How much of my savings is protected by the FSCS?

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The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protects UK depositors' savings if their bank, building society, or credit union fails, but understanding exactly how the £85,000 limit is applied -- particularly the crucial "per licence" rule -- is essential to avoid a common and costly misunderstanding. **The core protection limit** FSCS protects up to £85,000 of an individual's savings held with a single authorised institution -- if the institution fails, FSCS compensation covers deposits up to this limit, though this figure is periodically reviewed and can change, so it's worth checking the current limit on the FSCS website. **The critical "per licence", not "per brand", rule** The single most important and most commonly misunderstood aspect of FSCS protection is that the £85,000 limit applies per BANKING LICENCE, not per separately branded savings product or app -- many well-known savings brands are actually trading names operating under the SAME underlying banking licence as a parent bank or another brand, meaning money held across those "different" brands is combined together and only protected up to a single combined £85,000, not £85,000 for each brand separately. **How to check which brands share a licence** FSCS provides an online tool allowing savers to check which brands share a banking licence with which other brands -- given how common it is for banking groups to operate multiple savings brands under one licence (often not obvious from branding alone), it's essential to actively check this rather than assume that different-sounding brand names automatically mean separate protection. **Joint accounts get a combined higher limit** For a joint account held by two people, the protection limit effectively doubles to £170,000 for that specific institution, since each named account holder is separately entitled to £85,000 of protection, and this combines across the shared joint account -- this differs from simply having two individual accounts each protected to £85,000, since a joint account's protection is specifically calculated based on the number of named holders. **Temporary high balances get extra protection** FSCS provides additional, separate, higher protection (which can extend well beyond the standard £85,000, for a limited time, typically six months) for certain "temporary high balances" arising from specific life events -- for example, money recently received from a house sale, an inheritance, a redundancy payment, or an insurance payout -- recognising that people can legitimately and temporarily hold much larger sums than usual around such events. **Spreading savings across genuinely separate institutions** For savers with total savings well above £85,000, the standard advice is to spread money across genuinely SEPARATE banking licences (not just separate brand names) to ensure each portion remains within the FSCS protection limit -- this requires actively checking, via the FSCS tool, that the institutions chosen don't actually share an underlying licence with each other. **NS&I products have their own separate, unlimited-style protection** Money held with National Savings & Investments (NS&I), including Premium Bonds and NS&I savings accounts, is backed directly by the UK Government (via HM Treasury) rather than through the standard FSCS scheme -- this means NS&I products are effectively 100% protected regardless of amount, making them a useful option for savers wanting to hold sums well above the standard £85,000 FSCS limit without needing to spread money across multiple separate banking licences. **Building societies and credit unions are covered too** FSCS protection isn't limited to banks -- building societies and credit unions authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority are covered under the same £85,000 (or £170,000 joint account) structure, so the same "per licence" checking principle applies equally when spreading savings across these types of institution too. **Practical tip** Before assuming your savings spread across several accounts are all separately protected, use the official FSCS "which banks are covered" checking tool to confirm each brand you hold savings with operates under a genuinely separate banking licence, since combining balances across "different" brands that actually share a licence is one of the most common and financially significant mistakes savers make when trying to protect large sums.

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