Where to put £210,000

LuckyOnes

After years of lurking, our first post is about a problem I NEVER thought we'd have!


An unexpected cash windfall has us with the unprecedented amount of £210K sitting in a Barclays current account. We'll be using it to buy a property but can't start looking straight away, so it'll be in the form of cash for about 3-6 months.


What would be a sensible thing to do right now? (Apart from open a bottle of bubbly, which we have done!) Because we want to buy a house within 6 months I can't tie it up anywhere, and it's too much for most savings accounts that I can find.


Any advice gratefully received - thanks!

Apodemus

Move it to NS&I!

Neil_Jones

My back pocket will be grateful for it in the short term. Make a faster payment to the following sort code...

If £210k is too high for a particular account remember you can split it up into lots of smaller ones, you don't have to dump it all in the one account.

Davina40

MSE says Virgin offers 1.5% on up to £250k. There is a limit of 2 withdrawals per year though.

If you put in the full 210k you'd make about £780 in 3 months.

redux

Davina40 wrote: »

MSE says Virgin offers 1.5% on up to £250k. There is a limit of 2 withdrawals per year though.

If you put in the full 210k you'd make about £780 in 3 months.

There are also accounts at Marcus, Sainsburys and Tesco at usually between 1.4 and 1.5%

Spreading across a few accounts can help keep within the protection limits, for the unlikely event of bank failure.

SmashedAvacado

premium bonds £100k - £50k each
balance in income bonds with NS&I

webjaved

Send it to me - I'll take care of it for you.

quirkydeptless

See https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#easyaccess


85K Marcus 1.5% (drops to 1.35% after 1 year)
85K Virgin Money 1.5% (limited 2 withdrawals/year)
40K Sainsbury's 1.47% (interest penalty if >3 withdrawals)


I have used the first 2 which I found quick and easy. I've not used Sainsbury's so I can't comment on it.

Alternative to Sainsbury's which I have used and was happy with is

Paragon 1.45%

So you can easily and within FSCS protection limit spread your cash across 3 banks, get a smidge under 1.5% interest, and the limitations on these accounts shouldn't be an issue for the purpose you are saving for.

soulsaver

Remember joint accounts get £170k FSCS cover, if it suits you.

Audaxer

You also get 6 months cover from FSCS for temporary high balances, so if you are definitely going to use the money within 6 months to buy a house, I think you will be fully covered even if all in the one bank, provided the bank is covered by the FSCS. See link below:
https://www.fscs.org.uk/your-claim/temporary-high-balances/

bobwilson

All the suggestions here for £210k are still in the region of or below the current rate of inflation (1.9%) so they're not actually saving. You'll be losing money whichever savings account suggestion you take here.

Interesting that no one mentioned that...!