand deposit saver, even with monthly compounding, earned only around \u20ac13, or over 23 times less, Raisin said.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Hara said savings rates are likely to remain largely unchanged in the coming year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf ECB policy rates remain stable, doing nothing will continue to mean falling behind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said better offers are certainly now available, particularly for those willing to compare across providers and who are open to using term deposits to protect their savings from inflation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New research has estimated that the combined loss for savers is around \u20ac3bn. They are losing out by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[8139,79,2107,4393,18,19,17,2108],"class_list":{"0":"post-280923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-banking","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-charlie-weston","11":"tag-ecb","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-money-experts"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115882497365315882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Eoghan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/raisin_ie_eoghan_ohara.jpg\")
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