Graduate with first proper job...maximising interest

innovate

hammertime_1990 wrote: »

So the idea of taking the resulting £500 and placing £300 in the regular saver and £200 in a cash e-isa sounds good to you?

Kind Regards!

Yeah, probably the best you can do for now - so long as you can lock the Regular Saver money away for the full year. Which hopefully you can.

As soon as things look a bit "more liquid" for you, investigate what you can do pension-wise, too.

You are doing a great job so far investigating your options - - - keep doing it! And never listen to any bank advisor when it comes to savings/investment advice - - all they can do is sell their own products, which may or may not be the best for you. Always shop around, as you have started to do:cool:

Good luck! I have a feeling you'll do well

innovate

innovate wrote: »

NO NO NO

The Virgin ISA is, firstly, a Stocks and Shares ISA. May be you just want a cash ISA to start with.

More importantly, though, the Virgin ISA has historically been one of the worst performing ISAs. You never get the best deal from a S&S ISA from a financial outfit - - - what you really want to do is a self-select ISA, using a funds supermarket. Read up about stocks and shares ISA separately.

I think I probably owe jalexa an apology for misinterpreting his/her post. There's nothing that suggests he/she was talking about an ISA, I don't know why I thought it was about an ISA. So my sincere apologies.

Nothing I would like to take back about the Virgin S&S ISA, though

DreamerV

innovate wrote: »

You are doing a great job so far investigating your options - - - keep doing it! And never listen to any bank advisor when it comes to savings/investment advice - - all they can do is sell their own products, which may or may not be the best for you.

I second this. When I was depressed, I got sold some products which I still don't quite understand. What I do know, is they made the adviser a hell of a lot in commission, and possibly/probably far more than I'll make! And the money's tied up for years I'd say the bank advisers are useful for you to build up a picture and that's it - ask them things you don't understand, etc. but don't buy products on the back of their advice alone!


Innovate - can I ask, how much do you think one could make (in a year) by moving money around through various accounts if they were willing to take the time and care to do it? I suspect you do this a fair bit yourself and may have an idea as to the answer

innovate

DreamerV, you are right, I do a fair bit of exploiting whatever I can. It's nothing that makes you rich, but bottom line it brings in enough extra money to make it worth my while. And I enjoy doing most of it, too (but I don't do all of them - - e.g. lost interest in stoozing years ago, and don't do postal or phone bank accounts).

How much you can make depends a lot on how much money you can afford to have where, and what sort of things you can, and want to, exploit.

E.g. I know someone who spends enough on phones, TV, Council Tax, utilities etc to net about £96 cashback from the Santander 123 account; another friend would make just £12 because he spends a lot less than the first person.

New account offers obviously depend whether you already have an account with the bank - and there aren't many of these around these days.

Also depends what you include - e.g. you could include the extra interest you can get from a FD Regular Saver

So I'm afraid, I can't give you a number - it's going to be different for everyone. I would, however, say it's in the low hundreds, rather than in the thousands, for most people. If you want to make thousands, have a lot of time at your hands and can follow instructions to the dot, you should look at the Matched Betting board.

jennifernil

I have the Halifax Reward account, in fact I have several, so does my OH, but these days you can only have one sole each, and one joint. We have 6 in total, plus 2 Clarity Reward Credit Cards, from those we make a total of £532.50 p.a. (I don't pay tax) just for moving £1000 around and spending money.

I have opened accounts in the past to get incentives, also used Top Cash Back offers.

So it is possible to make money with very little effort just by being astute and grabbing the offers.

jennifernil

A regular monthly saver is a good way of saving, I make sure I have at least one every year, the FD is the best available.

If you have enough surplus income, the £300 max per month should be achievable, as a taxpayer you should put the rest of your surplus into an easy access ISA, then into the best ordinary savings account.

Work out a budget and allocate your savings appropriately.

If you still have the ISA money at the end of the year, move it on, either to another easy access ISA, or into a fixed rate, fixed term one if you are happy to tie it up for a few years.

jennifernil

Equally important is to shop around for everything you buy....insurance, utilities, mobile, broadband, purchases....can be time consuming, but every little helps!

DreamerV

innovate wrote: »

DreamerV, you are right, I do a fair bit of exploiting whatever I can. It's nothing that makes you rich, but bottom line it brings in enough extra money to make it worth my while. And I enjoy doing most of it, too (but I don't do all of them - - e.g. lost interest in stoozing years ago, and don't do postal or phone bank accounts).

How much you can make depends a lot on how much money you can afford to have where, and what sort of things you can, and want to, exploit.

E.g. I know someone who spends enough on phones, TV, Council Tax, utilities etc to net about £96 cashback from the Santander 123 account; another friend would make just £12 because he spends a lot less than the first person.

New account offers obviously depend whether you already have an account with the bank - and there aren't many of these around these days.

Also depends what you include - e.g. you could include the extra interest you can get from a FD Regular Saver

So I'm afraid, I can't give you a number - it's going to be different for everyone. I would, however, say it's in the low hundreds, rather than in the thousands, for most people. If you want to make thousands, have a lot of time at your hands and can follow instructions to the dot, you should look at the Matched Betting board.

Thanks innovate. I used to make an easy £100 a week on top of my approximately 48hours a week fulltime job - I think matched betting's great for spare cash! I don't have the same time on my hands now although I made a few quid on a sky offer yesterday I'd be happy with putting in some effort with the bank account stuff for a couple of hundred a year - I guess I would include the £100 FirstDirect bonus But now that you bring up matched betting, seeing as I haven't secured a summer internship, that gives me something to work on instead - think I'll aim for 750 june/july and sept combined.