Free tool
How much of your money is actually protected?
FSCS protection is £120,000 per depositor per authorised firm — not per account, and not per brand. Holding Mettle and NatWest does not give you two allowances. Neither does Virgin Money and Nationwide. Add what you hold and see where you actually stand.
The mistake this is built to catch
People spread money across brands believing each carries its own guarantee. Protection is per authorised firm, and several familiar brands share one:
- Mettle, NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank and Coutts all sit under National Westminster Bank plc.
- Virgin Money and Nationwide share a limit. Virgin states plainly that combined eligible deposits are covered to £120,000.
- Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Halifax are one firm.
- HSBC and first direct are one firm.
- Santander and Cahoot, and Co-operative Bank and smile, likewise.
Mettle is the one that catches business owners most often. It is a NatWest Group product, so a business reserve at Mettle and a personal account at NatWest draw on a single allowance.
What this does not cover
Temporary high balances — from a property sale, an insurance payout or redundancy — can carry up to £1m of cover for six months. Money held in trust, and some client accounts, are treated differently. If either applies, the FSCS is the place to check rather than this tool.
We also assume every balance is an eligible deposit. Most business current and savings accounts are. Some products, including investment-based ones like Wise Business Interest, are not deposits at all.
Where the data comes from
Firm groupings are from our deposit protection register, built from the FCA Financial Services Register and each provider’s own disclosures. Groupings change when banks restructure. The FSCS bank and savings checker is the authoritative source — use it before acting on anything here.
Nothing you enter is sent anywhere. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and nothing is stored.
Common questions
How much is FSCS protection?
£120,000 per eligible depositor per authorised firm. It is not per account, and not per brand — several familiar brands share a single licence and therefore a single limit.
Do Mettle and NatWest share an FSCS limit?
Yes. Mettle is a trading name of National Westminster Bank plc, so Mettle, NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank and Coutts all draw on one £120,000 allowance rather than five.
Do Virgin Money and Nationwide share a limit?
Yes. Virgin Money states that your combined eligible deposits with Virgin Money and Nationwide are covered up to £120,000. Since Nationwide is the UK’s largest building society, a lot of people hold both without realising.
Is money with Wise or ANNA protected?
Not by the FSCS. Both are electronic money institutions rather than banks, so funds are safeguarded in segregated accounts. That is genuine protection, but recovery runs through an administration process rather than a statutory guarantee.
How do I protect more than £120,000?
Spread it across genuinely separate authorised firms, checking the firm rather than the brand. A temporary high balance from a property sale or similar may carry up to £1m of cover for six months — check with the FSCS directly if that applies.
Does the business account and my personal account share a limit?
At the same firm, yes. The limit is per eligible depositor per firm. A sole trader’s business and personal balances at one bank share an allowance. For a limited company the company is a separate legal person, so its deposits are assessed separately from yours — but the company’s own balances across that firm’s brands still share one limit.