Bank account/saving help

soupy600

Evening all,

Getting a bit lost tonight with information overhaul and was looking a bit of guidance towards best accounts for saving. My main goal is to gather up enough money for a mortgage deposit. Heres what I have so far.
Credit card 0% £4000
Help to by ISA £1800 (which I need to close as I've own before)
Nationwide flex account £2500 @ 5%
About £1000 in my normal account and saving hard! What account should I use for the £1000 and min £400 a month saving. Or do I even have the right accounts to start with?

Not sure why but not a big fan of switch from my main account (Santander)

Any help or points would be brilliant.

Thrugelmir

Ditch the card borrowing. Will impact affordability.

YorkshireBoy

So you've currently around £1,300 of savings of your own (after you've repaid the £4K debt)?

The ISA cash will fit into a 5% paying TSB Plus current account.

The FlexDirect gets you access to a 5% regular saver taking £250 a month. You must have seen this surely?

Numerous other 5% regular savers available if you have the prerequisite current accounts. If you'd sought advice a few weeks ago all these current accounts would have paid you an incentive to switch (a donor account, not your Santander account you apparently want to keep). Even Nationwide will pay you a switching incentive, assuming you haven't already had one?

You haven't got any pointers from the main site savings articles? You have read them as part of your research?

soupy600

Hi yorkshireboy thanks for reply, I have read thru
Loads of information tonight just got confused with whichbqas the best way to go.

YorkshireBoy So you've currently around £1,300 of savings of your own (after you've repaid the £4K debt)?

yes but was thinking as it was 0% leave it for now and earn what I can in interest etc and then pay it off before the 0% runs out.

The ISA cash will fit into a 5% paying TSB Plus current account.

As I've already had a mortgage I can't get any benefits from the ISA so TSB sounds better to put ther rest of my saving into? but got lost a bit on what qualifies to open it as I've read that much to night.

The FlexDirect gets you access to a 5% regular saver taking £250 a month. You must have seen this surely?

I've only recently upgraded to the flex direct and just seen tonight i can get the 5% regular saver but would I not be better putting it all the TSB?

As for the Santander account I thought it was better to stay with them or a set banking I was going to buy? I don't have a problem switch. It's my main account my pay and everything goes in and out of.

eskbanker

soupy600 wrote: »

just seen tonight i can get the 5% regular saver but would I not be better putting it all the TSB?

You can only earn 5% interest on £1500 in the TSB account so you'd be best filling that and also paying £250/month into a Nationwide regular saver.

soupy600 wrote: »

As for the Santander account I thought it was better to stay with them or a set banking I was going to buy? I don't have a problem switch. It's my main account my pay and everything goes in and out of.

I don't know what the bolded bit is meant to mean but there's no harm in sticking with Santander, especially if you have a 123 Lite account that pays 1/2/3% cashback on household bills, although switching does earn free money too - again, they're not mutually exclusive.

soupy600

Thanks for the reply eskbanker, sorry the bold was a mistake.

Sounds like I'm best getting the regular safer and TSB as you say and filling those and ditching the help to my isa.

I've have look over everything again and see what best thank you. Will also look at switch again my Santander account it only a basic one and my direct debits come out of my nationwide anyway

soupy600

Ok so as I've said I upgraded my nationwide account to get 5% on £2500 and then today open up there online flex saver to get 5% on saving up to £250 a month.

I'm still a bit worried about switching my main Santander account encase it has a negative effect on my credit score when I go to apply for a mortgage. They do have a 3% saver I'm thinking off opening which I can put up to £200 away each month.

YorkshireBoy

soupy600 wrote: »

Ok so as I've said I upgraded my nationwide account to get 5% on £2500 and then today open up there online flex saver to get 5% on saving up to £250 a month.

I'm still a bit worried about switching my main Santander account encase it has a negative effect on my credit score when I go to apply for a mortgage. They do have a 3% saver I'm thinking off opening which I can put up to £200 away each month.

Probably better to open another 'donor' account for any switching incentives. How far away is the mortgage application? If very close, ie 3-6 months, you might wish to hold off on a lot of new applications.

Which Santander 123 account do you have now? Hopefully Lite?

soupy600

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Probably better to open another 'donor' account for any switching incentives. How far away is the mortgage application? If very close, ie 3-6 months, you might wish to hold off on a lot of new applications.

Which Santander 123 account do you have now? Hopefully Lite?

To be honest I could be a year away from it not counting on overtime or a second job fro causal work I've just got. But there again overtime has been good lately and if I set a few shifts from this new job it could easy be 5-6months.


I use my nationwide account like a donor account I transfer £££ at the start of the month and then all my direct debits come out of that so I know there all covered and don't touch that money.


My Santander account is just the everyday current account.

YorkshireBoy

soupy600 wrote: »

I use my nationwide account like a donor account I transfer £££ at the start of the month and then all my direct debits come out of that so I know there all covered and don't touch that money.

I think we're at cross purposes. Never mind.

My Santander account is just the everyday current account.

And does that qualify you for the 3% regular saver?