Mortgage saving advice

mortgage-saver

Hi all,

Since January I have been putting a big effort into saving a deposit for a potential future mortgage. I am living with my parents, and have a "regular saver" set up with HSBC, and a loyalty ISA. So far I have saved £9250 between these two accounts.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on anything else I can do to help me save? Or other advice in general re looking towards mortgages. I recently set up a second current account with another bank (M&S) into which I have started placing £400 "spending money" for the month, which helps me manage my outgoings.

I currently live and work in London, but will be looking move out of London when/if I buy (though would need to commute to London Bridge, which adds a premium.

Many thanks for any replies.

YorkshireBoy

5% AER is available on up to £4.5K in two high interest savings accounts.

One of these has an attached regular saver paying 5% AER on £500 a month.

What's the interest rate on your ISA? And is it a help to buy ISA?

mortgage-saver

Thanks very much for the reply.

Interest rate on ISA was 1.2%, though recently got a letter to say it had dropped to 0.8%. It's not a Help to Buy - I got caught in two minds because of the £200/mnth limit on Help to Buy ISA's and I had intended to save a lot more than that. So thinking I didn't want all that extra just sitting in a flexible saver with only 0.1% interest I stuck with a loyalty ISA, which may in end have been wrong move?

The Regular Saver has a 6% interest rate.

What banks are these high interest savings accounts with? Would it require transferring my current account?

Eco_Miser

A help to buy ISA trumps everything else because of the 25% bonus.

The current accounts Yorkshire Boy means (TSB & Nationwide), along with other Regular savers and current accounts are listed here.
You don't need to transfer your current account, just open another one.

xylophone

You might consider a Virgin HTB ISA.

http://uk.virginmoney.com/savings/find/help_to_buy_isa/overview/

You could deposit £1200 of the ISA money you have saved into this immediately and then transfer over £200 a month.

You might open a couple of Tesco current accounts to hold up to £6000 and move money from these to the Virgin HTB - you can top up these accounts to keep earning the 3% monthly interest.

You might open a couple of savings accounts with Tesco - these are useful because they enable you to set up DDs to pull money from other current accounts.

You might switch the M&S to Halifax for the switching bonus, set up two DDs on the account, cycle in/out £750 a month and pick up the £5 reward monthly.

mortgage-saver

Thanks again for the replies, all really useful!

Is there a way for me to switch to a Help to Buy ISA mid-tax year? I always assumed I am stuck until next April?

xylophone

Is there a way for me to switch to a Help to Buy ISA mid-tax year? I always assumed I am stuck until next April?

See https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/faq/

Lightway12

Thanks for sharing, very informative thread!

atush

To be aware with t he limitations of the HTB isa in that you cant use it for deposit (but can for closing costs or reducing mtg). It has fallen foul of some complications in that regard.

And look t the CA to help you boost your returns while saving.