Two pronged??

Eck

As in the title of this thread i have a couple of questions to ask this very knowledgeable community
Here goes, i have £30k to invest but would like it to be easily accessible, what would be the best rate that i could get for this amount? and secondly would it be better to pay off a life of balance transfer of £10k which i have at a rate of 3.9% until its paid off which would leave me with £20K to invest,or should i just keep paying off the life of balance transfer at a low rate and get a better rate for my £30K?



Thanks.

dunstonh

Here goes, i have £30k to invest but would like it to be easily accessible, what would be the best rate that i could get for this amount?

Invest or save?

and secondly would it be better to pay off a life of balance transfer of £10k which i have at a rate of 3.9% until its paid off which would leave me with £20K to invest,or should i just keep paying off the life of balance transfer at a low rate and get a better rate for my £30K?

again, invest or save?

There is a clear difference between the two. You say invest but when you mention best rate, it suggests you arent talking about investments but are talking about savings.

Modern investments can be very easily accessible (no charge on withdrawals and in your bank account inside 2 weeks). However, they do not pay an interest rate and carry a varying degree of investment risk,

Savings carry the risk of inflation eating in to them at a greater rate than the interest being paid.

You need to decide which it is that you are looking for.

Eck

Sorry, i indeed meant save and not invest. :rolleyes:

Eck

Also would i get a better rate now that i am over 50? i saw somewhere on this site that Northern Rock have a special savings account for the over 50s.

Anyone??

Eck

Bump.......

Eck

Bump^.................

Eck

Bump^.................

jamesd

See the savings articles. If your lowest savings rate is better than 3.9% after tax it would make sense to keep the balance transfer.

cheerfulcat

Eck wrote:

Here goes, i have £30k to invest but would like it to be easily accessible, what would be the best rate that i could get for this amount?

Look here ( make sure that your pop-up blocker is on! ).

and secondly would it be better to pay off a life of balance transfer of £10k which i have at a rate of 3.9% until its paid off which would leave me with £20K to invest,or should i just keep paying off the life of balance transfer at a low rate and get a better rate for my £30K?

IMHO as a general rule it is daft to have savings and owe money at the same time, unless there is a huge difference in interest rates between the two, or the borrowed money is used to buy an asset expected to increase in value. Your rate for borrowing seems lower than the savings rate you could get on a good instant access account but when you take off the tax they are about the same. I would pay off the debt.

Ian_W

Firstly you should use your cash ISA allowance for this year - NS&I are best at the mo at 5.8% tax free. That's £3000 for you - another £3000 if you have an OH. Yorkshire BS are not far behind with 5.75 [as of 1/2/07] on their 30 day notice ISA or 5.65% instant access. You can do the same again on 6/4 to double the amount earning interest tax free.
The rest you could put in one of the leading instant access accounts like ICESAVE or ICICI - see Martins saving articles on the site. Because it's taxed, assuming you're a BR taxpayer, it will only receive an effective rate of circa 4.6% - much less if you're HR.
Whether you pay off the debt is really up to you - as a BR taxpayer you can earn a little more than the 3.9 you're paying but as a HR one you probably can't.
If either you or a significant OH is a non-tax payer, put the savings in their name and fill in a form for gross interest but still use up your ISA allowance in case the tax situation changes in the future.
As for NR's silver saver - sounds good but IRs aren't really completive - see
https://www.northernrock.co.uk/html/savings/silversavings/intro.asp

HTH.