Suggestion! I got over £40K ... what is best option?

abz88

As others have said, it depends on what you want/need.

If you need to keep it so you can access it easily try:
- Nationwide FlexDirect - 5% on £2,500 for a year (3 accounts, 1 for you, 1 for partner, 1 joint so £7,500 total)
- TSB Classic Plus - 3% on £1,500 (3 accounts I think, 1 for you, 1 for partner, 1 joint so £4,500 total)
- Marcus 1.45%
- Cycle money from Marcus through Regular Savers offering anything from 2% to 5% (see the Regular Saver Thread on forum to see which one's you are eligible for)
- Depending on tax bracket, you might want to stick a chunk in an easy access Cash ISA

If you don't need it for a while and are open to some risk try,
- £20,000 in a Stocks and Shares ISA (Again, there is a page on MSE with different options and providers)
- £20,000 split between steps above but you could also consider higher paying fixed savings account or notice accounts that commit your cash longer

abz88

blue.peter wrote: »

If you have a mortgage, or any other loan, it is almost certain that paying it off, or at least reducing it, is the best thing to do. There are only rare circumstances when this is not the case.

The case for pensions is less clear-cut. These are designed to provide you with an income in retirement, and not for general savings. For this reason, benefits can't be taken until the age of 55, and only 25% can be taken as a tax-free lump sum. Taking more than 25% as a lump sum has been allowed for a few years now, but can have very nasty tax consequences. On the other hand, payments in (on which there are restrictions) do attract tax relief. But if you do want your money to provide you with a retirement income, they're good.

Paying off debt that attracts interest yes, that should be paid off. Mortgages aren't clear cut though. With rates as low as they are, you can make more interest in savings accounts than you pay in mortgage interest. There is a MSE calculator that lets you know what level of interest you need in savings accounts to be better off than paying your mortgage. With typical over payments capped 10% a year, you can only pay off so much and you also lose the ability to access the cash in emergencies once it pays off part of your mortgage.

Ben8282

Bucki wrote: »

I think you misread the figure.
Is not £4.000 but rather over £40.000 saving.

The link points out to current account with low max-deposit.
Not sure how this would be providing me best interest rate?


UPDATE


Had to scroll down to see the rest / ISA accounts.
Any personal recommandation to my topic?

No I did not misread the figure and the link does not point to current accounts it goes directly to savings accounts. I checked it again to make sure link was correct and it was.
So if you actually read the suggestions there you will find somewhere for your money which will pay you a lot more than the very small rates of interest that you are currently getting and which, for unknown reasons you appear to have been satisfied with in the past.

Bucki

abz88 wrote: »

As others have said, it depends on what you want/need.

If you need to keep it so you can access it easily try:
- Nationwide FlexDirect - 5% on £2,500 for a year (3 accounts, 1 for you, 1 for partner, 1 joint so £7,500 total)
- TSB Classic Plus - 3% on £1,500 (3 accounts I think, 1 for you, 1 for partner, 1 joint so £4,500 total)
- Marcus 1.45%
- Cycle money from Marcus through Regular Savers offering anything from 2% to 5% (see the Regular Saver Thread on forum to see which one's you are eligible for)
- Depending on tax bracket, you might want to stick a chunk in an easy access Cash ISA

If you don't need it for a while and are open to some risk try,
- £20,000 in a Stocks and Shares ISA (Again, there is a page on MSE with different options and providers)
- £20,000 split between steps above but you could also consider higher paying fixed savings account or notice accounts that commit your cash longer

I could potentially get away with 6mnth locking away but I refer having easy access, just in case.
As per the FlexiDirect it states "All you need to do is pay in £1,000 a month, not counting transfers from other Nationwide accounts or Visa credits".


Does it mean, I cannot use the trick to transfer money from my Lloyds Bank to Flexi for ther £1K requirement?

blue.peter

Bucki wrote: »

I could potentially get away with 6mnth locking away but I refer having easy access, just in case.

I can see the benefit of easy access (after all, I hold some savings in that form myself), but do you really need to have the whole £40k held like that? In the real world, could you lock some away for a while, whilst keeping some in an easy-access account? I suggest that you think about what you're really likely to need in a hurry. You can keep that in an easy-access account, whilst potentially getting a better return on the rest. You don't need to keep all of your savings in the same place, or even the same form.

eskbanker

Bucki wrote: »

As per the FlexiDirect it states "All you need to do is pay in £1,000 a month, not counting transfers from other Nationwide accounts or Visa credits".


Does it mean, I cannot use the trick to transfer money from my Lloyds Bank to Flexi for ther £1K requirement?

No, it doesn't mean that; transferring money from an account with another bank doesn't count as either of those exclusions, which are explained in slightly fuller terms on other product pages:

Money paid in from other Nationwide accounts held by you or anyone else or visa credits (for example, refunds you receive back into your account) won’t count towards the £1,000

Bucki

blue.peter wrote: »

I can see the benefit of easy access (after all, I hold some savings in that form myself), but do you really need to have the whole £40k held like that? In the real world, could you lock some away for a while, whilst keeping some in an easy-access account? I suggest that you think about what you're really likely to need in a hurry. You can keep that in an easy-access account, whilst potentially getting a better return on the rest. You don't need to keep all of your savings in the same place, or even the same form.

See, it is a delicate situation and would not like to elaborate about it much... private life.
Anyway, maybe I could keep £25K locked and the rest to have easy access.

I read that some of the high pay fixed saving may offer 2 or 3 access to withdraw in a year.
Not sure if they allow 'any figure' to widthdraw but this would be also ok, in case i need the money.


If you had round £48K what would you do?


is Satendar 123 not good enough for £20k , you think?
(yes, there must be 2 direct debits and 1K monthly income as requirement, also £-5 monthly fee)

Worrying is that I be a bit overwelmed with so many open accounts and the constant transfer of back and forth and keep a log where is what etc. Ideally 2 accounts that does the job is best option.

ciscosurplus

I have just setup something similar to this
Santander 123 (Feeder) and direct debits>
Main Account (Used for every day) Monzo > Standing order £1000 > Nationwide Flex (£2500) 5%>£1000 Back
>SO £1000 Nationwide Flex (£2500 balance) Wife name > £1000 back
£1500 Club Lloyds > (£5000 Balance) 2% > £400 Club Lloyds saver 2.5% > £1100 bacnk
> SO £500 TSB (£1500 Balance) 3%>SO £250 TSB Saver (2%)
> SO £250 Virgin (3%) (Must go to branch to open)
> SO £500 TSB Wife ((£1500 Balance) 3%>SO £250 TSB Saver (2%)
> SO £250 Virgin (3%) (Must go to branch to open)

You can fill up all the current accounts as soon as they are open, and put in the first savings payments, then use the remaining balance to drip from Satander to the savings accounts and meet the creteria for cycling money, it happens on the 1st and 2nd of the month for me automatically the hard bit was the 1 hours to set up the standing orders, beyond that no effort.

Beyond that everything goes in to a stocks and shares ISA

blue.peter

Bucki wrote: »

See, it is a delicate situation and would not like to elaborate about it much... private life.

Absolutely. I wouldn't ask or expect you to do so. I only suggested that you think about it, not that you tell everyone the result.

Bucki wrote: »

Anyway, maybe I could keep £25K locked and the rest to have easy access.

Obviously, I don't know, or want to know, about your own personal circumstances. But that certainly doesn't sound at all unreasonable to me.

Bucki wrote: »

I read that some of the high pay fixed saving may offer 2 or 3 access to withdraw in a year.
Not sure if they allow 'any figure' to widthdraw but this would be also ok, in case i need the money.

Take a look at the MSE savings accounts page, and at banks' web sites. An account that locks money away for a period, but allows a limited number of early withdrawals (maybe with a penalty on the interest) might well be a sensible compromise.

Have you subscribed to an ISA yet this year? You can put up to £20k a year into one. If memory serves, one of the requirements for ISAs is that investors must be able to access their money. For this reason, even the fixed-term deals allow early access (albeit often with a penalty on the interest paid). That might be a good compromise for you - intend to lock money away for a period, but in the knowledge that you can access it in emergency.

Bucki wrote: »

If you had round £48K what would you do?

I'd keep about £15k to £20k as cash and stick the balance into an S&S ISA. But that doesn't mean that that's right for you: only you can make that decision.

Bucki wrote: »

is Satendar 123 not good enough for £20k , you think?
(yes, there must be 2 direct debits and 1K monthly income as requirement, also £-5 monthly fee)

Worrying is that I be a bit overwelmed with so many open accounts and the constant transfer of back and forth and keep a log where is what etc. Ideally 2 accounts that does the job is best option.

If you're content with 1.5%, yes, the Santander 1-2-3 is a perfectly good easy-access account. With regard to the £5 pm fee, see if you can pay enough bills by DD for the cashback to offset it. Otherwise, it'll cut the effective interest rate quite noticeably.

abz88

blue.peter wrote: »

Absolutely. I wouldn't ask or expect you to do so. I only suggested that you think about it, not that you tell everyone the result.



Obviously, I don't know, or want to know, about your own personal circumstances. But that certainly doesn't sound at all unreasonable to me.



Take a look at the MSE savings accounts page, and at banks' web sites. An account that locks money away for a period, but allows a limited number of early withdrawals (maybe with a penalty on the interest) might well be a sensible compromise.

Have you subscribed to an ISA yet this year? You can put up to £20k a year into one. If memory serves, one of the requirements for ISAs is that investors must be able to access their money. For this reason, even the fixed-term deals allow early access (albeit often with a penalty on the interest paid). That might be a good compromise for you - intend to lock money away for a period, but in the knowledge that you can access it in emergency.



I'd keep about £15k to £20k as cash and stick the balance into an S&S ISA. But that doesn't mean that that's right for you: only you can make that decision.



If you're content with 1.5%, yes, the Santander 1-2-3 is a perfectly good easy-access account. With regard to the £5 pm fee, see if you can pay enough bills by DD for the cashback to offset it. Otherwise, it'll cut the effective interest rate quite noticeably.

If you are after a simple, easy access savings account, I would suggest you just stick it in Marcus at 1.45% (works out better than Santander123), But if you are a higher rate tax payer, then I would have £20k in the Coventry Easy Access ISA (up to three withdrawls a year without losing interest rate) and then the rest in Marcus. There are more profitable ways using multiple accounts and standing orders between them all to meet the requirements, but if this is too daunting, the Marcus and Marcus + ISA strategy will be enough to get you started.