A little savings advice needed please

blizeH

Hi guys,

I'll try and keep this as simple/brief as possible, or else I'll rant and confuse the matter knowing me, any advice on which account(s) to get now would be ace.

I currently have:
1) Lloyds TSB Monthly Saver, Halifax Cash ISA, Halifax Monthly Saver - all with the maximum amount allowed in them.
2) Lloyds TSB Current Plus, Lloyds TSB Web Saver, Halifax Web Saver - for easy access
3) An Icesave account, with around £27k in it.

Problem is, the first band is maxed out, so I can't add any more funds to that, the second band has as much as I'd like too, the interest rates aren't great on those so I'd much rather put savings into other accounts, and regarding the Icesave account, I get paid monthly interest so by the time I deposit some more money I'll be ever close to that £30k limit (I don't want to go above that on the off chance something happens to them and I'd lose it).

So question is, where would be the best place for me to transfer any new savings across to now? I can't put anything into my Cash ISA until April so that's out of the question, I pretty much need a new savings account to run alongside the ones above. Having easy access would be a massive bonus, and preferably something that's likely to stay competitive as I don't fancy keep transferring funds etc unless it's an easy standing order-esque monthly account.

Many thanks

Aegis

Within that third band, you should be aware that the limit for 100% protection on your cash is £35k rather than £30, so you have more leeway than you thought. You should also be aware that such crashes are extremely unlikely, especially now that the government has set a precedent by stepping in and protecting savings with Treasury funds.

However, to play on the safe side, you could look into a bank like ICICI or Sainsburys for further savings.

On another note, you seem to have a very large amount in pure savings right now. If you're not saving up for something in particular in the fairly short term, have you considered investing it in something with a higher risk/reward possibility? If so, then straight away you could use your £4k stocks and shares allowance to invest in the various markets tax-free (well, almost!) with extra potential growth.

Another thing to look at would be NS&I's index-linked saving certificates, which offer tax free interest above the RPI (I believe it's the RPI, but it would be worth checking that before diving in), which for a higher rate taxpayer will often be better value than a 6.4% savings account.

Finally, have you considered transferring your ISA? Halifax aren't too competitive with their rates if I remember correctly.

Hope that's something to get you thinking!

blizeH

Huge thanks for the reply, nice to see I can put a little bit more into Icesave, I've been really impressed with them so far and the rates have been great for quite some time now. I think, just to be on the safe side I'd still limit myself to the protection limit though, since I'm still not really that familiar with them as a company.

Sainsburys seems like a great account too, I'm tempted to go with either them or the AA, although Sainsburys seem like they'd remain more competitive so that's swaying me towards them, with the interest gaurantee that the AA don't offer, despite the AA being a little higher at the moment.

But yup, everything I have is in pure savings pretty much (except for some in PayPal/MoneyBookers/Neteller e-wallets, and a very small amount of Premium Bonds). I'd definitely be interested in maybe investing some more into other things though, so...

How do the tax free stock market things work? Would I be investing in just one thing and let someone know what they're doing invest my money and I get a cut of any profits? Or do you mean to actually play the stock market myself? I really don't think I could cut it for the latter!

I've just spent a little time looking at the NS&I index-linked savings accounts too, in all honesty I'm not really sure how that works, but I don't think I pay massive amounts of tax (I earn £22k a year) so maybe I'll be better off with one of the other options.

I haven't considered moving my ISA just yet, I was with C&G until last year which had an even lower rate, and I've always thought Halifax was fairly competitive? Last time I checked I would only get an extra 0.10% or more, and whilst that'd be a nice bonus, I didn't really think it was worth the hassle of changing (changing from C&G was a nightmare!)

Huge thanks again for your great reply, I really, really appreciate it