£240k to save from house sale

Slab66

Hi we are about to sell our house and will be renting for 3-6 months before buying again. One we have paid estate agent and solicitors fees, I reckon we will have around £240k to save. We want to get the best interest rate with an account that will give quick access once we find somewhere else to live. I don't want to take any risks and I also need to know if there are any tax implications. Also (last question I promise!), I have heard of 'FSA limitations' and not sure what these are? Any advice appreciated.
Thanks.

atush

Each person accts with any instituion will be covered by 85K by a govt compensation shceme should the bank of BS fail. This is doubled if your acct is joint.

So open several accts with differnt banks accordingly. NMake sure the banks hold their own license as some share a license w/in banking groups.

As for tax, if you will each earn this year over your personal allowance then any interest you gain during thei period will be subject to your hightest tax rate paid. So it would be wise in this case to shelter as much as you can. So you could each fill up your cash Isa limits into an easy access ISA. Given the short time frame, your other options for this money are severly limited. If you had a period of 12 monts or more, you could have sheltered 30K from tax in an NSI ilsc which pays inflation plus.

King_Of_Bling

British18zeros wrote: »

Your decision to sell the house is perfect timing

Is it? I thought house prices maxed out late 2007.

Slab66

Thanks for ur advice Atush.
British 18zeros. Pls don't hijack this thread and dont try and sell me products as per ur private mssg.

atush

Slab, please report this poster and his PMs to you to the forum moderators. He should be kicked out for trying to sell you things.

cottager

A possible note of caution from something picked up on a thread in the past from someone in a similar situation who needed quick access to their money for a house purchase, from a savings account opened "in isolation". When needing the substantial sum out again there were unanticipated difficulties and/or delay.

Maybe the scenario's been mentioned at MSE more than once, but the one which comes to mind was Ulster Bank's Pathway account, advertised as instant access -- and for most savers' normal requirements and circumstances it probably would have been.

It's no longer available, but at the time was offering a 6-month bonus on a minimum balance of £10k and was a pretty decent rate for instant access, so I think there were a number of takers, myself included. An additional attraction was that from it, via online banking, you could make Faster Payments outwards, which only a few savings accounts offer.

But the daily scheme limit (and the bank's own limit) for Faster Payments was £10k, and when one guy needed his money out quickly for completion, "instant access" turned out not to be instant because of this. He faced withdrawals being spread over many, many days, and from what he and others said there were problems with CHAPS and everything else too, maybe because it was a savings account from which those payment types can't normally be made; but it wouldn't have arisen if he'd had a current a/c alongside it. Most of us opening a Pathway probably didn't, but then most probably weren't in his situation.

If he'd had one the funds could have been TF over to it, then he could have withdrawn in a lump sum by CHAPS, written a cheque, used a debit card or whatever... but he only had the savings a/c on its own and hadn't envisaged this could be a problem.

We didn't hear how it turned out, but it sounded like the only option was to write requesting closure of the a/c and wait for a cheque.

The main thread is here if you wanted to look back at what was said:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2193473
and he also posted the same on another Pathway thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/28650227#Comment_28650227

So try and check that from wherever you think of placing your funds there's a suitable "exit route" for the amount you'll require and in the timescale you'll need, or you might have to plan withdrawals more in advance than you hoped (and possibly lose interest), specially if you split the funds between several different places to keep within the £85k compensation scheme limits.

Ulster's a 'traditional' bank (part of RBS group) where you can hold a current a/c. 'Agency banks' such as building societies etc often have a different withdrawal arrangement for savings, by DD to a linked external bank account which you nominate on opening. This would take 3 working days to reach the linked account I think, but I'm not sure if transaction limits ever apply to this type of withdrawal: others will know.