£60,000 lump sum, not to be used for 12 months

simon.daniels

Hello all,

First post on this forum, so hope I am posting in the right area.

I am about to receive a UK£35,000 lump sum into my current account, with UK£25,000 to follow at a later date, likely to be before the end of 2016.

This will be used for a deposit on a house (I am not a homeowner yet) , however me and my partner are getting married next August, and have decided to wait until after the wedding to put a deposit down /move. as it is too much to think about before.

So I will have a maximum of 60,000 for 12 months, which obviously I want to see some interest accrue on. My initial reaction is to keep it in current/savings account, but was wondering if anyone has advice on anything more rewarding than that.

Thanks

PeacefulWaters

Have a start reading this.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

Simplest approach might be National Savings. But if you're prepared to jump through a few hoops you can do better.

Edit: it was downright negligent of me to ignore Help To Buy ISAS. Fill your boots.

greenglide

And I hope you already have help to buy ISAs! If not open them now.

DigForVictory

As a card carrying cynic, does partner know about this so there is absolutely no chance it can get diverted to the wedding?

Or does partner know about this so it takes you *both* to sign it elsewhere!?

Voyager2002

Since you (and partner also?) expect to be first-time buyers soon your first choice is the help-to-buy ISA: any money you put in these will be topped up by a 25 per cent government bonus when you buy your first home. So max these out, preferably in both your names.

If there is a significant sum left over once the HTB ISAs are full, your next port of call is the Santander 123 account. Or if you are only dealing with small change you can get 5 per cent interest on sums of up to a couple of thousand at TSB and Nationwide (Flex Direct).

TheShape

HTB ISA each.

Nationwide FlexDirect Account (5%) each. Get a referral from a friend or from the MSE referral board to get an extra £100 each referral payment. Add a Flexclusive Regular Saver (5%) each for £500 p/m.

Open two Tesco Current Accounts (3%) each.

Open three BOS Vantage Accounts (3%) each.

Over the course of the year transfer money out of the lower paying accounts into the HTB ISA and Flexclusive Regular Saver so as to maximise the Bonus on the HTB and the 5% interest.

Any funding requirements can easily be met via manual payments or SOs and DDs can come from some Tesco Savings Accounts.

That will give you room for approx 50k straight out and the full 60k by the end of the year. If you need extra saving space you could add TSB then Club Lloyds.

jimjames

If you think house prices are going to increase by 1% next year then you'll be far worse off delaying than buying earlier. No interest paying account will make up for the increase in property price in that time.

AnotherJoe

simon.daniels wrote: »

Hello all,

First post on this forum, so hope I am posting in the right area.

I am about to receive a UK£35,000 lump sum into my current account, with UK£25,000 to follow at a later date, likely to be before the end of 2016.

This will be used for a deposit on a house (I am not a homeowner yet) , however me and my partner are getting married next August, and have decided to wait until after the wedding to put a deposit down /move. as it is too much to think about before.

So I will have a maximum of 60,000 for 12 months, which obviously I want to see some interest accrue on. My initial reaction is to keep it in current/savings account, but was wondering if anyone has advice on anything more rewarding than that.

Thanks

Since you are concerned about "something more rewarding" than what inevitably will be a pitifully low interest rate, buying a house earlier rather than later would be the sensible decision, as a previous poster has made clear even a very low % increase on a house will far outstrip any interest you'd get on £60k, so buying earlier rather than later is better unless you think house prices are headed down.

Its as "much to think about" as you decide and I'd sugegst perhaps you should consider if the effort put into one single day is so much it causes you to put off buying a house you'll live in for years, whether your priories are in the right order. You can certainly buy a house and plan a wedding at the same time, indeed overall a house will likely take up less time than choosing the venue and menus and writing the speeches.

Buying sooner rather than later will also make sure that, as another poster has pointed out, the money doesn't get spaffed away on heart shaped colour coordinated chair backs at the ceremony or another 6 places for aunt maude and the cousins who you haven't seen since you were 3.

karcher

Slightly OT but can you have a HTB ISA as well as an ordinary ISA?

greenglide

You can only have a HTB ISA and a cash ISA for the same year if they are both the same ISA supplied by the same company - it needs to be an "ISA split". See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-ISA#nationwide

You can have a HTB ISA and a S&S ISA for 5 he same year.