this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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Hi, since https://feddit.uk/c/ukpersonalfinance seems to be locked I'll ask my question more broadly.

What's a good place to find out about banks worth opening savings accounts with that avoid major fossil fuel (and other bad things) investment? The usual suspects that are on the street protesting don't seem to actually have divestment lists.

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[–] GreatAlbatross 6 points 1 year ago

It's tricky finding anything out about a lot of places. If you're interested in investments instead of savings, you could look at ESG funds. They generally have mandates to avoid fossil fuel investments.

Though in my experience, it just means more tech stocks!

BristolPost seems to have an article with a reasonably up-to-date list of a lot of places. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/climate-change-list-uk-banks-8396310

(And yes, the locking of subs...It still all needs working out. Moderators are not set in stone. I've popped up an alternative for now, still need to get all the information together: https://feddit.uk/c/personalfinance )

[–] mark 5 points 1 year ago

Ethical Consumer do a decent job in assessing this sort of stuff, so if you are generally interested then it might be worth a subscription https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/

[–] snacks 4 points 1 year ago

Co Op Savings have for a long time had more ethical investments, as have Tridos Bank. HSBC still don’t seem to have solved their Mexican death squads issue.

I have used wealthify for a pension, they offer isa savings and pensions with higher esg scores, you let them manage it for you for a small fee, few pounds a month.

I’ve also used freetrade and just bought shares in an ISA for companies I consider to be more ethical, but with capital you must dance with the devil to some degree. The problem I had with freetrade is the fee changes but they have free accounts still, you just pay for the transactions instead. You can just invest in wind farms (TRIG) or hydrogen or something like that. I’ve had mixed results and not really made any money.

[–] mark 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Building societies are usually a good bet. Natienwide have a reasonably competitive selection to choose from.

[–] ilidur 3 points 1 year ago

I looked at nationwide before posting and found their 3 withdrawal fixed term to be quite competitive at 3.0%