Bank Acc Recommendations for savings?

Penniesdontmakeyourich

Hi, thought this was a good place to ask for advice as I've done numerous internet searches and I'm baffled!
Our situation is that we are saving long term-ish but in case of an emergency would like to be able to access our cash. (Even if that was closing the account to do so as it would only be in an extreme situation and won't be a common occurrence!)
We have a sum of around £3500 to open an account and are aiming to save £1000 a month.
I have looked into current accounts with high interest but we don't want to have to set up dd off the account etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions? The savings rates are terrible at the minute!

Thanks in advance!

nidO

Are you specifically looking for a protected bank account?
If so, MSE has a list of the best savings accounts (which these days are all current accounts) that do have various hoops to jump through, at:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

Most of the best options do require DD's etc be setup, but ones like TSB don't require this.
The accounts are also pretty restricted on the amount you can actually hold and accrue interest on, so even with multiple accounts you're going to hit the limit pretty quickly paying in a grand a month.

If you can accept a small amount of risk, have you considered investing through P2P lenders such as Ratesetter and Zopa?
As these are investments not savings your money isn't protected by the FSCS scheme however they do work on a fixed interest basis so barring a major disaster you will get the interest rate you invest at over the period you invest for.
Zopa and Ratesetter particularly do have various safeguards in place to make sure you don't lose money in the event of borrowers defaulting or the entire company folding, Ratesetter particularly advertise the fact that so far with over £500 million lent in 5 years of running, no lender has ever failed to get their investment + expected interest back.
Current headline interest rate with Ratesetter is 6.1% before tax, for 5 year investments.

dalef

If you just want to keep it simple and keep all the money 'to hand' in a current account this page has a nice breakdown of how you can maximise your savings,
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-loophole

It you don't want to have multiple accounts then in the mid/long term, saving £1000 pm plus the initial £3500, the Santander 123 would possibly be best as you get the 3% (2.4% after basic tax) on up to £20,000. plus cashback on bills. Though you would need 2 DDs for this.

But as nidO said, P2P lending has better returns if you can afford to lock some money away.

Penniesdontmakeyourich

Thanks very much for the replies, will have a look at those links!