Saving Advice

TomTom88

Hey guys im new to all this! Right at the moment im with northern rock for a current account and an ISA but its not really saving me that much money! So my question is whats the best out there at the moment??
Also I have fiance out at the moment with GMAC for a car I bought at the start of the year i think it was 7k ish that i took out, is this a bad idea being with this company? Can I save any money here? id like to pay it off as soon as posible. Also im running two cars is there any insurance groups that will take both cars on one policy? As im paying £1400 for one and about £1000 for the other.

Abit of an essay but any help welcome! Thanks

TomTom88

anybody?

shadowdragon

insurance wise, why you running two cars? because if your tinkering with one and planning on doing it up ect, or use it for trade you could consider getting a trade policy, I have one and its only third party and covers me up to 5k cars in my keeping, I have it cos the odd 100quid car pops up to tinker with and thats approx 400quid with 1 years no claims.

This is my broker and they are excellent v helpful and efficient.

http://www.crowthorne.co.uk/

TomTom88

shadowdragon wrote: »

insurance wise, why you running two cars? because if your tinkering with one and planning on doing it up ect, or use it for trade you could consider getting a trade policy, I have one and its only third party and covers me up to 5k cars in my keeping, I have it cos the odd 100quid car pops up to tinker with and thats approx 400quid with 1 years no claims.

This is my broker and they are excellent v helpful and efficient.

http://www.crowthorne.co.uk/

One im fixing up as a weekend car and the other is my cheap run around for work etc. I never thought of doing that! thanks for the info. :beer:

TomTom88

anybody else?

Crabman

Hi Tom - I've moved this to the Savings & Investing Board

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

TomTom88

no ideas?

LongTermLurker

TomTom88 wrote: »

Hey guys im new to all this! Right at the moment im with northern rock for a current account and an ISA but its not really saving me that much money! So my question is whats the best out there at the moment??

Re Current Accounts, the highest paying is Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct at 8.5% for the first year on the forst £2500, but then you would be well advised to move because the rate after that will drop to about 1% - if you wanted to save monthly and don't keep a lot in a current account, then the other A&L account is the Premier (NOT direct!) at 1% for the first year/first £2500; the beauty though is that you can have a 12% Regular Saver account attached to it. So if you tend to pay your DDs as soon as your wage goes in, and have up to £250 left over each month, you could put the £250 into the 12% RS account and not worry about only getting 1% on the current account because there'd never be anything in it. You have to put £500pm into either current account.

At 12%, even if you're a 40% tax payer, that's better than any cash ISA. The only thing about an ISA is that it stays tax free forever, but at 9.6% after basic rate tax, I would be tempted to use this for a year (the 12% account only runs for a year and you can only ever have one of them).

Another alternative is Halifax' Regular Saver which pays 10%pa or 12% if you also tie up £5000 in a linked Guaranteed Saver account for a year - the Halifax account closes on 20 July so if you're interested, act sharpish. The best thing about the Halifax RS is that you can put up to £500pm in it.

The best options for you will depend on whether you want to put away a lump sum, or so much each month; whether you have already started paying into an ISA this year, how much tax you pay and how much you could put in an ISA this year and in the future.

I'm not sure about current ISA rates, but you could take a look at Moneyfacts for the latest top rates.

briona

TomTom88 wrote: »

Hey guys im new to all this! Right at the moment im with northern rock for a current account and an ISA but its not really saving me that much money! So my question is whats the best out there at the moment??
Also I have fiance out at the moment with GMAC for a car I bought at the start of the year i think it was 7k ish that i took out, is this a bad idea being with this company? Can I save any money here? id like to pay it off as soon as posible. Also im running two cars is there any insurance groups that will take both cars on one policy? As im paying £1400 for one and about £1000 for the other.

Abit of an essay but any help welcome! Thanks

Hi TomTom

I know someone suggested something with relation to insuring two cars (which I didn't really read!) Have you looked at multi-car policies? We have a multi-car policy with Admiral, with two cars insured on it at any one time. I'm not the policy holder (just a named driver) so I can't tell you much more about it really. Why not see if one of your existing providers has a multi-car policy.

With regards to savings accounts, you need to look first at how accessible you want your money to be, e.g., some accounts, charge for withdrawals,, some require a minimum balance etc... Then you need to look at the current best buy tables (see links below). Obviously your first port of call should be to use up your ISA allowance, after which a high paying regular saver (if you can afford a set amount each month) or a top instant access account, e.g., Kaupthing Edge.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts

Hope that helps.

Briona