Best short term investment/savings account for £50K

TranceNRG

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if you could advise me on the best short investment option/Savings account for a large sum of money.

I recently transferred £50K from Australia to my UK bank account and I want to store this somewhere where I'll earn a bit of interest for a few months.

I need to able to access this money quickly as I'm planning to buy a flat within the next 6 months. I already have my ISAs maxed out and I also have a Nationwide FlexPlus and FlexDirect accounts and a Santander 123 account. I've got maximum amounts in my Nationwide accounts and about 6K in Santader account.

I will transfer some of this money to the Santander account but where should I put the rest?

I understand that it is no longer possible to open multiple Santander 123 accounts.

I've looked at savings accounts and most of them seem to pay interest annually. Does this mean if I pull the money out before the end of the year (very likely), I won't receive any interest?

If so, what short term savings account(s) would you recommend? Are there any safe short term investment options?

Thanks in advance for any input.

TartanSaver

TSB Classic Plus 5% on £2k. Until very recently it was possible to open two, and some people still seem to be reporting they have been able to do this.
Club Lloyds 4% on £5k.
Santander 3% on £20k.
BoS Vantage 3% on £5k. Apparently you can have 3 of these, so that's £15k.
Tesco Bank 3% on £3k. Again, apparently you can have 2.
This takes you to £48k without using joint accounts, they are all current accounts so they pay monthly. That's assuming you only manage to open one TSB - if you manage 2 that's £50k.

Take note that your FlexPlus is costing about £5 a month even after the interest is paid - is that worth it? Are you using the features? If not, ditch. Also, the FlexDirect is only good for a year. Ditch if the interest has gone down to 1%.

If joint accounts are an option, 2 Santander would take up most of the money.

TranceNRG

Cheers for the reply TartanSaver. I forgot to mention I'll have another £40K or so (gift) in a couple of months time.

It sounds like a lot of effort to open all these accounts and I am worried about it affecting my credit rating. Since I will be buying a property in the near future, it's very important that my credit rating is good.

Are there any other monthly interest paying savings accounts you can recommend? (I understand the interest is lower than the high interest current accounts). The ones I found all seem to pay interest yearly which won't help me right?

As for the Nationwide FlexPlus account, I do use the benefits

YorkshireBoy

You could open loads of current accounts and try and get the bulk of it in there, but the benefit (around £300 after BR tax deducted if you can average 3.1%) over a Tesco savings account at 1.4% AER over 6 months may be totally undone by the activity on your credit file resulting in a mortgage decline (if you need one for the flat?).


If you don't need a mortgage, then get cracking!

YorkshireBoy

TranceNRG wrote: »

Are there any other monthly interest paying savings accounts you can recommend? (I understand the interest is lower than the high interest current accounts). The ones I found all seem to pay interest yearly which won't help me right?

See Tesco above.


If you withdraw all but £1 you'll get your interest when they next pay it.


If you close the account you'll get your interest at closure.

TranceNRG

But that Tesco savings account is an annual interest one right? So will I still get interest for the time I held the money there, if I withdraw say in 2 months?

YorkshireBoy

TranceNRG wrote: »

But that Tesco savings account is an annual interest one right? So will I still get interest for the time I held the money there, if I withdraw say in 2 months?

Read post #5 again.

TranceNRG

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

See Tesco above.


If you withdraw all but £1 you'll get your interest when they next pay it.


If you close the account you'll get your interest at closure.

Ahh fair enough! In that case, I think I'll open one of them. Less hassle even though I'm getting half the interest and won't affect my credit rating.

TartanSaver

Fair play. I can't say I worry about multiple account openings affecting my credit rating, but then I'm not applying for a mortgage, and £100 opening bonus is a MUCH higher proportion of my wealth than yours!

Anyway, good luck with it.

TranceNRG

TartanSaver wrote: »

Fair play. I can't say I worry about multiple account openings affecting my credit rating, but then I'm not applying for a mortgage, and £100 opening bonus is a MUCH higher proportion of my wealth than yours!

Anyway, good luck with it.

I know what you are saying...it might not affect it but I can't take any chances.

Thanks you two for your helpful replies.