Saving - Best accounts for my situation

Edinns

Hi,

I could really do with some help with budgeting as I'm not familiar at all with what all these different accounts mean to me!

I take home £1400+ monthly and currently have £1800 in a current account and £1600 in a Help to buy ISA with Lloyds.

I am saving £200 a month into my Help to buy ISA until April at which I will then open a Lifetime ISA and transfer it over.

In the meantime I want to save £400-500 into another account for a car and about £50-£100 into another for holidays etc...leaving the rest in my current account.

With all the options I'm really struggling as to what would be best. What would people advise? Or what do you currently have?

Thanks. :j

YorkshireBoy

Look at Nationwide's FlexDirect and Flexclusive Regular Saver. Both pay 5% AER interest...you won't find better! Divide your cash up into 'virtual' balances, rather than separate physical accounts for this and that.

Presumably your Lloyds current account is a Club variant, paying 2% AER? If not, why not? That would also get you access to a 3% regular saver taking £400 a month.

Edinns

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Look at Nationwide's FlexDirect and Flexclusive Regular Saver. Both pay 5% AER interest...you won't find better! Divide your cash up into 'virtual' balances, rather than separate physical accounts for this and that.

Presumably your Lloyds current account is a Club variant, paying 2% AER? If not, why not? That would also get you access to a 3% regular saver taking £400 a month.

In regards to the Lloyds account I'd be paying in less than the £1500 limit and wouldn't be paying the two direct debits a month. I don't see how that would be any good for me?

YorkshireBoy

Edinns wrote: »

In regards to the Lloyds account I'd be paying in less than the £1500 limit and wouldn't be paying the two direct debits a month. I don't see how that would be any good for me?

The £1,500 isn't a problem (£1,400 in/£100 out/£100 in solves that!), but the lack of 2 DDs is. So Nationwide then?

Edinns

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The £1,500 isn't a problem (£1,400 in/£100 out/£100 in solves that!), but the lack of 2 DDs is. So Nationwide then?

I will take a look. Thanks.

What do you mean by the In/Out/In, can you actually take £100 out of what you pay in and then put it back in again?

YorkshireBoy

Edinns wrote: »

What do you mean by the In/Out/In, can you actually take £100 out of what you pay in and then put it back in again?

The requirement is to credit the account with £1,500 per month, not a single payment of £1,500 per month.

Think about it...if you were weekly paid, as opposed to monthly paid, you'd need a c. £130K salary to deposit a one-off £1,500.

As to whether you can take it back out, as far as I know they don't mark the notes.

xylophone

but the lack of 2 DDs is.

But need not be. Post 8

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5589551