Savings Advice - Would you change anything?

OMski

Hiya All

Was looking for advice on my savings > I have the following

ISA up-to date (5.80 AER) £23,000

ICICIBank (6.05% AER) £500
IceSave (5.95% AER) £24,000
Bradford Bin. PA (5.55% AER) £12,000 (old acc, looking to close and move)
A&L Reg Saver (12% AER) £250 (just started)

Selftrade (Mini SS ISA) £2,000

What would you change to get the most out of these savings?

OMski

debbie42

It's eerily similar to mine!
I'm not planning any changes to my savings accounts at the moment, so would hope you've got that bit right, as regards good interest etc.

I suppose it depends on what your long term plans are, regarding access to cash, investments etc.

OMski

Thanks Debbie

Yes, I'm holding onto savings for awhile (never know with life, too many twists and turns, all fun thou ) - was thinking of closing the BB account and moving it to ICICI one (they seem to be very slow in responding to questions compared to IceSave, but they do eventually get round to it)

Jonbvn

How about drip feeding the money in Bradford Bin. PA into a regular saver with someone like YBS, who are offering 7% ATM. Maximum of 20k total/500pcm? You can top up to the max from your Icesave A/c.

Have you consider mini stocks & shares ISA, to get some exposure to equities?

OMski

Hi Jonbvn

I've spoken to BB regards the PA account, and I can only make two withdrawals a year (therefore can't drip feed ). Therefore I'll have to close it and move the money. I've opened the A&L Reg Saver to transfer 250 each month for that reason (was thinking about the YBS account but decided for the A&L instead).

I've just this year looked into stocks and shares. Have opened one with Selftrade and invested 2k, will invest the remaining 2k later in the year (this is my first time so am checking it out )

nilrem_2

OMski wrote: »

Was looking for advice on my savings > I have the following

ISA up-to date (5.80 AER) £23,000

ICICIBank (6.05% AER) £500
IceSave (5.95% AER) £24,000
Bradford Bin. PA (5.55% AER) £12,000 (old acc, looking to close and move)
A&L Reg Saver (12% AER) £250 (just started)

Selftrade (Mini SS ISA) £2,000

What would you change to get the most out of these savings?

Appears as though you have things organised quite well ATM, you could glean a little more by shifting a bit from Icesave in to one of the high interest 1 yr fixed rate bonds about 6.35% ATM but probably best to wait a few weeks for rates to peak before doing so really, I reckon you have things covered quite well without any changes needed.

superjaggybunnet

Buy a flat and do it up and sell it!

You will definitely get more than 6% return on that if you do it right.

OMski

Thanks all for your replies

superjaggybunnet, I am thinking of buying a property to do up. But while I find something appropriate want to get the most out of what I have saved.

chesky369

"Buy a flat and do it up and sell it!"
That rather depends on where you live sjb - you're in Glasgow, so you can probably still get something for circa £60k; here in west London it won't buy you a garage.

Mushy61

If you can afford to tie up any of your savings for 3 or 5 years, I would suggest investing some in NS&I Index linked saving certificates.

1.35% interest above RPI index (currently around 4.3%), and what's more it's totally TAX FREE.

http://www.nsandi.com/products/ilsc/index.jsp