best short term investment of 25k

gaz_moose

Hi guys,
I am a long time lurker first time poster so be gentle on me

basically I have a little over 25k saved up which is my deposit for when I go house hunting next year.
I have just opened up a Halifax HTB isa so will trickle £200 per moth into that.
I have roughly 25k (and rising) saved and was wondering where would be the best places to put it to generate some interest.

I was thinking of sticking 20k into a Santander 123 account and opening 2 Tesco accounts and depositing the maximum of 3k into each.

the only downside I can see to the Santander is that I currently live with my parents so wont generate any cash back from setting up direct debits, my only real DD's are my phone (£22) and gym membership (£24) so it will cost me the £5 a month for the account.

currently I can save about £1500 per month so would also need another something to put that into as I would have maxxed out the above accounts.

SO,, does that seem like my best bet or is there better options for me? I was kind of worried that opening a million accounts might affect my credit rating

YorkshireBoy

"Next year" is anywhere between a month and 12 months away. Could you be a little more specific about timescale? For example, if Feb 16 it's probably not worth opening a load of high interest current accounts. If May 16, maybe you don't want a lot of credit searches so close. If December, then get cracking with:

5% with TSB & Nationwide (£4.5K)
4% with Lloyds (5K)
3% with BoS (£15K, in 3 accounts)

Going forward, take the regular savers from TSB (£250 @ 5%), Lloyds (£400 @ 4%), and Nationwide (£500 @ 5%), and dump the other £350 a month in Tesco @ 3%.

Where is the cash now?...and what's it been making?

If you've been "lurking a while" on this board you'll have seen your question gets asked several times a week (and several times a day(!) if Martin Lewis has been on TV). Have you seen the general theme of the replies given to similar questions?

gaz_moose

I am aware of the similar threads but found myself going round in circles researching them all.

I had 10k of it in a cash isa earning me very little. The rest was tied up in possessions that have now been sold to release the funds. I was going to buy at the start of the year but got a hefty wage increase so have been saving like mad.
I would be looking to buy around May/June. But would retain about 5k of whatever I have saved.

YorkshireBoy

I think if you're going to maximise the return you'll need 4 or 5 (and maybe 7) current accounts. You may feel that's too many in the lead up to a mortgage application.

Santander & Lloyds would take care of the £25K (just get a couple of DDs for Club Lloyds). Then use the Club Lloyds monthly saver (£400) and Tesco (£1100) for your £1.5K per month. 2 x Tesco would be full just before you need the cash in May so perfect timing.

Then when you buy, just retain Lloyds (£5K).

The only real 'waste' in all of this is the £4.34 per month cost of the 1-2-3 account (£5 less the 66p cashback), but that's the price you pay for keeping account numbers to a minimum.