Investing £240k - savings advice

dominiccc

Hi all

I have £240k (the proceeds of the sale of my house). We're stepping off the property Ladder, doing a little travelling, and then renting for the foreseeable future.

I'm not very au fait with savings but have gleaned that myself and my partner should (a) use our ISA allowance, and (b) ensure that we don't deposit more than £85k in a UK bank. After that, I'm at a loss - the funds (or a good %) should be accessible with pretty short notice. I would say we're fairly risk adverse. Does anyone have some sensible advice?

Thanks!

Dom

saintalan

Hi Dom and welcome to the forum.

First of there will be lots of relies saying "depends if"" etc so first off you should check out the Topics saying Invest x amount over the past few weeks.

Are you going to be working/earning in the 'foreseeable future'?

Do you have pension arrangements?

Little decent interest available in ISAs at the mo there are better paying current accounts.

The £85k limit depends on a bank group so check out any banks you think about.

Cheers

Alan

Chargem

dominiccc wrote: »

Hi all

I have £240k (the proceeds of the sale of my house). We're stepping off the property Ladder, doing a little travelling, and then renting for the foreseeable future.

I'm not very au fait with savings but have gleaned that myself and my partner should (a) use our ISA allowance, and (b) ensure that we don't deposit more than £85k in a UK bank. After that, I'm at a loss - the funds (or a good %) should be accessible with pretty short notice. I would say we're fairly risk adverse. Does anyone have some sensible advice?

Thanks!

Dom

That's no more than £85k in any single banking group, E.G. you could have £85k in HSBC and £85k in a Natwest account and the full amount is protected. The limit also doubled per institution for Joint accounts.

Some banks are part of the same Group, and the limit is per banking group and not per bank, you can check which banks are part of the same group on this site.

If you want it available at short notice, just check the best bank accounts article on this site and bear in mind the advice above about protection limits.

Nicholas-bloody-Parsons

Following the massive losses and downgrade to "Junk" status, at Co-op (and Britannia BS), I would avoid them... Also given that Spain is virtually bankrupt, I would probably would avoid Santander as well.

atush

It is 170K for joint accts.


You say you are risk averse, but there are all kinds of risk incl shortfall risk and inflation risk. Cash savings today, are carrying a large inflation risk (as they don't beat inflation) so you money will be shrinking.

I would consider investing cautiously, a proportion of your money to counteract this. At a bare minimum, I would use your S&S isa allowances as well as Cash Isa ones. And pension is a concern too.

innovate

Nicholas-bloody-Parsons wrote: »

Following the massive losses and downgrade to "Junk" status, at Co-op (and Britannia BS), I would avoid them... Also given that Spain is virtually bankrupt, I would probably would avoid Santander as well.

Rubbish. I wish people would stop scaremongering

Coop/Britannia share an £85K FSCS protection, and Santander UK has one too.

Santander UK would also not go bust as a direct consequence of any going bust of the parent company. The FCA has (always had) a block on any Santander UK money leaving the UK.

Apart from that, Santander is probably one of the world's most stable banks since it does a huge amount of its business in South America.

atush

I agree. The banks listed are still protected. People like NP are the ones that cause runs on banks.

And I don't recall Moody's predicting the credit crunch- what was Leiman's rating before they fell?

Glen_Clark

Nicholas-bloody-Parsons wrote: »

Following the massive losses and downgrade to "Junk" status, at Co-op (and Britannia BS), I would avoid them... Also given that Spain is virtually bankrupt, I would probably would avoid Santander as well.

Stupid scaremongering, and just plain wrong.


THE Co-op IS NOT JUNK STATUS

The Co-op is BBB-
'BBB: Good credit quality.
'BBB' ratings indicate that expectations of default risk are currently low. The capacity for payment of financial commitments is considered adequate but adverse business or economic conditions .are more likely to impair this capacity.

As has already been pointed out, the Co-op also has full £85,000 FSA protection.
Santander UK is also ring fenced from Spain and has full £85,000 FSA protection.
If people took idiots like you seriously it could ruin a good business - the last thing this country needs

xylophone

If you are very risk averse use NS&I for the lot?
http://www.nsandi.com/