New Saver!

Orlando_Virgin

Hi All,

My OH and I are currently saving for the deposit for our first house. I am banking with Abbey and save £800 per month into a flexible saver account whereas my girlfriend banks with Nat West and she saves £400 a month into her standard NatWest savings account, they are both instantly accessible, I am not sure of the rates etc as I have always been too lazy (plus never had anything in it anyway...:o for it to matter)

We need 10k and currently have 4k of it but both have 2k of it in each of our accounts. We will have the 10k by the end of July but I was wondering, are we in the right accounts, would it be worthwhile joining them or at least looking for accounts with better interest? Or is the amount too little with the way things are at the minute to matter? Any advice would be appreciated.

xyz123

Orlando_Virgin wrote: »

Hi All,

My OH and I are currently saving for the deposit for our first house. I am banking with Abbey and save £800 per month into a flexible saver account whereas my girlfriend banks with Nat West and she saves £400 a month into her standard NatWest savings account, they are both instantly accessible, I am not sure of the rates etc as I have always been too lazy (plus never had anything in it anyway...:o for it to matter)

We need 10k and currently have 4k of it but both have 2k of it in each of our accounts. We will have the 10k by the end of July but I was wondering, are we in the right accounts, would it be worthwhile joining them or at least looking for accounts with better interest? Or is the amount too little with the way things are at the minute to matter? Any advice would be appreciated.

If you dont already have an ISA account, i would recommend opening one. One of the best ones which is out there is the natwest E-ISA or Natwest cash isa plus. First one pays 3.51% on all balances and second one pays up to 3.51% depending on balance. Good thing is both are instant access and pay monthly interest. So that should be first consideration.

Secondly you say "standard account" with natwest. There are a number of different type of accounts with natwest. Typically highest paying interest will be offered by the e-savings account. So if u want to stick with natwest then put the money in e-savings account.

If u are happy to move money around there are a number of building societies / banks offering decenet interest rates (highest will be around 4%). More known brands like alliance & leicester and ING Direct will offer something like 3 %.

Have a look at following link to search for accounts

http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/money/savings/default.aspx?TabID=0

Cheers
J

Orlando_Virgin

xyz123 wrote: »

If you dont already have an ISA account, i would recommend opening one. One of the best ones which is out there is the natwest E-ISA or Natwest cash isa plus. First one pays 3.51% on all balances and second one pays up to 3.51% depending on balance. Good thing is both are instant access and pay monthly interest. So that should be first consideration.

Secondly you say "standard account" with natwest. There are a number of different type of accounts with natwest. Typically highest paying interest will be offered by the e-savings account. So if u want to stick with natwest then put the money in e-savings account.

If u are happy to move money around there are a number of building societies / banks offering decenet interest rates (highest will be around 4%). More known brands like alliance & leicester and ING Direct will offer something like 3 %.

Have a look at following link to search for accounts

http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/money/savings/default.aspx?TabID=0

Cheers
J

Thanks for your quick response J, I will have a look into those options, so it is worth it then even with this amount?

Would you join them, it would logically seem to be the best thing to do as the more money, the higher the interest earnt?

Orlando_Virgin

Excuse me for sounding stupid but what is this all around £3600?:-

In every tax year, the UK government lets you save up to £3,600 in a Cash ISA. (The tax year runs from 6 April until 5 April the following year.) You can only pay into one Cash ISA every tax year.

What happens when you reach the allocated amount? We currently have 4k that we would instantly transfer in to the account, we would then only be able to save until 7.6k? apologies if I'm sounding stupid here but this is all new to me. (saving that is)

Stavros_3

You can put in £3,600 each tax year to your cash Isa allowance, there is no upper or cut off level i.e 7.6k(sorry if I have misread your post) Remember you can also put £3,600 in a stocks and shares Isa also within the tax year, or put the whole £7200 in a S & S Isa

Orlando_Virgin

Stavros wrote: »

You can put in £3,600 each tax year to your cash Isa allowance, there is no upper or cut off level i.e 7.6k(sorry if I have misread your post) Remember you can also put £3,600 in a stocks and shares Isa also within the tax year, or put the whole £7200 in a S & S Isa

So, lets say we transfer the money in tomorrow for example, we can then save another month's savings in March, and then the £3.6k limit starts again in April. We can then save another 3.6k but after that no more, the money overflows into the current account?

Great sig by the way, I play hockey, that would be Gretzky that quote?

Stavros_3

Orlando_Virgin wrote: »

So, lets say we transfer the money in tomorrow for example, we can then save another month's savings in March, and then the £3.6k limit starts again in April. We can then save another 3.6k but after that no more, the money overflows into the current account?

Great sig by the way, I play hockey, that would be Gretzky that quote?

Yes, you can drip-feed your £3,600 in during the current tax year. Then come 6th April, you can bang another £3,600 in whole or in bits. You cannot put in more than that into your cash Isa. There is a section above that deals wholy with Isa's
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=18

P.S, if you withdraw any of it from the Isa, it cannot be replaced later, you will lose part of that allowance

Orlando_Virgin

Stavros wrote: »

Yes, you can drip-feed your £3,600 in during the current tax year. Then come 6th April, you can bang another £3,600 in whole or in bits. You cannot put in more than that into your cash Isa. There is a section above that deals wholy with Isa's
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=18

P.S, if you withdraw any of it from the Isa, it cannot be replaced later, you will lose part of that allowance

Christ, its scary how little I know, will read the thread, thanks for your help.

xyz123

Orlando_Virgin wrote: »

Thanks for your quick response J, I will have a look into those options, so it is worth it then even with this amount?

Would you join them, it would logically seem to be the best thing to do as the more money, the higher the interest earnt?

I am not sure what you mean when you say "would you join them" and "it is worth it even with this amount"..

If you are asking about ISAs, i have already joined them (natwest).

And with regards to the other banks, i save with natwest (opened e-savings account when it had a bonus of extra 2.1%, which is still going) so i get a decent return on the savings.

ING direct always offer a good rate for first time account openers and then the rate drops, but as you are looking at saivng for short term (till july) it should not affect you too much as usually the bonus interest rates are offered for 12 months. and ING is one of few accounts which pay interest monthly (if that is a priority/preference)...

Cheers

Orlando_Virgin

xyz123 wrote: »

I am not sure what you mean when you say "would you join them" and "it is worth it even with this amount"..

If you are asking about ISAs, i have already joined them (natwest).

And with regards to the other banks, i save with natwest (opened e-savings account when it had a bonus of extra 2.1%, which is still going) so i get a decent return on the savings.

ING direct always offer a good rate for first time account openers and then the rate drops, but as you are looking at saivng for short term (till july) it should not affect you too much as usually the bonus interest rates are offered for 12 months. and ING is one of few accounts which pay interest monthly (if that is a priority/preference)...

Cheers

Sorry I meant join the accounts together (Mine and other half) and would the interest we made off the amount we have be even worth opening an ISA for. As you say it will only be until July.

Thanks for the tips on ISA's and monthly interest, that would deffo be the only option for us.