Need to Find Savings Account ASAP!

hils86

Hi - am wondering if anyone can offer some advice?

I am looking for a savings account to be opened asap - so in the next day or two. A total of between £300,000 and £400,000 will be invested, but only for a few months (between 2 and 4 I'd imagine, depending on how long a house sale takes), so there needs to be easy/instant access to the money. I had originally looked at an Abbey account at 2.5% AER, but discovered that was only after the money had been in there for 12 months.

I am a bit dense when it comes to this sort of thing, so can anyone tell me whether this, from ING Direct, also means that the money needs to be in there for at least 12 months to get the 3%?:

• New ING Direct Savings Account customers can enjoy a great variable rate of 3.00% AER (including a 1.97% gross p.a. bonus fixed for 12 months)
• Our variable rate is 1.00% AER*.

Or can anyone suggest another account that would be suitable?

Thank you very much indeed!!

Lokolo

No it doesn't, it just means the rate has a 2% bonus fixed for 12 months.

So you are getting a variable rate of 1%, PLUS a fixed rate of 2%. So if the varaible rate drops 0.5% you will have 0.5% PLUS the fixed 2%, totalling 2.5%. At the moment as you say, its 3%.

Reaper

Don't worry. You will get the interest with Abbey and ING if you close it before the year is up. The calculation of AER is to tell you how much it would work out as if you held it for a year. They calculate it on a daily basis so if you held it for half that time you would get half as much (well, that's not strictly true but I'm simplifying).

It can take a few days to open an account if you need to provide them with ID so an account with a bank you have previously had dealings with may be much quicker.

Also bare in mind you are well over the limit for FSA compensation so a safe bank is a good idea. Abbey ought to be pretty safe now it is owned by Santandar.