Advice on maximising banking/saving

Geht_fit

Hi,
I would appreciate any advice. Sorry for the essay, but I assumed it would be best to give as much detail as possible!

I'm currently on maternity leave and am tweaking my accounts to get the biggest bang for my buck out of the next 12 months. Expected return to work is December 2018. My husband and I bank together - he lets me wiggle things around, as I'm the one that likes to take the time to get these things right!

Current banking set-up:
Husband's personal account: Co-op, £0 balance, £4 per month Everyday Reward
My personal account: Co-op, £0 balance, £4 per month Everyday Reward
Joint account 1: Co-op, £1000 emergency fund, definitely want to switch as no interest or reward
Joint account 2: Club Lloyds, £7227 savings + spending account, 2% interest on up to £5000, 6 cinema tickets per year, and I like the app and money manager feature.

In the past, we have both switched to First Direct, Nationwide Flexdirect and TSB Classic Plus, so none of the new customer deals apply to us any longer.

My plan is to open a Santander 123 Lite account. This would mean transferring 6 DD to gain cashback of £6.04 pm. I would open a linked monthly saver to get 5% interest on the emergency fund by paying in the full £200 pm over the 12 month deal. The savings in the Club Lloyds account would diminish over the next year, as they are only enough to see us through to the end of my maternity. After setting up the Santander account, we would have 7 DD remaining (possibly 9, pending life insurance and child savings to be sorted this month).

My question is, how could I arrange our finances for the year to get the most out of our money, whilst also continuing to have easy access? I would prefer to have separate saving and spending accounts, as I can see things getting tricky when savings dwindle. :eek:

Thank you in anticipation! :beer:

Geht_fit

No replies, but I thought I'd share current plans. Advice still appreciated if anyone has a different approach.

1. Santander 123 Lite (joint)
£7.04 cashback on 6 x DD
£200 pm monthly saver @ 5%

2. Co-op (DH personal)
£4 Everyday Rewards on 4 x DD
3. Co-op (personal)
£4 Everyday Rewards on 4 x DD

4. TSB Classic Plus (DH personal)
£3.75 on £1500 @ 3%
5. TSB Classic Plus (personal)
£3.75 on £1500 @ 3%
6. TSB Classic Plus (joint)
£3.75 on £1500 @ 3%

7. Club Lloyds (joint)
Spending account
2% on £5000
Requires 2 x DD

I think this combination would give the biggest return on our savings for the next few months: at least £14pm on cashback and rewards, plus £11pm whilst we still have savings earning interest. We are short by 3 x DD, but this should be covered by the child savings and life insurance still to be set u

I applied for the Santander account this morning, but will wait for that to get approved before applying for the TSB accounts.

ValiantSon

I read your original post last night, but was too tired to think at that time.

What is the current balance of your savings? How much are you expecting to draw on them over the coming 12 months?

The Santander regular saver is a good one, but you can have two, rather than just one. Each customer is allowed one, so on a joint account there are two customers and therefore you can have two. That will take £400 p/m of your money.

Your Club Lloyds account will also give you access to a regular saver paying 3% on £400 p/m. Their terms are not clear, but you may be able to have one of these each. If you moved your balance of £5,000 from the current account to the regular saver at £400 p/m you would increase the interest you earned from Lloyds to £126, rather than £100 from just keeping it in the current account (i.e. your effective return would be 2.52%, rather than 2%).

While you have previously had switching incentives for Nationwide, you could access their regular saver - £250 p/m @ 5% (again one each if you wish) by opening another two FlexDirect accounts, or a Flex Account and meet the three months £750 pay in rules. Moving the money at £250 each month from your TSB accounts would allow you to earn £167, rather than £135 from just keeping it in the current accounts (i.e. your effective return would be 3.71%, rather than 3%).

If you shop at M&S then you might consider applying for a switch to their account which pays £125 on a gift card, plus an additional £5 every month for 12 months, plus access to their regular saver paying 5% on £250 p/m.

Of course, the more current accounts you apply for the greater the chance that you will start being rejected, so be cautious and prioritise the applications.

datlex

Re: moving money to satisfy requirements. You don't have to do it all at once. You simply need total incomings to each account to be sufficient.

Personally I get each month:
3% on £1500 with TSB = varies between £3.2 + £3.89
3% on £3000 with Tesco= £7.54
£3 from Halifax
£4 from Coop
£4 from Barclays (get £7 but fees are £3 so left with £4)
= just over £21.50 per month.

I do have other savings but they don't generate a monthly income like this as interest is paid annually.