Where to store house sale profits for 6-9 months?

Persephone_Mulberry

Hi all

I will have roughly £120k that needs putting somewhere until we buy our next house. Any suggestions on where would be sensible?

Many thanks

Linton

NS&I is 100% guaranteed by the government and offers moderate interest. Any bank account will be guaranteed by the FSCS for temporary large house sale deposits.

bigadaj

Linton wrote: »

NS&I is 100% guaranteed by the government and offers moderate interest. Any bank account will be guaranteed by the FSCS for temporary large house sale deposits.

Also fully fscs covered in any joint account.

System

I'd personally consider 50k premium bonds (each) then 20k in current accounts/easy access.

You can also look at (short term) fixed rate but you'll not get much more and limited flexibility.

pinklady21

I have a similar issue - need somewhere to stash the cash where I can access it fairly easily and will earn something from it.
There is a recent thread on this from earlier in the week I think.

edit here is the link to the other thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5744656

Premium Bonds a good idea - with the maximum 50k in there you are likely to receive a prize most months. Possibly only £25, but it could be a million, so worth a punt and the cash is safe, and the bonds can be cashed in easily anytime.
Birmingham Midshires are offering 1.3% just now on an instant access account.
Check out the current accounts that pay interest - Santander 123 used to be a decent bet for up to £20k, but the charges have increased and the interest is now down to 1.5%, so may be better elsewhere.
With a 123 current account, you are eligible for a 5% regular saver though, where you can put in £200 per month.

There are several other regular savers where you could drip feed in a small amount each month to get the interest - just check if there are any penalties if you withdraw before the account matures.
Agree with others, make sure that wherever you put it you are within the savings protection limit of £85k
Hope you find a decent deal to stash your cash.
Best of luck with your house hunt too!

Nagme

Same here, our money is in a First Direct savings account, earning 0.05%. I feel apprehensive putting it into a less known bank, like Birmingham Midshires.
I think I'll use the mse calculator to work out the potential interest based on 6 months if we keep it where it is, or move it.

TheLastMongoose

I agree with previous posts. Personally I'd go for premium bonds. It will be easy to administer, you wont be worrying and you might win big!

As for the remaining 20k, Santander 123 probably works out best if you are willing to/already use it as your main bank account with all your direct debits coming out of there to give you cashback. If you don't want to use it as your main account a cash ISA will likely be better as the Santander 1.5% interest becomes 1.2% after you subtract the £5 monthly fee, hence why the direct debit cashbacks are important as they compensate for the fee. The 5% regular saver you can get might be useful for you too as you can park another £2400 there eventually.

For the sake of 6-9 months I personally wouldn't bother switching banks unless it is suitable for the future. But you can downgrade to a 123 Lite account after you take your £20k out. That account only has a £1 fee, you still get cashback but no interest.

eskbanker

Nagme wrote: »

Same here, our money is in a First Direct savings account, earning 0.05%. I feel apprehensive putting it into a less known bank, like Birmingham Midshires.

If you read down to the foot of their website pages you'll see that "Birmingham Midshires is a division of Bank of Scotland plc which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority under registration number 169628", or to put it another way, they're part of the second largest banking group in the UK....

And in any case there is the Financial Services Compensation Scheme that protects savers up to £85K, should the worst happen, so it really doesn't make sense to be keeping your money in an account paying a pittance while suffering from an illusion that this lack of interest is somehow buying you safety!

Persephone_Mulberry

Thank you for these suggestions! And moving banks is actually on my to do list anyway after our current one closed our branch; so I will look at Santander!