savings account

jamels2

hi, can anyone advise,
I've got about 20k in my current account but I am a little uneasy with it being so easy to access as I carry my debit card with me everywhere.
I would prefer to leave say £1000 in my current account and put the rest in a savings account.
I use nationwide and on there online service there are loads of different savings accounts its rather confusing.
I'd like penalty free access if I want to get hold of the money and I'm not really worried about interest rate as they are all pretty low.
Which would you recommend there appears to be ISA, regular savings amongst others.
Any help much appreciated.

eskbanker

See the quick links further up the page entitled 'Top Savings Accounts' and 'How to Start Saving' to identify the best options, but steer clear of fixed-term products if you want easy access. Multiple current accounts and regular savers are likely to give the best total return of 3-5% but involve more work to earn it, whereas the simplest route would be one of the easy-access savings accounts in 1.25-1.3% territory.

If your Nationwide current account isn't a FlexDirect then opening one of those would be a good start, and add a Flexclusive regular saver too....

tiz

If you wanted to stick to Nationwide only a Flexcluive ISA (0.75%) would give you the best rate and is as flexible as a normal saving account - the only limit is you can't pay in more than £20k per year. The Nationwide ISA is flexible allowing you to pay in it and take it out again during the tax year. After that you'd still be able to take money out, but when paying it back in it would count towards the maximum of £20k you could pay in.

I'd also open a regular saver which will allow you to add £250 per month at (5%).

jamels2

I already have the NWide Flex account so I have had the 5% and now on the reduced rate.
I've taken your advice tiz and opened the Flex ISA with 20K and also a Regular Flex saver with £1 which I will add £250 a month to.
Thanks for your advise/

G_M

jamels2 wrote: »

hi, can anyone advise,
I've got about 20k in my current account but I am a little uneasy with it being so easy to access as I carry my debit card with me everywhere.
.

Why not simply restrict use of your debit card to purchasing things you really need or want?

I don't understand this apparent lack of spending control of (younger?) people these days.......

greenglide

G_M wrote: »

Why not simply restrict use of your debit card to purchasing things you really need or want?

I don't understand this apparent lack of spending control of (younger?) people these days.......

I had interpreted the OP as being a concern over the card being stolen and used to extract the funds in the account.

Either way that is a lot in a standard current account (with the exception of a Santander 123 account).

I do agree that there is a lack of self control over spending these days but I don't really think this is really that much of a new thing - in days gone by there wasn't as much money to spend nor the things to spend it on. Crucially, before credit and debit card were common it was difficult to spend much beyond the cash in your pocket.

An advantage (?) of a cash economy?

UncleTerry

Good day,
I'm looking for best interest accounts for long term savings, no instant access, not tied up for more than a year, (am not sure what is going to happen to interest rates) then re-invest each year, not an isa, any ideas?
UncleTerry

Paul_DNAP

You could open a Santander 1|2|3 current account and get 1.5% on that £20k and then put the debit card from that account in your sock drawer so you're not tempted to spend it on a whim, but you do have easy access to it when you want it.

Paul_DNAP

greenglide wrote: »

Crucially, before credit and debit card were common it was difficult to spend much beyond the cash in your pocket.

An advantage (?) of a cash economy?

You would think that, but you also need bear in mind that you would also get paid in cash and so you had your weekly wage in cash so you would have to have discipline not to take your pay packet straight to the pub or the bookies.

eskbanker

UncleTerry wrote: »

Good day,
I'm looking for best interest accounts for long term savings, no instant access, not tied up for more than a year, (am not sure what is going to happen to interest rates) then re-invest each year, not an isa, any ideas?
UncleTerry

Normal etiquette around here is to start your own thread rather than hijacking someone else's if you have a question that's specific to your own (different) circumstances but, having said that, the answer I gave in post #2 above applies to you as well, i.e. have a look at the relevant articles already published on the site.

xylophone

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1621507/Best-savings-rates-Fixed-rate-accounts.html