What should I be doing?

Kerrvin

Hi Guys, looking for a bit of advice on what I should be doing with my savings. I have a terrible habit of just letting money build up in my current account and not moving it anywhere. Here's my current situation....

Current Account (Halifax) - £10597.65
Guaranteed Saver (Halifax) - £557.97
ISA (Halifax) - £10139.40 (current Interest rate: 0.10% Gross pa)
Mortgage (Halifax) - -£59402.40 ......This is for a property which I rent out and not the one I live in. I have had it for 13 months

Any advice would be appreciated. My maturity date was last Sept for my ISA so I am able to move it elsewhere. Also, should I be put some into paying my mortgage or not???

Look forward to hearing from you.

tashalove

Wow! Compared to me you are like mega rich but you are definitely not making your money work for you.

I would definitely suggesting transferring your ISA to one of the top deals available at the moment. Easy access or fixed depending on you financial circumstances and whether you need the money at short notice. Even if it's just 2%-3% it definitely beats leaving your money in a disgraceful 0.10% interest paying account.

The money in your current account I would advise moving into a high interest paying savings account. Current accounts usually pay rubbish rates so with £10k in your account..you are missing out on alot.

I can't advise on mortgage unfortunately and you've probably noticed that my above suggestions are all quite basic saving techniques. If you are a bit more adventurous, I think there are plenty of other well informed members here who can point you in the right direction of investments etc.

But if you are not a risk taker like me, then I would definitely make the most of ISAs and savings accounts

Hope that helps!

Lokolo_2

Kerrvin wrote: »

Hi Guys, looking for a bit of advice on what I should be doing with my savings. I have a terrible habit of just letting money build up in my current account and not moving it anywhere. Here's my current situation....

Current Account (Halifax) - £10597.65
Guaranteed Saver (Halifax) - £557.97
ISA (Halifax) - £10139.40 (current Interest rate: 0.10% Gross pa)
Mortgage (Halifax) - -£59402.40 ......This is for a property which I rent out and not the one I live in. I have had it for 13 months

Any advice would be appreciated. My maturity date was last Sept for my ISA so I am able to move it elsewhere. Also, should I be put some into paying my mortgage or not???

Look forward to hearing from you.

Hi!

The first thing I would say is you need to kick the habbit of gathering so much money in your current account, as it's probably paying peanuts in interest, the money from your income that you don't need to pay for living costs, you should either add this to your Cash ISA if you haven't deposited up to to the £5100 limit for this year already, or simply put it into an instant access savings account, Post Office are currently offering 2.9% which is better than the near nothing your current account is probably paying! :j

My second thought is that you should definitely transfer your ISA to another provider, 0.1% is pitiful and you will regret not getting a good return, over a year it could make a difference of hundred of pounds lost interest! So have a look at the Banking/Saving tab on this site and look at the ISA section, there are plenty of providers offering better rates to which you could transfer to, only one thing to bear in mind is it may be worth waiting a tiny bit longer as there is speculation of some better ISA rates to come short before the new tax year in April :T

How much is the guaranteed saver paying? If the rate is low then its also worth moving this money elsewhere.

Not sure about the mortgage as I've never had one myself (too young!), I'll let someone with a bit more experience comment.

CLAPTON

what about telling us the interest rates on all these products?

Newbie2saving

A lot of people advise to pay off mortgage as soon as possible. What interest rate is your mortgage at?

Re savings I would take advantage of the Lloyds TSB Classic Vantage account paying 4% on balances >5K - 7K, you have to transfer a £1000 in per month, but it can be swept in and out instantaneously. Open 2, that way you can maximise the interest paid.

What interest rates are you getting on the Halifax Guaranteed Saver?

Re the ISA, get the money out asap, BUT let your provider do it for you for it to remain tax free. Halifax currently doing 2.8% aer, but 3% if you have other accounts with them. Or think about fixing, sounds like it could be ideal for you if you don't like chasing the best rates annually. Fix for 2-3 yrs for a good rate. Have a look at this article http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa from MSE.

Mikeyorks

Kerrvin wrote: »

Current Account (Halifax) - £10597.65
Guaranteed Saver (Halifax) - £557.97
ISA (Halifax) - £10139.40 (current Interest rate: 0.10% Gross pa)
.

That's pretty rubbish?

Move the ISA internally within Halifax to their 3% rate (2.8% + 0.2% because you have a currrent account) ... that's a quick fix.

Close the Guaranteed Saver .... it's neither here nor there in interest terms. And takes 48 hrs to move it to your current account ..... not that you need it with that excess in there.

Open a Lloyds Classic + Vantage ..... and move £7k into it. You then get 4% on that (balances between £5k and £7k) instead of 0% where it is. If - with the £558 - you can move £10k to Lloyds then you can open 2 Vantage accounts with £5k in each? But .... you need to fund those accounts with £1k monthly to get that interest rate. With 2 x accounts you just move £1k from A to B and back again - job done. With one account you just move £1k from Halifax and straight back again. Faster Payments on all accounts ..... so only takes minutes.

You get 0% interest on values over £7k at Lloyds - so move any excess (it's monthly interest) out. Even though you're getting 0% at Halifax, so must be used to it ...... it's not a good idea!

Newbie2saving

Just to highlight the ISA at 3% would be paying you £304/annum instead of £10 at 0.1% if you changed to the better Halifax account.

If you did 2 Vantage accounts with LLoyds you would get £424/annum (before tax).

Compound that kind of interest and it soon adds up over time.

Kerrvin

Thanks for all your comments. I am definitely going to get on to sorting all of this out tomorrow- I keep putting it off and putting it off.
To answer a few of your questions....
Current Account (Halifax) - £10597.65 (Reward Current AC- unsure of interest rate)
Guaranteed Saver (Halifax) - £557.97 (current Interest rate: 0.10% Gross pa)
ISA (Halifax) - £10139.40 (current Interest rate: 0.10% Gross pa)
Mortgage (Halifax) - -£59402.40 (2yr tracker, started last year.)

I think I must have opened the Guarantee Saver a while back when the rate was good as after looking at my statements tonight I did get a good interest rate on it once upon a time- I then used the bulk of it for the deposit on the place I rent out.

Also, I have not yet put my£5100 for this year into an ISA yet.

tashalove

Kerrvin wrote: »

Thanks for all your comments. I am definitely going to get on to sorting all of this out tomorrow- I keep putting it off and putting it off.
To answer a few of your questions....
Current Account (Halifax) - £10597.65 (Reward Current AC- unsure of interest rate)
Guaranteed Saver (Halifax) - £557.97 (current Interest rate: 0.10% Gross pa)
ISA (Halifax) - £10139.40 (current Interest rate: 0.10% Gross pa)
Mortgage (Halifax) - -£59402.40 (2yr tracker, started last year.)

I think I must have opened the Guarantee Saver a while back when the rate was good as after looking at my statements tonight I did get a good interest rate on it once upon a time- I then used the bulk of it for the deposit on the place I rent out.

Also, I have not yet put my£5100 for this year into an ISA yet.

Hi Kerrvin

The Reward Current ac? Is that the one that pays £5 each month? I have that too and I think that doesn't pay any interest so yeah I would definitely sweep that money into a savings account asap!

Good Luck!

Lokolo_2

Seeing as you haven't yet put this year's ISA allowance into an ISA yet, I would do this if I were you, take it from your Current Account and put in the max £5100, assuming you are a taxpayer it will be well worth stashing more into Cash ISA's to get more tax-free interest! :beer:

jennifernil

I agree. Open the Halifax ISA, easy as you are a customer, that will get you 3%. Then transfer all your other ISAs into it.

With the rest, open a Lloyds Vantage and keep the balance between £5k and £7k.

You do really need to try and make your money work for you!

What is the rate on your tracker mortgage? And are you making a profit on your BTL?

You need to do the arithmetic on whether you would be better off repaying some of the mortgage, tax relief on the interest will have to come into the equation. Are you allowed to repay extra on it without penalty?