Best home for £75k for someone who's not online

TheBanker

Hi,

My Dad passed away recently and as a result Mum has about £75k she'd like to keep in cash, at least in the short term. She's asked me to help her find an account she can use but she's more concerned about the account features than interest.

She just wants one account to keep things simple - doesn't want to split the money between various current accounts or have to worry about funding requirements etc.

She wants instant access, either via a branch or an ATM card. She doesn't use the internet so the account has to come with paper statements. She would use telephone banking provided she can speak to a person in the UK, not an automated service.

I know this rules out the usual suggestions but would welcome any ideas anyone has.

Thanks

xylophone

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1583859/Best-savings-rates-General-savings-Internet-branch.html

You will see that rates are poor.

Unless it is already her current account, you might suggest a switch to a Santander 123 - she would get the 3% interest on £20,000, and this together with cashback would more than cover the charge, even when it increases in January.

The money in the account is instantly available through an ATM/branch etc and can be easily topped up if she spends it.

For the remaining £50,000, although you say that she does not wish to open other current accounts, in fact three BOS accounts more or less run themselves - a standing order for £1000 from one to the other and back again only requires the initial setting up and of course she would have an ATM card for each if she wanted to withdraw the interest.

This would give her 3% on £15,000.

The remaining cash could be deposited in a savings account?

I would mention that the Yorkshire BS has an internet saver with an ATM card - once set up she need never use the internet. The interest is only 1%.

Archi_Bald

£75K is bang on the FSCS protection from January onwards. So it might be an idea to split the money between two different financial institutions for this reason alone.

Non-online accounts will offer terrible interest rates. May be she could fix some of the money for a year or two to squeeze out a bit more? There's a pretty good summary of best buys on http://!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/free-services/best-buy-savings-accounts/

EDIT: Looks as if MSE don't like that site. Copy and paste, then remove the blanks http://www.i n v e s t m e n t s e n s e.co.uk/free-services/best-buy-savings-accounts/

TheBanker

xylophone wrote: »

Unless it is already her current account, you might suggest a switch to a Santander 123 - she would get the 3% interest on £20,000, and this together with cashback would more than cover the charge, even when it increases in January.

Thanks for your thoughts. I didn't mention but she wants to keep around £15k in her current account so I have suggested a switch to Santander for that - she pays the household bills by Direct Debit so she'll make enough back in cashback, as you say.

I know the rate will be poor whatever she does - but she is happy enough keeping it all in her HSBC current account earning 0% and being in excess of the FSCS limit.

I don't think she'll go for the BOS accounts, because she'll get confused. She just wants the money to be somewhere safe and get a statement every so often. It is me that is trying to persuade her to put it somewhere so it at least earns a bit of interest.

xylophone

It would be silly not to maintain a balance of £20,000 in the Santander account?

To hold £55,000 in another current account paying no interest seems unwise but I was acquainted with an elderly person who did just this with a similar sum, on the basis that her late husband had told her to keep money instantly available for emergencies.....

If she won't open other current accounts, then the savings accounts available are in link in my previous post.

TheBanker

xylophone wrote: »

It would be silly not to maintain a balance of £20,000 in the Santander account?

To hold £55,000 in another current account paying no interest seems unwise but I was acquainted with an elderly person who did just this with a similar sum, on the basis that her late husband had told her to keep money instantly available for emergencies.....

She has £90k in total, and wanted to put £15k in the current account, which would leave £75k for the savings account. However Archi Bald makes a good point about FSCS cover so I guess keeping £20k in the Current Account would be sensible.

From the list, the Post Office Easy Access account looks ideal and she'll be happy with the Post Office as it's a name she had heard of. However I see it's a 12 month bonus rate so I guess I'll have to make a note to help her move it in 12 months.

I know she could do better but to be honest persuading her to put some of it in a simple saving account has been hard work.

xylophone

I know she could do better but to be honest persuading her to put some of it in a simple saving account has been hard work.

It can be very difficult.....see above.

As I understand it, things only improved when the relative who had POA for her took over, opened a 123 for her and made sure that the balance was deposited at the best rates possible.

Archi_Bald

TheBanker wrote: »

From the list, the Post Office Easy Access account looks ideal and she'll be happy with the Post Office as it's a name she had heard of.

Find the posts from people reporting the trouble they had trying to get any money out of the Post Office. I was one of them, and will never again put money into the PO, even if they lure people with best rates.

In any case. they aren't best right now, are they? Tesco pay 1.6%. It's online though.

xylophone

There is the Saga telephone account at 1.35% but again it is with a bonus and would need shifting after a year.

http://www.saga.co.uk/money/saga-telephone-saver.aspx?tab=exploreDetails&subtab=making%20a%20deposit%20or%20withdrawal

Motormad

Santander 123 plus the maximum in premium bonds to start off

TheBanker

Motormad wrote: »

Santander 123 plus the maximum in premium bonds to start off

Thank you for your suggestion but Mum wouldn't want premium bonds - she wants to keep the money in cash so she can access it straight away if needed. She wouldn't want the hassle of having to cash in Premium Bonds.