Money in lots of accounts... How do you keep track?!

M0ney

evenasus wrote: »

I was pointing out that you wouldn't have received an aer of 8% gross. It would actually be 4.28% gross.
Or to be precise 4.2825%

OK, apologies I got a bit defensive. Yes, I am well aware of this, the balance in my account will be £3,600 by the end of January and the interest I will receive is something like £122.

A couple of years ago I had £7,000+ all year in my ISA where I think the interest rate was 2.35% and all I got was £126, and the year previous it was between £6,000 - £7,000 and I got £159 so I do stick with my original assertion, ISAs aren't as good as a lot of people would have you believe.

jimjames

innovate wrote: »

I track all my transactions, with the exception of cash purchases, in MS Money. Microsoft have long stopped supporting in but the 2003 version I have does everything I need it to do. I think you can still get it on amazon and probably also eBay.

To log into my many accounts, I use AccountUnity.

To track bonus / offer / fixed rate expiry dates, I use a spreadsheet.

You can actually download a free version of MS Money directly from Microsoft. As it is no longer supported it doesn't allow investment price updates anymore but the basic functionality for bank accounts and reconciliation all still works fine. Especially as this is a money saving site you can't get better than free!

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858EDC2F-1806-4D2D-85E3-0FBB08CB720A/Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe.exe

jimjames

evenasus wrote: »

I was pointing out that you wouldn't have received an aer of 8% gross. It would actually be 4.28% gross.
Or to be precise 4.2825%

I don't understand this? If the rate is 8% AER gross then surely that is what you get? Obviously you only get it on the money in the account at the time but the rate is still correct at 8%.

evenasus

M0ney wrote: »

OK, apologies I got a bit defensive. Yes, I am well aware of this, the balance in my account will be £3,600 by the end of January and the interest I will receive is something like £122.

A couple of years ago I had £7,000+ all year in my ISA where I think the interest rate was 2.35% and all I got was £126, and the year previous it was between £6,000 - £7,000 and I got £159 so I do stick with my original assertion, ISAs aren't as good as a lot of people would have you believe.

The idea is to be able to build up tax free savings.

Both my husband and myself have used the full ISA allowance every year since they started in 1999 and before that, the ISA predecessor TESSA started in 1991.

Interest rates over the years have been good. It's only since the crash they've declined. But then so have all savings rates.

Once rates to up (I hope) things should get better.

evenasus

jimjames wrote: »

I don't understand this? If the rate is 8% AER gross then surely that is what you get? Obviously you only get it on the money in the account at the time but the rate is still correct at 8%.

When people see this...

with our Regular Saver Account - save from a minimum of £25 up to a maximum of £300 each month, up to £3,600 per year during the 12 month fixed term
6.00% AER (gross 6.00% pa) fixed for 12 months

Some people think they will receive 6% on their £3600.00 thinking £216.00 gross.

What they would actually receive would be £115.96 gross.

xmillyx

So what is the general consensus? Keep it in an ISA or move it elsewhere?

innovate

xmillyx wrote: »

So what is the general consensus? Keep it in an ISA or move it elsewhere?

If you are certain you will spend the money in the next 3-4 years, you might as well try to make the best of it and exploit whichever current account pays you the best interest rate.

However, it sounds as if you at the start of your working life and you will be very greatful to yourself at some point in the future if you have made the best use of your ISA allowances over the years.

Of course, you wouldn't leave the money in a 1% account when you can get almost double. Find a new provider who pays better interest and allows transfers in. Ask them to transfer your ISA, don't do it yourself.

Once you got enough cash to fund yourself for 6-12 months in an emergency, look at S&S ISAs for long term investing.

chris_m

evenasus wrote: »

I'm still using Quicken 2001 without a problem.

Hehe, mine's Quicken Deluxe 98 - I think they sent me an update to deal with some potential Y2K issues but it still reports that version.
It still runs fine, even on Windows 7-64bit and is a doddle to back up or move to another PC for any reason. Just copy the entire folder and about the only thing I've found it "forgets" is my choice of auto-backup setting.

evenasus

chris_m wrote: »

Hehe, mine's Quicken Deluxe 98 - I think they sent me an update to deal with some potential Y2K issues but it still reports that version.
It still runs fine, even on Windows 7-64bit and is a doddle to back up or move to another PC for any reason. Just copy the entire folder and about the only thing I've found it "forgets" is my choice of auto-backup setting.

Now if only I could get it to back up 3 usb sticks at the same time, with one click.

JustAnotherSaver

xmillyx wrote: »

One thing that's concerning me is that will it affect my credit rating when I come to apply for a mortgage if I have multiple current accounts?

Multiple accounts wont be a problem as such.

Look back in the mortgage forum i think it was for a post of mine from around September. We had a bit of bother proving our deposit as they wanted to know why i was transferring £1k all over the place all the time (to fund my other accounts).
They were also concerned there'd been so many searches on my file (many opened accounts), so it was bum twitchy time for a while.

IFA played a blinder though & got it sorted. Didn't help my nerves though. I'd recommend to calm it down before applying for mortgage.