Savings advice - I know nothing!

Anarchist

Ahh, Santander needs £500 a month paying in (and has a £2 a month fee...) Still, guess I could find a way around that!

With that plan, over 12 months I should save an extra...

£197 from 3.5% ISA
£155 signup bonuses from FD/Santander accounts
£124 from FD regular saver
~£225 from balance of ~£7.5k from Santander account

= Bonus £700!

I guess it's not a massive amount compared to how much I need, but its definitely worth doing instead of leaving it all in my HSBC account, earning HSBC cash that they're not giving any of to me

MoneySaverLog

As well as the FD regular saver you also have the HSBC regular saver too :-)

Anarchist

Oh god, forgot about that, good shout!

innovate

You could add another £60 if you open a Halifax Reward Current acct, provided you can cycle £1K through the account every month. Given you have £10K in savings, it shouldn't be a problem to meet the 'minimum pay in' requirements.

Halifax also pay you £100 if you switch - - - similar to FD, you have to use their switcher service.

Anarchist

innovate wrote: »

You could add another £60 if you open a Halifax Reward Current acct, provided you can cycle £1K through the account every month. Given you have £10K in savings, it shouldn't be a problem to meet the 'minimum pay in' requirements.

Halifax also pay you £100 if you switch - - - similar to FD, you have to use their switcher service.

Could be interesting,

Guess I'd need to make sure I had enough direct debits to split between them, then just setup standing orders to transfer my wage as it comes in to the second account, then from the second to the third account...!

I'm getting slightly addicted to this... :rotfl:

innovate

Anarchist wrote: »

I'm getting slightly addicted to this... :rotfl:

GOOD :cool:

Do make sure you keep track on what you have where - - a spreadsheet or a notebook might suffice, but there's software around that helps, too. I am not sure what's the latest and greatest since I use an ancient Microsoft Money (no longer marketed, sadly - might be able to get it on Amazon but beware of hacks).

innovate

Just in case you haven't seen it, there's a very useful savings calculator to work out regular saver interest

calypso_rhapsody

Read the bit about 'where to start saving' on this website http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

Your ambition ot have a house deposit in Oct 2013 gives you a horizon of just over a year. There are lots of accounts that pay better then average rates on relatively small amounts - the regular savers but they only last a year and are limited, Lloyds Vantage (though that is now paying less than the best instant access it does have current account features such as almost instant FPs which can be useful), the Halifax reward account (the £60 is net so really £75 on effectively £1000) etc.

Make use of the cash ISA allowance!

In general you will get a better rate on money you are prepared to put away for a year or more - and i don't think many are predicting rates to rise significantly within the year. And you think you want the money in Oct 2013 ... so i'd put most of your current savings on 1 year deposit (ISA protected as much as you can) and use the other types of accounts over the coming year.

But you do need an emergency fund that is accessible in case of disaster such as redundancy! So keep a bit back in an instant access account.

You seem to be looking at a lot of Santander products - i assume you are aware of their poor customer service history? Personally i have found them to be ok provided you use the branch - the call centre is hopeless!

MoneySaverLog

calypso_rhapsody wrote: »

Lloyds Vantage (though that is now paying less than the best instant access it does have current account features such as almost instant FPs which can be useful)

The post office is top payer for instant access at 3.17%.

LTSB Pay 3% on £5K So I'd get an extra £8.50 (before tax) in the post office on a £5,000 deposit. However, as you say unlike the post office for this LTSB give me full Current Account features.

Besides I've heard the post office are slow with their FP's. LTSB have always been instant with me and I like that feature may be worth the extra £6.80 PA in lost interest for a basic rate tax payer like myself.

calypso_rhapsody

Santander Esaver 5 is paying 3.2% from today - just opened one myself. I have found Santander fine provided you don't want anything complicated - in which case the best advice is to go into branch ... but their FP service works fine.