Every person should hold some cash alongside investments to guard against unexpected expenses or periods of unemployment. Cash can also be useful for making investments when opportunities in the stock market arise.

Most investment platforms pay very small levels of interest on cash balances held in a Stocks & Shares ISA, if at all. Therefore you may wish to keep any part of the cash not destined for the stock market in a bank or building society account offering higher interest with the view that you may not need the money for some time.

Cash accounts range from easy access to ones that charge a penalty if you want to access the money before a certain term is up.

As we’re talking about preparing for unexpected scenarios, you might be better off sticking with easy access Cash ISAs that do not impose any penalty on the first few withdrawals each year.

We’ve looked at some of the best buy products on the market at present, ignoring accounts which require you to be an existing customer or meet other specific criteria such as geographic location.

NS&I has the highest level of interest at 1%, closely followed by Virgin Money at 0.95%. Admittedly these aren’t very generous; but they are better than nothing. (TS)

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