Newbie advise please

A8-RICK

Firstly, hello!

Spent many hours on this great site since recently discovering it but still feel a little confused what is best for me, im hoping someone may be able to comment on my plan below.

Im currently saving hard for my first house.

I have a Natwest account ive had for about 20 years (still got the pigs!) and a Natwest ISA with about £16800 in it. Both pretty bad performers i would think so heres my plan.

Applied for Halifax high interest current account 6.1% upto £2500. wage goes in, then anything above £2500 goes to.....

A high interest savings account, from here drip feed £250 per month (or more if poss) into a regular saver.

was thinking of HSBC's online saver @ 5.75% but wont allow me to make withdrawals to drip feed a regular saver, so which savings account, and which regular saver should i use?

Further to this which is the best paying ISA for this year which will allow me to transfer the Natwest ISA also.

Realy sorry but after 3 nights solid on the computer im still not sure!

Finally, once i have bought a property (most likely after 12 months) i plan to open an all in one account and plough all my savings in this (mortgate will be around 100k-130k) to offset and then stooze as much as possible.

does my plan stack up? feel free to tweak it and any advise appreciated.

Thanks,
Rick.:D

interest_Ted

I think most of your answers will be on moneyfacts (https://www.moneyfacts.co.uk).

However here are my comments. Any questions I pose are only for your consideration and thought process. Not for answers on this board.

Firstly any plan is far far better than no plan, so well done on that for a start.
I am not familiar enuf with the Halifax account, but certainly it sounds to be the best current around at the moment. (is the rate fixed ? how long is it guaranteed ? can you meet all the conditions which you need to obtain this rate ?)
Now then - I would suggest you plonk the £250 straight into the regular saver from the current account, not via another account. At the moment I think the Loughborough is the best independent regular saver at 8%, but you have no flexibility in amount saved each month - so you will be committing the full £250 (if that is what you intend). If you need flexibility, then you will have to go down to maybe 7% (Yorkshire is good). You might have enuf money to do both ?

With regard to a high interest savings account, I would suggest Icesave. You can transfer money between your current account and the Icesave account with comparative ease (takes the normal 3 days to allow for BACS transfer) and pays out at 5.70% at the moment with no catches. I have used them for quite a while without any hitch whatsoever.

Again moneyfacts will give you a good rundown on ISAs that are available for transfer in. I would suggest you steer clear of any that have bonuses or unwelcome limitations on rate guarantees or that have a penalty for transfer out. Unless of course you intend to use the ISA as your deposit for the house. In which case you might feel able to go for a higher rate over a short term. But I would caution that anything can change so be prepared to keep your options open - at least to some extent. Don't lock yourself into something that you later wish you had not. I think one of the best options on transfer in ISAs is the Kent Reliance, but you need to do your own research as it is defo horses for courses.

I have never been a great fan of offset mortgages, but that is purely an oldfashioned 'want to control my own money' approach by me. I have always felt that I have greater flexibility by cutting straight mortgage deals and using my savings to maximise interest where and when I want. but that is just me - and others will probably tell you how fantastic offsets can be. So you may want more advice and thought on that.

Good luck - you are defo on the right track.

Ted

A8-RICK

Thanks Ted,

i do like the sound of this hassle free icesave account thanks, i definatly want a seperate savings account though, simply because at the moment i have a growing sum of cash (£7000ish) in my current account effectively doing nothing (i forgot to mention this, sorry!) anything over the £2500 kept im my halifax would be sent straight to this savings account (maybe £800 per month), and then drip feed from there to the regular saver/s (will check out your suggestions).

with regards to the offset mortgage, i think i understand a little better now, some of these calculators are a little missleading i think!
i have now come to your way of thinking, if im earning more intestest on my savings than paying on my mortgate, i would probably be better using the interest from my savings to overpay my mortgage each month, yes?

Thanks for the input, im off to do a bit more digging now.

Rick.