Savings account for money from house sale, not good with online banking

dag_2

Hello everyone.

My mum has just sold her house! Hooray!

The plan was that she would stay in rented accommodation while looking for her next house, given that house prices aren't really rising at the moment, and given that we thought that selling her previous house might be more difficult than buying the next one.

In the mean time, the money should rightfully go into some of the best paying no-notice savings accounts, like those offered by Kaupthing Edge, Anglo Irish and Firstsave and the like.

But there's a snag. My mum, who's in her sixties, is not very confident with this whole computers and internet and shopping around thingy. Her husband was better with it, but he passed away a couple of years ago - in fact that's partly why she wanted to sell up and move house in the first place.

As a result, she's making do with interest rates of around 3.5%.

To be perfectly blunt, my view of this is that this avoidance of internet banking is costing her - and therefore also my inheritance - hundreds if not thousands of pounds a month. That's comparable to my take-home pay, and I can't seem to get it through to her that this is way more important than looking out for "buy one get one free" offers at the supermarket.

Of course, this situation will only last as long as she's sitting on the cash and doesn't use it to buy her next house. However, I don't think that buying a sub-standard house in a hurry would be the solution to the problem.

Any suggestions? I don't want her to feel that I'm muscling in and trying to take control of her finances; I'd rather she was able to do it for herself. But the clock's ticking, and I can't just not do anything about it at all. Thanks.

nzseries1

dag wrote: »

costing her - and therefore also my inheritance - hundreds if not thousands of pounds a month.

I love this bit of your post

In my opinion, Kaupthing Edge has the most simple and easy to use interface of all the accounts I've seen.

Also, you don't have to worry about direct debits like you do with some places e.g. Bradford and Bingley, FirstSave. It's simply a transfer of money to and from a particular sort code and account number. Plus, like I said before, the interface is very simple and uncluttered.

Perhaps you could convince her to apply for the account, and you could run through it with her, and show her how easy it is. Make it clear that if she still doesn't like it, it hasn't cost her anythinig to apply!

DocProc

Here's a good site for you.

It's actually kept bang up to date and it's provided by the Financial Services Authority (the FSA) so it is not biased in any way. Here's a link:

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/tables/bespoke/SavingsAccount

Simply select what are the appropriate criteria for your Mum and then make a Short List.

eg,

She probably does NOT want to make regular deposits.

She might want NOT to give any notice. There again , she might not mind giving up to 30 days notice or you might want to show ALL.

Sorting the final list using AER% might be best.

It would be quite unusual if she wanted to see accounts that were NOT taxable. She would need to produce a special form from the Revenue for this type of account.

Don't forget that for this financial year she can open a Cash ISA and also add to it or even open a seperate one again next financial year. You will merely need to lower the amount to be saved down to £3,600 to have these included by the tool and then print a special Short List just for Cash ISAs.

Once you have made a List and printed it out, then you just need to get rid of the Online accounts - the ones that are Internet only. Perhaps a black marker? And how about a yellow highlighter for the good ones?

newcastlebelle

Docproc what an excellant site...........really useful info and unbiased

bigbloke45

dag, maybe you should do a bit of research and then tell her how much she is missing out on?

The point being that the bank is keeping the difference between what she could get and what she's getting at the moment.

Surely she must trust you not to make off with her money if you go internet only?

I had the same situation with my parents; but once they got the idea that I would manage their money on-line and keep them updated and fully in the picture , they were really grateful and made a good little profit over the years!

Good luck, I know it isn't easy!

dag_2

Thanks to nzseries for the good point. She doesn't even have internet banking enabled on her own current account yet, to the best of my knowledge. Also, she says that when she had to deal with internet banking interfaces as part of the process of calling in her late husband's assets, it sent her into a panic.

But you're right; if a newbie starts off with savings accounts that have very small initial deposits, then they can play around with it, and it should be possible to reassure them that it really makes no odds if they make any mistakes from time to time.

Surely she must trust you not to make off with her money if you go internet only?

I had the same situation with my parents; but once they got the idea that I would manage their money on-line and keep them updated and fully in the picture , they were really grateful and made a good little profit over the years!

Yeah,
I thought about being the intermediary between her and the bank, and handling all the banking user interfaces myself. I was hoping to avoid doing it this way, not just because of my mum but also because of my sister. My mother has already fallen out with one of her own sisters over an inheritance dispute that's tangled up with a dispute over the way that my grandmother was cared for in the last few years of her life. So I don't want my own sister to start to think that the same thing might be going on with me!

Question for bigbloke45: do you handle only savings deposits and withdrawals for your folks, or do you ensure that all their utility bills get paid as well? Or have you left bill payment up to them?

I think my mum would probably appreciate it a hell of a lot if I offered to cut out the bureaucracy of all the form-filling routines she undertakes to get her bills paid. That's probably a good way to break the ice on the issue. Thanks.