Best savings

sanj25

Hi,

Can can someone please help in choosing the best savings option.

So far, I have seen the below options -

Cash ISA -

Egg 6.05%

Regular savings -

Barclays 7.75%,

I also found out that Abbey are giving 10% AER, however you also have to invest a min of £2500 for 42 months. Not sure about the rate?

If I have surplus cash still, where would be best place to put it.

Thanks

Sanj

Trying_to_be_good

Normal rule is always fill your cash ISA first, if you're ever likely to be a tax payer. Then go for highest rate non-ISA savings account.

Martin's articles are very good - links at the top of the page, http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account. You can learn a lot from them, but come back and ask questions if you want more help.

Happy saving!

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I'd suggest the following:

1. As you're aware generally ISA's are a good place to start:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sav...gs-without-tax
and http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....html?t=401374

2. Regular savings accounts are good too:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sav...vings-accounts
and http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....html?t=608697

Regular savings accounts are generally a good place for new money e.g. monthly pay cheques, however if for example you have £3k in a 6% high-interest bank account drip-feeding into a 10% regular savings account then you're essentially getting 8% interest on average for your £3k which beats most fixed rate products - albeit with a bit more work.

3. If you want something with a little less work then fixed rate savings accounts are a good option:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sav...interest#fixed
and http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-...&in_page_id=50

4. One other thing you might like to consider is getting a decent instant access savings account:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sav...st#topaccounts
and http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-...&in_page_id=50

5. Finally if you're a higher rate tax payer then NS&I's 3 and 5 year Index Linked Savings (http://www.nsandi.com/products/ilsc/index.jsp) look good, paying 1% above the RPI inflation rate. Currently this is 5.0% so that’s a rate of 6.0% overall.

The attractiveness of these is that the savings are tax-free meaning it's better for higher-rate taxpayers. Basic rate taxpayers would need to earn 7.5% in a normal savings account to match this, while higher rate taxpayers would need 10.0%.

One thing to note is if inflation drops then so does the rate for these savings. It'll always be higher than inflation and tax free though. It's also best to leave the cash in there for at least three years though and at least £100 must be deposited (maximum is £15,000), so it's not for those who want a short term place to save.

melita666

Hrrmph, I just tried to take out an Egg ISA as advertised on this website:

"you don't need to take out any other Egg products" - untrue.

I went through the whole online registration procedure for them to tell me I don't exist, then when I eventually managed to get through to a human being rather than a machine on the phone, they told me I needed an Egg account first. So don't waste your time with that one.