Need help saving £25k

SupermumTGF

Evening you lovely people

My 5 year fixed rate bond has just matured from hsbc and I've come to find out the rates for similar accounts are drastically lower on interest.

I don't need the money for at least and year or 2 to be honest. Still need to save more for deposit for house:)

The best return I could find after investigating is a fixed bond account with the post office. I believe it's 1.78% gross. The return works out to be around £350 after one year.

My preference is to put it into one account rather than splitting up (unless there's a reasonable amount of interest gained).

Is this really one of the best finds?

george4064

First thing, I think you mean saving rather than investing.

Investing should only be done with a minimum 5 year horizon, but usually 10+. Yours is only 2 years, so I suggest you save your money in cash.

As you're saving for a house deposit, have you considered a HTB ISA? (As long as you are a first time buyer)

masonic

SupermumTGF wrote: »

My preference is to put it into one account rather than splitting up (unless there's a reasonable amount of interest gained).

You can get considerably more interest by splitting it up...

http://bankaccountsavings.co.uk/

There are also regular savers paying 4-6% for any new savings.

SupermumTGF

george4064 wrote: »

First thing, I think you mean saving rather than investing.

Investing should only be done with a minimum 5 year horizon, but usually 10+. Yours is only 2 years, so I suggest you save your money in cash.

As you're saving for a house deposit, have you considered a HTB ISA? (As long as you are a first time buyer)

Yes you are quite correct.
Yes I have however that will only allow me to save a small fraction. Am hoping to open a HTB split isa with natwest next month.

Sorry, what do you mean save cash?

SupermumTGF

masonic wrote: »

You can get considerably more interest by splitting it up...

http://bankaccountsavings.co.uk/

There are also regular savers paying 4-6% for any new savings.

Wow that's amazing :j:jI need to look further into doing this. I prefer minimum accounts movements and still could possibly get £676 over the year. If I can save another £9k over the year can I include that figure too?

YorkshireBoy

SupermumTGF wrote: »

Wow that's amazing :j:jI need to look further into doing this. I prefer minimum accounts movements and still could possibly get £676 over the year. If I can save another £9k over the year can I include that figure too?

You should be aware that website doesn't include Nationwide, so that's another £2.5K @ 5% AER (£7.5K if you're a couple)...but only for the first year.

What are "minimum accounts movements"?

Flobberchops

SupermumTGF wrote: »

Sorry, what do you mean save cash?

If George doesn't mind me cutting in here...

An "investment" is usually thought of as a long-term tying-up of your money in the form of shares, corporate bonds, property, etc. Because you want your cash back within a couple of years this kind of thing isn't really suitable for you (partly because short-term investing is volatile, and also the transaction fees may likely eat up any profit) so you're best sticking to cash, i.e. pounds sterling held in a current, savings, or cash ISA account, or savings bond. Basically, the kind of savings products you were looking at anyway.

jimjames

SupermumTGF wrote: »

Am hoping to open a HTB split isa with natwest next month.

Can I ask why you would want to do that? You've said you want to get the best return and then say you're opening a split ISA with Natwest.

1) As far as I'm aware Natwest don't pay 4% on their HTB ISA.
2) No cash ISA comes anywhere near the interest rates you can get outside an ISA so a split ISA is pointless whether with Natwest or anyone else.

SupermumTGF

Thanks yorkshireboy will look into that. Just getting my head around all these accounts and the various transactions necessary :cool:

Flobberchops thanks for clearing that up. All is understood now:T

SupermumTGF

jimjames wrote: »

Can I ask why you would want to do that? You've said you want to get the best return and then say you're opening a split ISA with Natwest.

1) As far as I'm aware Natwest don't pay 4% on their HTB ISA.
2) No cash ISA comes anywhere near the interest rates you can get outside an ISA so a split ISA is pointless whether with Natwest or anyone else.

Because it allows me to continue to have a regular isa with a rate of 2% interest:o perhaps I'm missing something :eek:

So in your opinion is it best to open the Halifax HTB ISA and open other accounts to get the best return over the year?

Thought I was pretty moneysavy. Obviously not :rotfl:

LXdaddy

jimjames wrote: »

Can I ask why you would want to do that? You've said you want to get the best return and then say you're opening a split ISA with Natwest.

1) As far as I'm aware Natwest don't pay 4% on their HTB ISA.

No but Halifax does and which ever financial organisation you use, the nice government will give you an extra 25% "free" bonus (up to £3,000) when you use the HTB ISA as deposit on a house.


So if you have not previously owned a property, intend to buy one and meet the other criteria it is certainly worth using.


Obviously "normal" ISA interest rates at the moment are easily beaten by the interest bearing current accounts and monthly saver accounts (even when you look at the Net interest rates).


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-ISA