Advice needed!

Sammyja

I am completely baffled by all the options for savings so thought I'd ask advice on here.... I want to save £240 a month for the foreseeable future, what's best way to do that so I get best interest? There may be the occasional month I'm not able to put that amount away, but don't need to be able to access it immediately.

IronWolf

What kind of time frame were you looking at?
What is your attitude to risk, are you prepared to invest in the stock market for example?

You could start with something like a regular saver account which give the highest interest rates for savings of this kind.

Of you could drip feed the money into some funds in an ISA.

saintalan

Sammyja wrote: »

I am completely baffled by all the options for savings so thought I'd ask advice on here.... I want to save £240 a month for the foreseeable future, what's best way to do that so I get best interest? There may be the occasional month I'm not able to put that amount away, but don't need to be able to access it immediately.

Hi welcome to the Forum.

I am going to assume you mean cash savings and not Shares etc for now.

If you are saving for the long term, then your cash will be protected from tax in an ISA. Unfortunately rates for Regular Saver ISAs are pretty low at the moment.

I would consider saving your £280 in First Direct Regular Saver and then consider transferring them to a Cash ISA when rates are better or the end of the tax year. Timing is an issue.

As IronWolf says there are other considerations. Apart from Share Investments you might want to check out your Pension situation where you would get tax relief.

If you give more details on your situation/circumstances there may be lots of options.

Cheers

Alan

HeadAboveWater

Would agree with the First Direct Regular Saver. You can save a maximum of £300 per month. But you need to not touch the money for a year to get the full interest.

psychic_teabag

I don't think FD reg saver allows missed payments - OP might not be able to save every month. But it does allow the payment to be varied, down to £25. Could keep a small amount back each mnonth to ensure a payment can always be made.

A simpler option might be the Nationwide current account offering 5% on the first £2500. Slightly lower rate, but less restrictive on deposits. That will have room for just about the first year of savings, giving time to research what else is out there.

Perelandra

psychic_teabag wrote: »

I don't think FD reg saver allows missed payments - OP might not be able to save every month. But it does allow the payment to be varied, down to £25. Could keep a small amount back each mnonth to ensure a payment can always be made.

The FD regular saver does allow missed payments. In addition, if you pay in less than the maximum in one month, you can "catch up" any shortfall in subsequent months.

if you don't make the maximum subscription in any one month, just carry it forward to future months

psychic_teabag

Oh, okay. I was basing it on the entry in the regular saver thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=6932833&postcount=5 which says no missed payments. I didn't see a clear statement either way on the first direct page, but at one point it does say you must make 11 monthly payments starting one month after opening, and the minimum in any month is £25.

Perelandra

Hrm, ok I see where you're coming from.

I was told quite explicitly by the lady on the phone that missed payments were okay; but this is contradicted by the site which says a minimum of £25, which is what you originally said. So you don't need to stick to your starting monthly amount, but there does need to be something.

ColdIron

The other issue is that FD require the Regular Saver to be funded by a Standing Order from the 1st Account, while you can probably adjust the amounts from one month to the next I don't imagine that you could cancel it