Where to put proceeds from House Sale for 6-ish weeks?

WD40

Hi,

My mother has just sold her house, receiving £500K. She got shafted on the new house, but couldn't stay in the old place, so is living with friends until a new place is found. She's had an offer accepted on new place, and is looking at around 6 weeks to completion.

The money is sitting in her high st bank account, earning no interest. She has an M+S bond, and a (useless) Sainsbury's saving acc. (net interest started at 6%, but is now about 0.5%).

Is it worth her finding a savings account for just 6 weeks? If the new place falls through like the last one, she'll be kicking herself that she didn't hive it away.

There's also a worry about having such a large sum in an instant access everyday account. If someone hacked her account it could be expensive.

Thanks in advance.

opinions4u

2% on £500k for a month is not far off £1k - so worth the effort.

Read this and this. Perhaps a call to Sainsburys for an alternative too.

brendon

It's definitely worth placing the money in a savings account, but don't forget that you are only protected up to £85,000 per institution. Personally, since your holding the amount for just 6 weeks, I'd put the amount in a NS&I savings account (~1.5%) just in case.