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What do I do with interest from my bank account?
By Mehdi, Senior Sukuk Fund Manager · Updated May 2026
This question carries a lot of guilt for people, often more than it should. Let us handle it cleanly so you can move on.
The short answer: Do not keep it for yourself, and do not leave it sitting with the bank either. You give the interest away to people in need — seeking no reward for it — because it was never clean money to begin with.
Interest the bank paid you is riba. It is not yours to spend, and keeping it knowingly is the problem — but the answer is not to leave it with the bank, which simply lets the riba sit in your name. The path many scholars agree on is to take that exact amount and give it to those in need, with no expectation of reward, because you are not being generous, you are removing something that should not be there.
Where we stand: the cleanest long-term fix is to stop earning it in the first place — move to an account that pays a profit share or no return at all. The free Zakat tool has a dedicated step for working out and recording exactly this kind of purification.
Do not let shaytan use this to convince you that you are too far gone. Giving away a wrong is itself an act of return to Allah. Clean it, close the tap, and walk on.
The cleanest way to handle this is to work it out properly, not by guesswork.
The free Zakat tool walks you through it — set the method that fits you, and it calculates on live gold and silver prices, with a dedicated step for purifying anything impermissible. So you give exactly what is due, with confidence.
Open the Zakat toolThis is education, not personalized financial advice or a religious ruling. Screening status can change, and your situation is your own. Confirm a specific holding against its current Shariah screening, and any ruling with a qualified scholar you trust. The decision, as always, is yours, before Allah.