Advice for £50k lump sum

guitarman001

Hi all,

Both my girlfriend and I have approx £50k each in savings. Mine are scattered in:

NS&I Index Linked (expires in 2 years)
3 TSB Vantage accounts
2 TSB 5% accounts
3 Bank of Scotland Vantage accounts
Nationwide FlexDirect
First Direct Regular Saver
5% of savings in stocks ISA (Lifestyle 100% and Rolls Royce)
Sasntander ISA

I've got to admit, it's a pain keeping track of it all, and some are maturing now. More to the point, my girlfriend had the majority of hers (unbeknownst to me) in a really poor Santander account paying 0.5% interest, so she's lost out on around £1k's worth of interest this year.

She really doesn't want to have multiple bank accounts like I do so my question is... where is best to invest a lump sum? Term-wise is short (1-2 years), risk factor is low (no shares). Capital CANNOT be risked.

Thank you for your help - I'm going to start searching now but you never know, somebody may propose the perfect solution here!

robatwork

There isn't a perfect solution as there is NO savings that will offer high interest, instant access for £25k. You aren't looking for an investment as risk factor is "low".

Split it into 1 x Santander 123 which pays 3% and then either TSB or Nationwide with the 5k, or perhaps gamble with that bit if she can't be bothered to open several accounts eg premium bonds (safe), S&S ISA (not safe) or roulette (you know the risk).

guitarman001

Thanks - I already suggested Vantage accounts and Santander 123 to her.
EDIT - Santander no use to me - I don't have many bills!

bigadaj

guitarman001 wrote: »

Thanks - I already suggested Vantage accounts and Santander 123 to her.
EDIT - Santander no use to me - I don't have many bills!

Santander 123 is still good even without any cashback and the fee, assuming fully funded, barely makes a dent on the interest rate reducing by just over 0.1%.

guitarman001

Pretty p!ssed with these low rates. How many years has it been now - about six, seven? So far all I see is me getting p!ss poor rates while friends with mortgages have massively benefited, and others I know have been busy buying flats as BTLs. Sick of subsidising these people!!

guitarman001

bigadaj wrote: »

Santander 123 is still good even without any cashback and the fee, assuming fully funded, barely makes a dent on the interest rate reducing by just over 0.1%.

Tell you what, if you get 3% on up to £20k, that's a lot less hassle than switching money through BoS & TSB accounts....!

guitarman001

Just saw the Santander 123 account is variable interest, not fixed.

This really is poor, it's beyond a joke now how savers are being shafted.

Has anybody looked into foreign accounts?

Steve_xx

guitarman001 wrote: »

Just saw the Santander 123 account is variable interest, not fixed.

This really is poor, it's beyond a joke now how savers are being shafted.

Has anybody looked into foreign accounts?

If you think that the Santander 123 account is poor at 3%, you're gonna be mightily shocked when you learn what else is on offer. The reality is that today, Santander is actually almost the best of a pretty poor overall deal for savers.

Foreign accounts - well of course these won't necessarily come with the protection of a UK bank account whereby your savings upto 85k are protected in the event of collapse.

YorkshireBoy

guitarman001 wrote: »

that's a lot less hassle than switching money through BoS & TSB accounts....!

There's no hassle involved at all. Simply set up some cross-firing SOs to do the work for you. Keep them within your respective banks, ie:

BoS 1 to BoS 2
BoS 2 to BoS 3
BoS 3 to BoS 1

and do the same for TSB.

When you said in your OP you have 3 x TSB Vantage what did you mean?...did you mean TSB Enhance or Lloyds Vantage?

Steve_xx

guitarman001 wrote: »

Tell you what, if you get 3% on up to £20k, that's a lot less hassle than switching money through BoS & TSB accounts....!

You would need to fund the 123 account with £500 each month in order to get the interest. And the month starts on the date you opened the account, not the 1st of the month, unless of course you opened the account on the 1st of the month!

robatwork

I'm afraid hassle is proportional to interest; welcome to Britain 2014.