Unsure whether to consolidate - please advise

Verbatim

Well done Ben. What a wonderful opportunity. I hope it all goes well.

zippygeorgeandben

THank you to you three beautiful people!

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations on the new job and enjoy Chester.  Not a city I know well but always heard good things about it.  Great weather in Alicante.  Are you going to be renting out there or buying a property? 

zippygeorgeandben

Hello everyone - middle of April so i thought I would say hi.  enthusiastic saver I'll be renting for a year and see how that goes. Prefer to be closer to the city centre, get my head fully immersed in the culture and the job.  I actually start a ten week Spanish course tonight so I'm looking forward to that.  Thanks for the congratulations.
So two bits of news 1) I was on a quiz show on Saturday night (ITV1) and won some money, so that's obviously great.
2)  I have been putting £200 into my Virgin HTB since I cannot remember but it's not accruing hardly any interest, like £60.09 by last point of counting (3 years in).  I really don't see myself ever buying a property over here (Government put 25% bonus on top of it, with a cap at £4,000 so what would you do?  A) Take £3k out and stick it in my Marcus account which pays about 1.2% or take it all out, and stick it in Marcus?
Thanks for reading,
Ben

jokono

Congrats! Were your sisters in the show with you, I wonder if it's the show I watched on Sat? 

Lots of instant access accounts offer more than that, I keep my EF in my Chase account with 3.1%, but there are others that are better than that, even more if you can fix it. Barclays Blue Rewards give you 5% for up to £5k.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#easyaccess

zippygeorgeandben

Yes my sisters were indeed in the show with me! 
The virginmoney one is 1% gross. It paid £59.79 last year in interest and £35.96 the year before.  I feel I ought to move all of this.  What's the maximum that this Help to Buy will pay out from the Government's side? I can't remember.  Is it 25% of £4,000? i.e. an extra £1,000?  It is the ISA Issue 4.  An extra grand isn't all that really.  I feel I know my answer.
My Marcus pays 2.91 gross and my interest is roughly £40 per month going in.  It's a no brainer this yes? Move it all into the Marcus?  I'd be then probably get around £45 interest per month then, minimum.
I do not see myself buying a property in the UK for the next couple of years at leats.
Thoughts? 

Dobbibill

Congrats on winning money on the televised quiz show

The HTB ISA is no longer available for new applicants so would be cautious about getting rid of it. You can transfer it, for example Halifax will give you 2% which isn't a fantastic rate but double Virgin's rate. You can use the HTB ISA upto November 2030 so a good few years if you change your mind. 
The max you can receive from the gov. is £3k (25% of £12k).

Dobbi 

zippygeorgeandben

Cheers Dobbi, as always.  I actually think that it being in the virgin ISA I never class as savings as i have never accessed it, however, I feel that with me moving abroad, even if I move approx £3.2k and leave the £4 sitting there, it's £3.2k towards renting somewhere nicer in Alicante. YOLO etc!

zippygeorgeandben

Good afternoon everyone! How are we all doing?  Lovely and sunny here in Chester.
So I made the decision to close my HTB and stick it into my Marcus savings account.  I opened up an Amex credit card this month which enables me to four free airport lounge passes per year.  As long as I pay the full amount off each month I'll be fine with this, which I have set my DD to do.  It's another month closer to Alicante and I do not have as many ingoings as work is not permanent, however, we used our sibling account to pay for meals/drinks out in Soller and didn't touch the winnings from the show.  That'll go to paying for my holiday to Gran Canaria in June.  I'm quite looking forward to seeing how much interest I will get this month in the Marcus account as it has more than it normally does in it. I'm thinking around £45 extra.
I had a lovely time in April though.  I went to Fuengirola for 5 days and Mallorca for 5 days, I love the sun.  I am in Alicante all next week visiting my new place of work. All I have to pay for is food/drink because the school are supplying my accomodation, flights and transfers.
I'm trying to get all paperwork sorted for the big move and I am going to look at zones/areas I might want to live in when I am out there.
Thanks for reading

Humdinger1

How are you @zippygeorgeandben? Sorry I missed your last update so late to the party love Humdinger x