Where do I start?

moohound

I have been in a Debt Management Plan and making full and final payments recently, I will be debt free next month. This will free up £372 a month.

I want to start saving with the money that this frees up, my OH will be debt free in August when his car loan is finished, he will be £440 better off then.

I earn £29900 a year OH earns £33200 + £450 a month car allowance.

I will also get £1200 pay rise in August.

He has £9000 in an ISA and has used his allowance for this year.

We have a £8000 predicted endowment short fall when our mortgage finishes in 9 years, so this needs dealing with.

Our child has £3800 in a CTF and £6300 in a savings account.

I don't know if I will even be able to open a savings account with all my defaults.

I want to make a good start at saving and not repeat my mistakes of the past.

Please be nice, I know I have been a numpty already and don't need telling.

saintalan

Well you have started and I am sure there will be a lot of info coming your way!

Just a quickie, I believe no credit checks are made on savings accounts just proof of address etc. Also you dont say whether you or hubby have pensions.

Cheers

Alan

xylophone

He has £9000 in an ISA and has used his allowance for this year.

We have a £8000 predicted endowment short fall when our mortgage finishes in 9 years,

Sorted?

Child has

£6300 in a savings account.

Was the capital provided by parents?

Be careful with this. http://bank.virginmoney.com/savings/learn/childrens-accounts/
"There are special rules in place with HMRC if the savings have been given by a parent. If gifts from a parent produce more than £100 gross income a year, the whole of the income from the gift is normally taxed as the parent’s income and a child cannot get back any tax on that income. Nor can interest paying accounts be registered to have interest paid without tax taken off. The £100 rule applies separately to each parent. The £100 rule applies to income arising each year and it does not matter whether the fund is comprised of part capital and part added interest. The £100 rule applies as long as income is over £100 in any one year for any one child from one parent.

For example, if a parent gives a child £2,000, which earns £98 interest, the interest belongs to the child for tax purposes and the account can be registered for gross interest. But if the £98 is added to the account, leading to £101 interest being earned in year 2, the interest has now exceeded the £100 limit. This means it now belongs to the parent for tax purposes and the account cannot remain registered for gross interest."

This does not apply to CTF/JISA.

You will use your own ISA allowance presumably.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-1583859/Best-savings-rates-General-savings--Internet-branch.html

Once you and your husband have saved an emergency fund, you might consider drip feeding into a stocks and shares isa?

You might consider additional pension payments?

Rafter

As others have said, no credit rating issues when opening a savings account - only borrowing money on credit cards or via loans.

Does sound like you will get the best return from a regular savings account or regular ISA given you don't have a lump sum to invest.

Only other suggestion would be to review your pension arrangements given you seem to have your house endowment shortfall sorted already.

You may want to see if you can get a better return than the 2.5% you can get on a savings account (less than the current inflation rate) - so your savings are growing in real terms and giving you a fund to use when you retire to suppliment the state pension and any work pensions you have.

Good luck

R.

moohound

Thanks for the advice guys:)

We both have good occupational pensions I have an NHS pension and my husband has Flexbenefits that he tops up his pension with, I'm not sure how it works exactly.

The money in the CTF was provided by us, the money in the saving account mostly came from grandparents and great-grandparents and gifts from other family members and friends.

I was hoping to hang on to the £9000 as a disaster (loss of income) fund, but if the mortgage is paid off by the time we use it, it would be OK.

My late Dad had a Stocks and shares ISA that did very well, I will look into that.

We want to save a separate minor emergency fund and we want to save for when our vehicles: 1 small car, 1 big car for towing, and 1 ancient caravan need replacing.

We can't save on our mortgage by moving it, because of my horrific defaults, I don't know whether I would be better overpaying or saving up to make up the shortfall.