Savings & investments

hi all, Looking at the current state of the ftse100 I have decided that now may be a good time to have a bit of a small dabble, when I say small I mean really small, nothing that will put me in any danger one way or the other.. but I do have a few questions... from reading previous discussions on here it would appear that…

It seems to be performing a lot worse than its peers at the moment, falling over 9% in the past month. I can't really understand what it is holding that is causing it to fall so far. Latest factsheet suggests it is positioned fairly conservatively, with ~30% Government bonds (mainly UK, German and US AFAICT) and 35% BBB…

Savings in NS&I provide a form of borrowing for the government. In the last few years, the target for this sum has hovered around £10bn-£11bn. Buried in the detail of today's budget was an announcement that next year the "net financing" from NS&I will fall sharply to £6bn. That's a huge slide and with no underlying trend…

Just had an email from them: "Savings interest rates have declined over the past few months. To reflect this, we'll be lowering the interest rate on your Marcus account by 0.05%, effective from 10 March 2020."

just had a scary email from al rayan saying:- "to continue to use their digital banking service you must download and register for their new mobile banking app before 26 february. but to use the app you must have a compatible smart phone or device and it must be be operating at least version 12 (iOS) or version 8…

This week marks the start of my investment strategy described here. The strategy in short: buy and hold index tracking ETFs' 2+ years call options where the strike is roughly half of the underlying price. Check the portfolio monthly and re-balance if the leverage is more than 10% off from the target 2:1 ratio, or the…

Scottish Widows * Has anyone any experience in using this provider as an ISA? * Has anyone any thoughts/views on their environmental fund?

Hi all I'm a newbie to the forum and wanted give you lovely money savers a heads-up about the experience my 82-year-old mum has been through this week with a company called Alternative Investments (assetconsultingservices.com). I have already reported them in detail to the FCA, Action Fraud and have also emailed Rip Off…

For those who are curious to compare their Passive or Active investment strategies I'm starting a new thread today with monthly updates (Bottom lines only in £). For details see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5719517/great-british-invest-off-or-passive-v-active-discussion Monthly updates on portfolio…

im interested in winning premium bond holders , or not as the case may be , please post your winnings and holding as well as length of time held , i have a theory that newer bonds win more prizes , id prefer not to make this a discussion area of that arguement but i would be interested in your winnings just a bit of…

I have £90k in easy access account paying 4.5%, want to utilize it better, been thinking of either: Buy to let, purchase one bed flat for around £250k; £90k deposit borrow the rest. This will keep me busy as have free time. Net rent app 5% taxable at 40% plus tenant's headaches and compliances. Plus point is property…

Hi, Has anyone had issues signing up to Union Bank of India at all? I was wanting to open a fixed rate savings account as recommended on MSE. I complete the form and hit the 'verify' email address. This is supposed to send an OTP to my email which I then enter on the site. However, the OTP never arrives…… I tried several…

Hi all. I have a saving account with Chase which I keep around 30k in. I get interest paid on the first of every month and the account is 4.5% AER Boosted. At the end of August I had 31k in my account. On the 1st of September I put in £1000 and made no withdrawals during the month. I checked what interest I had earned this…

Hi, I currently have stocks and shares ISA with Scottish Widow, some in part from old single company PEPs and do not trade but keep what I have but they seem to charge me £5 per reinvestment of dividends so if there is only say £10 half goes in fees. Trading 212 have told me there is no charge for reinvesting dividends…

An elderly relative has a couple of savings accounts with Kent Reliance. KR are moving these to online management only. She doesn’t feel happy about online banking so has asked me to manage them for her. I have power of attorney although have never needed to use it before. She’s perfectly sound of mind; just doesn’t want…

Hello! Given the odd few conversations here and there and a very helpful private message reply too, I just want to see what people's thoughts are on how best to keep tax records - especially for things like regular savers, 1-year fixed rate savings accounts, ISAs etc. I understand that the level of pedanticism we go to…

I am preparing for all eventualities, not just my death, as things will take their course when I die, but I am considering how to prepare for an unexpected situation where I can suddenly no longer manage my finances eg road accident, stroke etc. I have LPAs in place, my son and my daughter, with granddaughter as reserve,…

NS&I will increase the prize-fund rate on its Premium Bonds to 4.35% (from 3.8%) for the September draw and beyond. Read the full story: Premium Bonds prize rate to rise to 4.35% – how do they compare? If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

That could be totally wrong which is why I used the word seem (seems to me). Also with "the knowledge" I'm referring to people will more knowledge than me, which will be pretty much all of you & most people I will encounter on any kind of financial forum like this one. Obviously these things aren't factually correct,…

All, how is it possible to close Chip completely? I only went in to bag the £30 bonus, have zeroed both the investment account and the savings account, left it a month for the pending interest (9p) to show and drew that out, as they state zero balance is needed. Now I have zero in savings, zero in the investment account,…