£5000-£10000 to invest/save

LONDON_SMOGGY

Looking to invest about £5000-£10000, been reading up for a while.

I currently only have a halifax with 3 accounts, 1 on the £5 reward deal but want to take advantage of some of these new account offers.

Want a sense check that this would be the best way to invest:

1. Switch my main Halifax account to a First direct 6% saver and put in the max each month into there for 6% interest and £150 bonus.

2. Open up a club Llyods account and put away £5000 to get the 4% interest.

3.Put the extra somewhere else


Questions:
A: Is this maximising my money, any other suggestions?
B: Doable in terms of setup etc
C: Can I still switch my main account to First Direct but keep my Halifax joint reward account open?
Can I also open an M+S £100 and 5% account?

LXdaddy

LONDON_SMOGGY wrote: »

Looking to invest about £5000-£10000, been reading up for a while.

I currently only have a halifax with 3 accounts, 1 on the £5 reward deal but want to take advantage of some of these new account offers.

Want a sense check that this would be the best way to invest:

1. Switch my main Halifax account to a First direct 6% saver and put in the max each month into there for 6% interest and £150 bonus.

2. Open up a club Llyods account and put away £5000 to get the 4% interest.

3.Put the extra somewhere else


Questions:
A: Is this maximising my money, any other suggestions?
B: Doable in terms of setup etc
C: Can I still switch my main account to First Direct but keep my Halifax joint reward account open?
Can I also open an M+S £100 and 5% account?

If you have £5,000 then the Club Lloyds account is good.
But if you have £10,000 what about the other £5,000?

You can put £2K in a TSB for 5% and £3K in Tesco for 3%
Or look at the latest Nationwide offering of 5% interest.

As far as First Direct is concerned - I would open a Current account and do a switch for the bonus and also open a savings account and a Regular Saving Account to be able to get 6% of £300 per month.

You can also get 4% on £400/month in a Club Lloyds regular savings account.

If you use the switching service you can have a M&S current account and get a M&S regular saver paying 6% on £250.

see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5374614 for more information

badger09

LXdaddy wrote: »

If you have £5,000 then the Club Lloyds account is good.
But if you have £10,000 what about the other £5,000?

You can put £2K in a TSB for 5% and £3K in Tesco for 3%
Or look at the latest Nationwide offering of 5% interest.

As far as First Direct is concerned - I would open a Current account and do a switch for the bonus and also open a savings account and a Regular Saving Account to be able to get 6% of £300 per month.

You can also get 4% on £400/month in a Club Lloyds regular savings account.

If you use the switching service you can have a M&S current account and get a M&S regular saver paying 6% on £250.

see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5374614 for more information

+ £250 per month into TSB Monthly Saver @ 5%

LONDON_SMOGGY

Great thanks for the help, can I have both an M+S switched account and first direct switched account?

So the best way for me to invest in current accounts is by the method shown of:

£5000 Club Llyods 4%
£2000 TSB Classic Plus 5% (use this as my main debit card day to day in order to get further £5 a month)
£2500 Nationwide 5% for a year

Any wages I get to be regualr saved into M+S and First direct switched accounts if possible

LONDON_SMOGGY

As far as I can see it I cant have both M+S switch and a First Direct switch, I have to use one or the other?

To maximise the current accounts I need to leave the full whack of money in the account right too?

LONDON_SMOGGY

Was also thinking about the max you can have in each account how do you get around this with paying the min amount in too?

YorkshireBoy

LONDON_SMOGGY wrote: »

As far as I can see it I cant have both M+S switch and a First Direct switch, I have to use one or the other?

Why not?

To maximise the current accounts I need to leave the full whack of money in the account right too?

You won't earn interest on money that isn't in the account!

YorkshireBoy

LONDON_SMOGGY wrote: »

Was also thinking about the max you can have in each account how do you get around this with paying the min amount in too?

And what have you come up with so far?

LXdaddy

As far as I can see it I cant have both M+S switch and a First Direct switch, I have to use one or the other?

You can have as many current accounts as the banks will let you open. You don't have to use the switching service to open a current account but if you DO use the switching service then you should get an incentive. M&S is unique (I think) in making access to the regular saver dependent on using the switching service. I opened a donor account to be able to take advantage of that.

To maximise the current accounts I need to leave the full whack of money in the account right too?

As YorkshireBoy says - you don't earn interest on money that's not in the account

Was also thinking about the max you can have in each account how do you get around this with paying the min amount in too?

Methinks you are confusing the maximum that earns interest with the maximum allowed in the account. I've not looked specifically but generally speaking most Current accounts have Maximum balances that are at least several hundreds of thousands.

LONDON_SMOGGY

Yes I am, ah makes more sense max you earn interest on not max amount thats cleared that one up thanks.

LONDON_SMOGGY

So I can have both M+S and First direct account will just only get the switch bonus for one of them, got it!