Making my savings work for me - advice needed 30 September 2007 at 2:36PM in Savings & investments 3 replies 761 views

MrXYZ

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if people could offer me some advice on making my money work for me!

I have decided to hold off buying a house in the immediate future so it means that I’m starting to think about what my money in the bank is doing. I should have been doing this before now really! I just got into the habit of saving without thinking of interest rates etc.

I have a HSBC saving account (I have had this account since I was about 10; I’m in my late 20s now).

I have 17.5k saved and last month I made interest of £26.

It really doesn’t seem much. I am now starting to save £1000 a month on top of what I already have.

I have no debt and I pay into an NHS superannuation pension scheme each month.

Is there any advice that people could offer me?

Is it right for me to assume that a return of £26 on 17.5k is not very good?

Furthermore, I don’t want to tie up my savings into anything long term because eventually I will need it as deposit for a property.

I would be grateful of any ideas or advice.

Many thanks

J

rathernot

I was in (still am) a very similar situation.

The first thing to do is to get a Mini Cash ISA and stick the full £3k in it ASAP.

Then you have a few choices.

I chose to put the rest of my savings into Icesave as it's as safe as anywhere, pays a decent return (6.3% APR) and there are no penalties for accessing your money.

You'd get around £72 a month on £17.5k at 6.3% if you had interest paid monthly and if you're a basic rate taxpayer. Any interest on funds in an ISA is of course tax free.

I have also been looking at short term (six to nine months) bonds as a way to earn a little more interest.

CLAPTON

If you want to make your money work harder for you then
you need to find out what interest rate the account offers and then what the general T&Cs are.

At the current time is possible to get internet accces with immediate withdrawal for interest rates of 6-6.4%

so 17,500 at 6.4% would yield 1120 per annum gross or 896 after tax or if in a monthly interest account then about £75 per month.

In general high street bank either pay poor interest rates or have complicated T&Cs

But firstly put 3,000 in an tax free ISA.
Then put he rest in a high paying savings a/c
Then consider opening a regular saving a/c if you can commit to savings every month.

read Martin acticlars on savings (look on the top above under 'Banking and Saving' or look at
http://www.stoozing.com/savings.htm

or read the Sunday papers under the Money sections for best rates.

However always read about the restrictions as often the bets rates have drawbacks.
If you're not quite sure then come back here and ask specific questions.

but e.g.
NS&I ISA pays 6.3% tax free on 3,000

B&S esave pays 6.4% gross

Yorkshire BS regular saver pays 7.1% (but with restrictions as most regular savers do)

MrXYZ

Thanks both, that's much better than i am currently doing.