Where should my money go??

RBates82

Hi guys,
I'm confused. I have between £3-4k sitting in my current account. (Stupid, I know )
Where should I place this money? My partner and I will be using this as part of a house deposit, so I'm not entirely sure how long the money can stay in a savings account or isa.
What does everyone think?
Thanks,

Alisha2008

It should go to an ISA.. you can take it out at any time.

RickyC_IFSWP

Instant access cash ISA. Or if no ISA allowances left, look for instant access savings account.

xylophone

Why not 2 TSB Classic plus?

Vortigern

RBates82 wrote: »

Hi guys,
I'm confused. I have between £3-4k sitting in my current account.

If your current account was a TSB Classic Plus, your cash would be earning 5% interest. This is better than any ISA and there's no long term committment. You'd need 2 accounts to accomodate £4,000

See the thread linked below for terms, conditions and other requirements

Link to TSB thread

jimjames

Alisha2008 wrote: »

It should go to an ISA.. you can take it out at any time.

RickyC_IFSWP wrote: »

Instant access cash ISA. Or if no ISA allowances left, look for instant access savings account.

For that sort of amount of money and to be used very soon, an ISA is totally the wrong place to get the best return. Use current accounts FIRST and then other things like ISAs once they are full.

As above you can get 5% on at least £13k as a couple, £6.5k as individual. No ISA comes anywhere near and the long term tax status is irrelevant if being spent soon.

PS I'm pretty surprised that an IFA would suggest something that is clearly not the best return for the OP based on the info given and make no mention of the options for better returns suggested in #4 & #5. Not a great advert for IFAs I'm afraid.

innovate

Alisha2008 wrote: »

It should go to an ISA.. you can take it out at any time.

RickyC_IFSWP wrote: »

Instant access cash ISA. Or if no ISA allowances left, look for instant access savings account.

ISAs and instant access savings accounts are the very last place for the sum in question, and for the requirements. Absolutely shocking advice from a person purporting to be an IFA!

Current accounts, as already mentioned, is the best place, starting with two TSB Plus accounts.

Even MSE, usually drumming the ISA mantra, have cordonned on to it now and call it a loophole even though there is no loophole in sight: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-loophole.

This article has not been updated yet with the Tesco current account that has become available today. 2 accounts per person, 3% AER on up to £3,000 in each. Also not listed is the BoS Vantage account - 3 accts max per person, 3% AER, up to £5K per account. Details on all these accounts on the provider's websites, and there are threads on all of them on the MSE Forum, too.

innovate

Alisha2008 wrote: »

It should go to an ISA.. you can take it out at any time.

EDIT: deleted since I was talking rubbish

RickyC_IFSWP

innovate wrote: »

ISAs and instant access savings accounts are the very last place for the sum in question, and for the requirements. Absolutely shocking advice from a person purporting to be an IFA!

Current accounts, as already mentioned, is the best place, starting with two TSB Plus accounts.

Even MSE, usually drumming the ISA mantra, have cordonned on to it now and call it a loophole even though there is no loophole in sight

This article has not been updated yet with the Tesco current account that has become available today. 2 accounts per person, 3% AER on up to £3,000 in each. Also not listed is the BoS Vantage account - 3 accts max per person, 3% AER, up to £5K per account. Details on all these accounts on the provider's websites, and there are threads on all of them on the MSE Forum, too.

jimjames wrote: »

For that sort of amount of money and to be used very soon, an ISA is totally the wrong place to get the best return. Use current accounts FIRST and then other things like ISAs once they are full.

As above you can get 5% on at least £13k as a couple, £6.5k as individual. No ISA comes anywhere near and the long term tax status is irrelevant if being spent soon.

PS I'm pretty surprised that an IFA would suggest something that is clearly not the best return for the OP based on the info given and make no mention of the options for better returns suggested in #4 & #5. Not a great advert for IFAs I'm afraid.

Firstly, I don't see how this is "shocking advice". OP needs somewhere to deposit his/her short-term savings and has not included a timeframe on when they'll likely use the money. From the sounds of it, clearly she has other savings already in place too for this deposit. A short-term savings such as Cash ISAs and Savings account are perfectly fine. I can open one online in 2 minutes and OP should definitely consider this simple route.

It's great that there's a current account paying a decent gross interest rate, but using your own assumption that the purchase is so imminent, OP would have probably have to take time to open this account and the interest gained would be so minimal. Is it really worth the time/hassle?

RickyC_IFSWP

innovate wrote: »

IFAs don't usually bother with what is a tiny sum for an investment - and the OP isn't after an investment (5 years minimum, 7-10+ better) but after savings (short to medium term cash reserve).

You don't need an IFA to set up an ISA.

And I'm sure Alisha2008 was talking about cash ISAs.. why are you talking about investments?

innovate

RickyC_IFSWP wrote: »

Firstly, I don't see how this is "shocking advice". OP needs somewhere to deposit his/her short-term savings and has not included a timeframe on when they'll likely use the money. From the sounds of it, clearly she has other savings already in place too for this deposit. A short-term savings such as Cash ISAs and Savings account are perfectly fine. I can open one online in 2 minutes and OP should definitely consider this simple route.

It's great that there's a current account paying a decent gross interest rate, but using your own assumption that the purchase is so imminent, OP would have probably have to take time to open this account and the interest gained would be so minimal. Is it really worth the time/hassle?

More shocking stuff from you. You clearly seem to have no idea about the value of certain current accounts. There is very little effort involved in opening current accounts, I can assure you. I can assure you. I know this for certain, because I have all of them.

To dismiss the additional interest people would get from a current account as "minimal" is - again - truly shocking. The very fact that you, as an IFA, recommend somebody should settle for half of what they could get is just unbelievable. Recommending a cash ISA for 3-4K is ridiculous.

Granted, if your credit files are in terrible shape, you can probably get a savings account but will struggle with getting a current account. However, somebody who is thinking about buying a property probably doesn't have a credit file issue.