Confused by Savings! Help!

lazy&indebt

Before you start saying this is on the wrong board - I put it here because I never get a response from anywhere else and you lot are brainy!

Currently bunging cash into an ISA and am due to hit the £3k allowance in a couple of months (before end of tax year) where on earth shall i stick my savings then? I am saving about £500 per month and have no lump sum to put in (the £3k in my ISA will be paying off my 0% CC)

DontDoDebtKids

You have many options:

1) Shares ISA - up to £4000 (warning: risk involved but could get very good returns from high yield shares)

2) Down Back of the Sofa

3) High Interest Savings account - try ICICI for a stable 5.15% or another account for 5.5%ish introductory rate.

Martin does good savings articles - updated in todays tip I believe.

Also, have you considered paying off your debts by the £500 a month instead?

lazy&indebt

Cheers dude....down the back of the sofa it is

I have considered that but all my debts are either on 0% or they wo't let me make overpayments so i figure I'll earn some interest on the cash instead!

peterg1965

have a look at instant access online savings accounts. There are lots, they pay around 5% interest (taxable) but it allows you have have quick access to your money. I have an ING account (pays 4.75%) but there are others that pay more. I am no expert but it sounds as though you are not in a position to use the remaining ISA allowance which tends to be for longer term savings. Some other things, if you are married has you other half got an instant access savings ISA? If not he could take one out and you could use this for more tax free savings? Shop around for the best rates with instant access ISA's. Hope this helps.

Gemmzie

If you are paying a regular amount every month then why not stick it in a regular saver?

Halifax is currently paying 7% (up to £250 a month)

If you have a Barclays account, theirs is 10% for up to £250 per month also

flowerofscotland

You could try premium bonds - you won't get any interest but you are guaranteed to get your money back and you could win one or more prizes. And they are of course tax free.

lazy&indebt

Gemmzie wrote:

If you are paying a regular amount every month then why not stick it in a regular saver?

Halifax is currently paying 7% (up to £250 a month)

If you have a Barclays account, theirs is 10% for up to £250 per month also

The thing is - this is exactly the account I am looking for but what I don't understand is why Martin advises people to use an instant acces ISA first (with non taxable interest of around 5% AER) when you can stick your cash into that barclay's one you have quoted and earn about 7-8% AER? Surely it makes more sense to use this type of account rather than an ISA?

lazy&indebt

flowerofscotland wrote:

You could try premium bonds - you won't get any interest but you are guaranteed to get your money back and you could win one or more prizes. And they are of course tax free.

I will probably look into doing this once I am debt free, ther is always a chance I could win £1,000,000! Even though I am the unluckiest person ever.

Does anyone have any info on any other NS&I products?

bpyoung

If you're reasonably good with numbers, disciplined and can follow simple instructions, you'd make far better returns on your money by learning about matched betting:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=153246

this is *NOT* gambling (unlike investing in shares or premium bonds).

Hereward

lazy&indebt wrote:

The thing is - this is exactly the account I am looking for but what I don't understand is why Martin advises people to use an instant acces ISA first (with non taxable interest of around 5% AER) when you can stick your cash into that barclay's one you have quoted and earn about 7-8% AER? Surely it makes more sense to use this type of account rather than an ISA?

The AER on regular savers is a lot less than that on the best ISAs as you only get the headline rate on the first installment of your savings. All subseqent savings are paid at the headline rate / 12 * number of months remaining (pleae note this is a very simple explatation as it does quite work out this way).

lazy&indebt

bpyoung wrote:

If you're reasonably good with numbers, disciplined and can follow simple instructions, you'd make far better returns on your money by learning about matched betting:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=153246

this is *NOT* gambling (unlike investing in shares or premium bonds).

Yes I have done some reading about this, unfortunately, I don't have access to the internet at home otherwise I'd start looking into it more. What kind of a return do you usually get?