Best way to invest £1000?

laurenced

Hi all

Due to a !!!! up by the Student Awards Agency I'm getting a reimbursement of the Bursary I should have received this year, and as a result I'll have between £1000 and 1400 to save. I'm wondering how best to do that.

I want to hide it away so I can't get my mitts on it and spend it, but I'd like to be clever and make it earn so one day when I look at it in many years' time it'll be nice and big!

Any tips? My HBoS ISA gets a paltry 3.5% - what do you make of that?

flossy_splodge

Not a lot!! Why have you got it in an account at such a low rate? Did you put it in during the current financial year? (ie since April 6th 2006?) If not you can transfer it . Current highest paying ISA is the Saffron Waldon at 5.3% but depends on amount and other conditions. Suggest you look at their website. The new NS&I is a good bet for a new ISA at 5.05%. You need to check which have minimum payments in to themm. However if you are a student I would have thought putting the money into eg ING or similar instant access (currently paying 4.5% and drip feeding it into one of the top Regular savings accounts for the next year will maximise returns. Good Luck,:T

laurenced

The ISA I have is from some money I had a few years ago - it's empty now. I'll be receiving the reimbursement in a few days so I'm thinking about what to do with it when I get it.

I'm attracted by the NS&I Direct ISA - but I can't tell from the small print whether the 'further deposit' of £250 is monthly, annual or simply a one-off. Does anyone know this for sure? Other than that, it seems to be the best choice. The Saffron Walden ISAs don't have those tasty interest rates if the balance is below £3000 (!) so that's of no use to me.

Thanks for your help!

dunstonh

Do you want to invest or save? You mention invest in the title but say save in the post. The responses so far have focused on saving.

laurenced

dunstonh wrote:

Do you want to invest or save? You mention invest in the title but say save in the post. The responses so far have focused on saving.

Well to be honest I don't know. Obviously I want the greatest return (invest) but since I can't afford to throw £1000 away I want relative certainty (save). What kind of returns might I expect if I took the risk and invested in some way?

I realise it's not a massive amount of money in real-world investment terms, but to me it's a small fortune!!