No idea what to do with my savings!

redchai

Hi guys,

I'm hoping someone will be able to give me a bit of advice on the best way to maximise interest on my savings. I really am very clueless about all of this stuff, so please forgive me if I'm asking some stupid questions...!

At the moment, I've got around £20,000 in savings, and it's all in a really basic Santander cash ISA. I think the last time I checked the interest I was getting was around 1% (not sure if that has dropped even lower now!). I've just seen that help to buy ISAs have been introduced - I'm not planning on buying a property any time soon (I live in London and just wouldn't be able to afford it), but in an ideal world, that's what my savings would be for. Would I be better off opening a HTB ISA and transferring my savings into that?

Otherwise, would I be better off just opening a regular savings account that pays better interest...or a Santander 123 account?

I had a look on here and it recommended I open 4 accounts and set up a number of monthly standing orders between them, in order to fulfil their monthly payment requirements. Is that really the smartest thing to do?!

Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you

Archi_Bald

You can't really lose with an HTB ISA if you go for the top payer (Halifax) but you can't just dump your Santander ISA in, either. Please read up about the scheme: http://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/how-does-it-work

redchai wrote: »

I had a look on here and it recommended I open 4 accounts and set up a number of monthly standing orders between them, in order to fulfil their monthly payment requirements. Is that really the smartest thing to do?!

Almost the smartest thing to do, absolutely yes!

You can make it even smarter by adding some top-paying Regular Saver accounts and drip-feeding them.

Drip-feed calculator: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts#dripfeed

prosaver

his man will help you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeFB-JgqeJU

redchai

Thanks Archibald, I think I understand more about the HTB ISA now. So do you think it would perhaps be sensible to take this kind of approach:

1. Forget the Santander ISA and split the savings which are currently in there across 4 different accounts, which will give me net 2.6% interest a year.
2. Open a Halifax HTB ISA and put a small amount in there to start it off, then continue topping that up each month with as much as I can afford (up to £200 a month).

Otherwise, I can go with prosaver's advice and get in touch with George Agdgdgwango

Eco_Miser

If you want to go with an htb isa, leave £1000 in your Santander ISA, and transfer it to the Halifax htb ISA. Pay £200 each month, including the first, into it from the other money.
You could put £2000 TSB, £2500 Nationwide, both at 5%, £5000 Lloyds at 4%, £10,000 BOS (2 accounts at 3%), then regular savers - £500 pm Nationwide, £250 TSB, £400 Lloyds, at 5%,%5,4% respectively. Fund the Regular Savers from the BOS accounts after using excess income.

All rates AER, from April basic ratee taxpayers can get £1000 interest tax-free. That includes ALL the Regular Saver interest.

PawelK

Eco_Miser wrote: »

If you want to go with an htb isa, leave £1000 in your Santander ISA, and transfer it to the Halifax htb ISA. Pay £200 each month, including the first, into it from the other money.
You could put £2000 TSB, £2500 Nationwide, both at 5%, £5000 Lloyds at 4%, £10,000 BOS (2 accounts at 3%), then regular savers - £500 pm Nationwide, £250 TSB, £400 Lloyds, at 5%,%5,4% respectively. Fund the Regular Savers from the BOS accounts after using excess income.

All rates AER, from April basic ratee taxpayers can get £1000 interest tax-free. That includes ALL the Regular Saver interest.

From as much as I checked bank of scotland this evening you can open up to three current accounts with free vantage add on that gives you 5% so it s possible to deposit £15000 in total.

YorkshireBoy

PawelK wrote: »

From as much as I checked bank of scotland this evening you can open up to three current accounts with free vantage add on that gives you 5% so it s possible to deposit £15000 in total.

OP doesn't have the funds to fill an extra BoS Vantage, which is why Eco Miser didn't suggest it. That said, they could split the £10K they do have into 3 accounts. On that subject, and whether they go with 2 or 3 of these...

Eco_Miser wrote:

Fund the Regular Savers from the BOS accounts

...OP needs to ensure they do not to let the balances drop below £3K in each.

colsten

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Fund the Regular Savers from the BOS accounts after using excess income.

But beware, if a BOS balance goes below £3K, interest drops to 2%, and then 1.5% when it drops to £1,000.

Tesco accounts might come to the rescue at that point, as they pay 3% on balances up to £3K, and you can have 2 of them.

colsten

PawelK wrote: »

From as much as I checked bank of scotland this evening you can open up to three current accounts with free vantage add on that gives you 5% so it s possible to deposit £15000 in total.

BOS Vantage pays max 3%.

colsten

Here is a slight variation to Eco Miser's plan. It doesn't do BOS Vantage at all but goes straight to using 2 Tesco current accounts, plus one (or two) Tesco savings accounts, which might come in handy anyway for any DD needs.

I would split the £20K as follows:

Immediately / asap:
- £1,000 HTB initial
- £200 HTB December
- £2,500 FlexDirect (check Quidco cashback / Refer a Friend offer)
- £500 FlexClusive Monthly Saver December
- £2,000 TSB Plus
- £250 TSB Plus Monthly Saver
- £5,000 Club Lloyds
- £400 Club Lloyds Monthly Saver
- £6,000 Tesco current (2 accts)
- £2,150 into a Teco savings acct

On January 1
- start using the £2,150 in the Tesco saver: £200 HTB ISA, £500 FlexClusive Saver, £250 Tesco Mthly Saver, £400 Club Lloyds Mthly Saver (total £1,350)

On February 1
repeat Jan 1, fund from remainder in the Tesco Saver, start using the funds in the Tesco current accounts

And so on.....Refill your Tesco current accounts with any new savings you are making.

The total malarky should give you around 4% before tax on your entire £20K. This might be 4% after tax in the new tax year.

In addition, look out for any switch offers as they can probably yield you the odd few hundred in addition (Halifax, Coop, FD etc).

Eco_Miser

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

OP needs to ensure they do not to let the [BOS] balances drop below £3K in each.

Forgot about that. Use colsten's modification.