First timer - help with money saving

simonj90

Hi,
Regular reader of the forum but just starting to post now. Hope people can help me to decide on some future plans for my money.

I'm wanting to try and find out what to do with my money in the new year and how best to work forward to acheive it etc.

I'll give some details to hopefully make it easy. I'm 28 and living at home at the moment hence why i can do a bit of saving with the long term goal in 2-3 years being a house.

I've currently got:
Natwest current bank account. My wages go in here. I keep about £500 in here. I earn about 1200 a month after tax so not a large amount but i can save at least half each month.

Britannia fixed 6% ISA. I've got 7k in here and it is fixed till Dec09.

Britannia Direct Saver Reserve. I've got about 11k in here. It is now approx 3.5% or something like that. Not that great. I put roughly half my wages in here each month. This used to be a good rate until recently it has fallen.

Abbey Direct ISA. I've got 3.6k in here which i think is at about 4%.

I've subscribed to my full cash ISA amount this year so come April i will be able to add more in.

My questions are:
Come April where should i stick my latest isa allowance in to?
I'm trying to split money between banks so if the worst came to the worst ive got ready cash. That just seems obvious to do this where possible.
The britannia fixed rate would seem to the obvious place to put it but i imagine that would drop a lot lower the next time causing a bit of a faff at some point moving it around.

I'm also wondering if anyone could advise if i could be doing better on my rates and if there seems to be any obvious errors and anything i should look at changing?

Thanks in advance.
Simon.

tradetime

I notice apart from your ISA's you have no fixed rate deposit accounts, possibly you could look at that, assuming of course you are in a position to lock some money up for a year or so ICICI seem to have a fixed rate 12 month deposit offering 5.10%, but this would be money gone for the duration. otherwise I'd sit tight until after I think it is Jan 14th when BOE meets again to set interest rates, this is likely to spur another roundof rate cuts amongst banks so I doubt it is worth chasing after any variable rates until the dust settles. As to your future ISA, will be a case of looking for the best rate nearer the time