NS&I Direct Savings for House Investment?

pimento

We're selling our house and going into rented while we buy anther one. I hope this to not take longer than about six months.

Rather than have the proceeds of our sale sitting in our joint current account, would the NS&I Direct Saver account be a reasonable place to deposit the money?
Their web site says easy access, would that include withdrawing most of it in one go to transfer to a conveyancing solicitor?

Wary of cyber crime, am I better off to put it into my bank's (NatWest) savings account and then write a cheque payable to the solicitor when the time comes (with time for the cheque to clear, obviously)?

Or is there another, better solution that I haven't thought of?

System

It's probably the most sensible place to put it if it is a large sum of money, simply because it is fully protected (above the £85,000 protection that the banks and building societies offer).

I had cause to put a large sum of money in the NS&I Direct Saver for a few months at the beginning of last year and the only downside was that it takes time to withdraw it all at once. You don't have to give notice, but you do have to be prepared to wait a few days for it to arrive at its destination. Unfortunately I can't remember the precise details, but I think up to £50,000 was 24 hours to arrive in the destination account, and over that was 48 hours (excluding weekends / public holidays). Do double check with them, as I might be talking complete rubbish.

pimento

That's useful, thank you.

I know that the bank will give me temporary cover up to £1m (it's nowhere near that much) but I doubt my NS&I account will be hacked but I'm not so certain about my bank.


I sound really paranoid, don't I? LOL

xylophone

Income Bonds might also suit.

https://www.nsandi.com/income-bonds

pimento

Oh yes, they also fit the bill. Thank you.

eskbanker

pimento wrote: »

I doubt my NS&I account will be hacked but I'm not so certain about my bank.

I sound really paranoid, don't I? LOL

Indeed - what gives you the impression that NS&I's security is better than NatWest's?

pimento

eskbanker wrote: »

Indeed - what gives you the impression that NS&I's security is better than NatWest's?

I suppose because they ask for more information before you can log in and my NatWest app on my phone just wants a six digit number.

I'm not sure NS&I even have a phone app.

eskbanker

pimento wrote: »

I suppose because they ask for more information before you can log in and my NatWest app on my phone just wants a six digit number.

I'm not sure NS&I even have a phone app.

I'm not convinced that comparing the login processes between a website and an app is a particularly useful means of evaluating relative security measures between two institutions, even if that was the typical means of accounts being hacked - if you feel that the way NatWest's app is set up is a security weakness then it begs the obvious questions of why you use it and indeed why do you bank with them at all?

MaxiRobriguez

pimento wrote: »

I suppose because they ask for more information before you can log in and my NatWest app on my phone just wants a six digit number.

I'm not sure NS&I even have a phone app.

Doesn't make a jot of difference to a large scale hack, which depends more on whether the servers are fully patched, the network security tools in place, the staff who have access to the secure elements are trustworthy etc.

I'd probably trust a bank to be more on the front-foot at guaranteeing those things than NSI, but - no one really knows until it happens.

Albermarle

It is only indirectly relevant and I am not an expert but I understand that you are much safer banking via an app on your mobile phone than on your PC/laptop.

pimento

eskbanker wrote: »

I'm not convinced that comparing the login processes between a website and an app is a particularly useful means of evaluating relative security measures between two institutions, even if that was the typical means of accounts being hacked - if you feel that the way NatWest's app is set up is a security weakness then it begs the obvious questions of why you use it and indeed why do you bank with them at all?

I don't by choice. I bank with First Direct but my partner is a NatWest customer and it's where our joint account used for paying bills only is.
I pay into the account by standing order once a month and we use the debit card for the shopping and the account to pay utilities

It was MUCH easier to get me a NatWest account than it would have been to get him a joint First Direct account with me for various reasons.