More than £50,000 advice needed

Daisey

At the moment I am a non-tax payer so most of our savings are in my name only so I can claim gross interest, which means I have more than £50,000 in my name only.

My husband and I both have cash ISAs with the Halifax currently at £25,000 each and we haven't used this years allowances. Yeterday I opened a Halifax Guaranteed Reward account at 6% fixed for a year, and transferred in £20,000 from a non Halifax savings account. I also have a regular saver and a web saver account with the Halifax, which I use to top up our current account when needed. This just about max's out my Halifax savings to the £50,000 safe limit, but I have almost £15,000 left in the other savings account.

My husband could transfer his ISA to a Halifax fixed rate ISA and get 5.25 % fixed for a year.

My main question is should I do the same with my ISA and find a better home for the extra £15,000 outside of the Halifax, or should I try and find a better ISA to transfer mine into and move the £15,000 into the Guaranteed Reward? I don't want to cash in my ISA as I will become a tax payer again in a couple of years when I get my pension.

Hope this question makes sense and would be grateful for any advice, and also where to move the money to, or is it best to wait until all of the rates come down?

Thanks
Daisey

earlgrey_3

Most people would consider me cautious, I never saw the risk/reward of the Icelandic banks as being attractive and kept well away, but I see the £50K FSCS limit as largely irrelevant now. It's a political fact that having bailed out depositors in Icelandic banks the government are now obliged to guarantee deposits in British banks.

At the same time it makes sense to have some savings in more than one institution if possible regardless of whether you're covered by the FSCS. I'd suggest you get your ISA allowance in the best paying fixed rate ISA and perhaps look at http://www.krbs.co.uk/1yearfixedbond.aspx paying 6% fixed for a year. No one knows just how far rates to savers will fall and I certainly wouldn't wait to find out. Download the form today and you should just be in time.

If you aren't paying tax then an ISA won't save you any but you might still be wise to take each year's allowance if you could become a taxpayer in future.