Student investment?

Rebecca-May

I am a first year uni student. I have a student maintainance loan and a uni fee loan. I have £6000 to invest. How can I make the best out of it and put some of it towards long term savings?

apoorstudent

I'm in the same situation... except I'm debating whether or not I should take the maintenance loan. How come you have £6000 though?! Does that include your tuition fee loan? If it includes your tuition fee money, then that gets paid directly to your uni. I think.

Most people would say to put it into an ISA and make a couple of hundred/year. My friend who is now at uni who has now graduated saved the money and put it down as a deposit on a house. If anyone has any better ideas, let me know.

matt.forster_2

At Abbey, the ISA gives you less interest than their e-Saver (providing you fillout the tax free form R85?). What I have is a current account with online banking set up, and also an e-Saver account linked to the same card. I keep the current account as low as possible and the e-saver as high as possible, whenever i need money, i can either use an abbey cash machine, or transfer funds before going out.
ISA - 4.55% with over £6000 , e-Saver - 5.35%

freebie_junkie

it says on my forms that the fee loan is paid directly to your uni. what are you gonna live on if you invest all your maintenance loan? youll have to pay for accomadation, food, books, clothes, travel etc. (im very nosey hehe)!

but as far as investing goes, i got a couple thousand from an accident and put in in an isa for when i graduate towards a deposit on a flat.

misskool

If you don't go over the taxable income limit then you should also be looking at higher paying instant access savings accounts as well. You can get gross interest if you fill out the R85 form.
I'm with ICICI bank and they pay 5.45% on my savings.

hostie

Thanks for this thread.
Where do you get this R85 form? What happens if you are working as well or have other income as well?

matt.forster_2

when you apply for the account, theres an option which asks you if youre eligible to not pay tax, they will then send you the form with your new account details. If not, i think you can collect them at your post office (next to the provisional license and other forms). Providing youre income doesnt go over £4500(?) then you shouldnt have to pay tax.

freebie_junkie

the yearly personal allowance is £5030 according to a letter the IR sent me recently

apoorstudent

misskool wrote:

If you don't go over the taxable income limit then you should also be looking at higher paying instant access savings accounts as well. You can get gross interest if you fill out the R85 form.
I'm with ICICI bank and they pay 5.45% on my savings.

Wow, that's something I never knew... So you won't have to pay tax on your interest with this form? I work part-time mystery shopping and plan to get a summer job, but I doubt this will go over £5000...

misskool

hostie wrote:

Thanks for this thread.
Where do you get this R85 form? What happens if you are working as well or have other income as well?

You can request for an R85 from your bank. I think it's one form per account.

As long as your taxable income doesn't exceed the £5000, you can receive gross interest on all your savings.

If you are receiving funding (only because I know you're a phd like me ) it does not count towards your taxable income. :cool:

Rebecca-May

Thanks for all your feedback! Sorry, I should have made it more clearer. The £6000 is like a policy set up by my parents that matures at the end of this month NOT my tuition fee loan/maintainance loan. I want to invest this sum of non-student-loan money somehow while I'm at uni. I do have an e-savings account that it could go into, I just wondered if there was anything better?