75k Saving

john0

psychic_teabag wrote: »

Another possible approach is to drip-feed some of the money from instant-access to a regular saver account. Eg can get up to 8%. Dripping from 3% instant-access to 8% would give an average rate of around 5.5%. There's a limit to how much you can save that way, but it does give a better rate while retaining some access.

Speaking of which, don't forget to keep enough in instant-access to act as an emergency fund, if you don't already have such a thing.

yeah think i will look at the drip feeding through HSBC as i have about £10,000 saved in there, which should be enough for their 6%

innovate

john0 wrote: »

in nationwide earning sod all around 2% i think, spoke to a guy there and he said about moving it in to another of their accounts think 3.1%

OK, must move the lot (may be in several pieces) out of the doldrums, quick. I assume it's a normal savings account, not an ISA? And that you are a basic rate tax payer?

£5,640 into a good cash ISA seems a must.

Rest into a good instant-access saver, until you decided what to do with it. Nationwide 3.1% doesn't sound too good because it is an ISA (i.e. 5,640 only), and not the best you can get. Post Office at 3.17% is the best instant access savings account atm.

Use the regular savers calculator to understand how much you can make from drip-fed regular savers - FD, HSBC etc are candidates, check the relevant thread.

Halifax pay you, effectively, 6% net on £1,000 every year - - open a Reward Current Account and make sure you pay in £1,000 a month. You don't have to use their switcher service, give up your existing current account, or keep the £1K in the account for long.

We don't know what your old-age income arrangements are - - if you have them sorted, fine. If not, you should be looking into a SIPP perhaps.

Other than that, as I said before, have a look at best paying fixed-term savings accounts on comparison sites. You may alsoe start looking at investments in shares and funds again - - - there's still a chance that they might outperform savings accounts, though nothing is guaranteed.

If you are a gambling type, perhaps stush something into Premium Bonds - - though your capital is relatively safe (bar inflation), there is zero guaranteed return, just perhaps some adrenaline rush once a month if you fancy that. And you never know, it might be you.....

Note - - it's essential to keep track of bonus rates dropping off savings accounts - - any good accounts will sooner or later pay you abysmal interest. So far, it's always been possible to shift cash to some other account paying half-decent (relatively speaking, lol) interest - but you have to be alert.

innovate

john0 wrote: »

What do you mean innovate thats max £5,640? i thought all ISAs were max £5,640 for a year?

Yes, sorry, I meant this [financial] year. And (come next April) you can't pay next year's allowance into the 4% Santander ISA - - - but that shouldn't stop you from getting a home for £5,640 for now.

psychic_teabag

john0 wrote: »

yeah i know physic but i was thinking that if i were to do a cash one then it would be the santander 2 year at 4%, seems pretty good for two years?

okay, but I'd still argue that you may as well put it in an instant-access cash ISA, so it can earn tax-free interest until you decide what you're doing. Then you can transfer it to a fixed-term ISA or a S&S ISA (or leave it as instant-access). Unless you expect to have decided within the next few days, of course.

innovate

psychic_teabag wrote: »

okay, but I'd still argue that you may as well put it in an instant-access cash ISA, so it can earn tax-free interest until you decide what you're doing. Then you can transfer it to a fixed-term ISA or a S&S ISA (or leave it as instant-access). Unless you expect to have decided within the next few days, of course.

I would generally agree with you, psychic - - but if you have £75K to play with, it might not be difficult to lock £5,640 away for two years. If it is difficult, then yes, use an instant access ISA.

psychic_teabag

But OP is considering going entirely S&S ISA, so going straight for a fixed-term ISA now would remove that option.

john0

psychic_teabag wrote: »

But OP is considering going entirely S&S ISA, so going straight for a fixed-term ISA now would remove that option.

if i were to lock away £5,640 in a two year fixed with santander does that i mean i cant open up a S+S Isa at a later date? i thought you had £5,640 for cash isa and the same for S+S isa?

john0

think i am going to either go with santander as they have just opened up a 3.2% saver, or apparently BM do 3.2% if over 50k any views on which is better?

personally cant see a problem with going with santander as they won’t be affected by their spanish outfit and £75k would be protected anyway by FSA?

will also open up regular saver with hsbc.

still not sure on cash isa, 2 year at 4% seems better than getting the next best at 3.6% as you can onlyput £5,640 in either one? and next year i can just open up another one with my new allowance, unless i have missed something there?

innovate

john0 wrote: »

if i were to lock away £5,640 in a two year fixed with santander does that i mean i cant open up a S+S Isa at a later date? i thought you had £5,640 for cash isa and the same for S+S isa?

Your total allowance for this year is £11,280. If this, you can put a max of £5,640 into a cash ISA - or you can put up to the entire sum into an S&S ISA.

You can transfer a cash ISA into an S&S ISA, but not the other way round. You can request such transfer anytime you like, though you would want to be certain you don't have to pay any penalties for early redemption. So if you commit to a 2-year term to get the 4%, you wouldn't want to transfer before the ISA has matured.

With an S&S ISA, you should be looking at least at a 5-year horizon, ideally longer.

innovate

One obvious difference between the Santander and BM 3.2% I can see is that the BM has a minimum of £50K requirement - which might not be an issue for you. The other point to consider is that BM shares one £85K FSCS protection with many others - Halifax, BOS, Saga, AA are the ones I remember, so better check the full list.

Up to £80K-ish I have no concerns with Santander UK - but I would, out of principle, distribute my money across a couple of banks at least.

You are right, if you put £5,640 into the 4% 2-year Santander ISA now, you can open a new ISA next financial year for your next year's allowance. In fact, you might only be able to deposit anything into this ISA within a fortnight of opening it - this used to be the case, but they seem to have slightly altered the words now ("Be able to make your initial deposit/transfer in request within 14 days of account opening.") so they may allow further deposits later on. But this doesn't alter the fact that you are free to put your next year's allowance elsewhere.

EDIT: the T&Cs say

Funds must be deposited at account opening, unless opened on the telephone or online, where the deposit must be made within 14 days of account opening.
No subsequent additional deposits allowed.