Is savings account interest accrued and posted monthly?

Answer 1

It depends on the terms and conditions etc of the type of savings account. Some savings accounts have interest calculated monthly (on daily balances), and credit the amount of interest to the account monthly. Others do an annual calculation of interest, also based on daily cleared balances, but only credit the account once a year.

If interest is credited each month, each subsequent month you also get interest on the interest previously credited to the account. Alternately, if the interest is paid/credited only annually, the sum credited is the total interest for the year.

Interest rates are quoted taking these factors into account. An account which credits interest monthly will always pay a slightly lower Gross rate of interest than an account that has an annual interest period. This is to take account of the fact that the return on an account where the balance is increasing monthly (due to interest being added each month) will always give a higher return in the year compared to an an account with the same Gross interest rate, but which is calculated and credited only once a year.